NORMAL – It’s Asian Heritage Week here at Illinois State University and the Centennial West Building hosted a Filipino martial arts demonstration yesterday.
The event has been going on for almost eight years here at ISU, and has engaged the ISU community by putting on demonstrations, readings, and workshops.
Yesterday at the Filipino martial arts event, demonstrations of different patterns, strength and movements were set out along with an audience participation with the instructors. Sam Spence, the main instructor and owner of the Band of Brothers Martial Arts group, says that the week long celebration is a great way to open up others to Asian cultures.
“With the heritage side of things, I find that the culture that I teach or that other systems teach, helps kind of open the door for some people.”
As Asian heritage week goes on until Friday, people at ISU have attended and joined the events to get a better knowledge of different Asian cultures. Li Zeng, the Vice President for Asian Connect, who was at the event says it is important for students to learn about different cultures.
“I think diversity is very important, so we want our students to have the conscious aware of the diverse culture in America, so Asian Connect is promoting Asian Heritage Week so that students can get a little taste of the Asian Culture.”
The remaining events of the week are open to the public.
Joey Smearman contributed to this story.