Asian pageant highlights diversity

The sounds of Bollywood music, traditional Japanese fish chants and Indonesian pop songs filled the Indiana Memorial Union’s Alumni Hall on Friday night at the ninth-annual Mr. and Miss Asia competition.

After three hours of competition, Neerali Shah and Zain Jafri of the Indian and Pakistani Student Associations, respectively, were crowned Mr. and Miss Asia.

“The show went incredibly smooth,” Shah said. “I was impressed with the way they put it on.”

The Asian Student Union sponsored the pageant, which featured contestants from the Asian American, Indian and Pakistani, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Taiwanese and Thai student associations. 

Contestants modeled native fashions on the cultural catwalk, answered questions about their country, performed a talent and participated in a mass dance to B2K’s “Take It to the Floor.”

Audience members participated directly in the show. Representatives from each of the cultural organizations cheered on their candidates during each of the competitions.

The audience also voted on Mr. and Miss Popular. The honor was bestowed on Antonius Sulimro and Melisa Andhini Djoewardi, the Indonesian Student Organization participants.

Meng Yang, co-chair of Mr. and Miss Asia, said although there was some initial chaos backstage before the show because Alumni Hall didn’t have much backstage rehearsal space, the event surpassed her expectations.

“I liked the talent from each of the student organizations, and there was a great audience supporting the event,” Yang said. 

Many of the participants agreed the best part of competing was meeting people from other cultural organizations and learning about their backgrounds. Shah said her favorite part of the event was working on the mass dance with all of her new friends. 

Participants also had the opportunity to vote for which competitor deserved the titles of Mr. and Miss Congeniality. The 2009 winners were Kazuhiro Kitaoka and Junko Hisano of the Japanese Student Association. 

Senior Ainur Aiypkhanova, last year’s Miss Asia, said she enjoyed watching the competition and seeing new generations of students getting involved in the pageant. She and her partner, Aibek Karimov, represented the Kazakh Student Association.

“The ASU is doing a good job keeping up the strong and colorful traditions of the pageant,” Aiypkhanova said.

She said she was thankful for the chance to wear the crown and although the moment of giving the crown to someone else felt sad, she said she was happy for the new winners. As winners, she and Karimov started Kazakh culture hours and Kazakh conversation clubs at the International Center to educate others.

Aiypkhanova said she and her partner were interviewed by local journalists in Kazakhstan during the summer, and they had the chance to spread the word about IU and campus life.

“IUB is famous for fostering international students,” Aiypkhanova said. “It makes us unique and special.”

Shah said she and her partner were shocked when they won because there was so much talent in the competition, but she said they were overwhelmed with joy. 

She said she and Jafri’s main goal as two different cultural organizations competing together was to unite the two organizations on campus and hopefully in the community. She said they hope to bring their two clubs together for future collaborations.

“We want to focus on similarities, because we’re really not that different,” Shah said.