AJ Rafael, Ryan Bergara and other headliners perform at APIDA Celebration

Members of Kapamilya, Chapman’s Filipino club, perform a traditional dance called Tinikling at Chapman University’s annual Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) celebration April 7. Photos by EMILY PARIS, Staff Photographer

The Wells Fargo Stage in the Attallah Piazza was graced with a procession of talented Asian American performers on Thursday, April 7. Despite the blazing heat, the show came to life in the warm night as a series of singers and dancers displayed their gifts in front of Chapman’s restless student body. 

The Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) celebration is hosted by Chapman’s Asian Pacific Student Association (APSA) to showcase Asian talent on the stage. This year’s APIDA celebration was the first one in person since COVID-19 started, motivating APSA board members to include more headliners like singer AJ Rafael and YouTuber Ryan Bergara in the lineup. 

“One of the main goals of APSA and APIDA Celebration is to create a safe space for Asians to learn more about and to celebrate their identity,” said APIDA co-chair Gillian Canicosa, a junior computer science major. “I feel more connected to my Asian American identity in creating that community and bringing people together, even if their definition of what it means to be Asian is different. Asia and Asians aren't a monolith and everyone deserves a place to be celebrated.”

The theme for this year’s celebration was “Praise the Asian,” inspired by the viral Twitter hashtag that aims to highlight diversity within Asian communities. Home to over 2300 languages, Asia has an abundance of intercultural diversity that often goes unrecognized.  

Members of Kapamilya performed a hip hop dance at the April 7 APIDA celebration. Photo by EMILY PARIS, Staff Photographer.

One Chapman student who celebrated his Filipino heritage through singing was Lucas Tecson, a junior music education major and president of a cappella group Chapman Soundcheck. 

Of the four songs he performed in his own set Thursday, Tecson said he resonated with “Temporary” the most because he wrote it with a childhood friend named Becca. In the absence of his co-writer, Tecson performed the original work alongside Calla Chung, a senior public relations and advertising major. 

“My music was heavily influenced by the people that I was surrounded by, and part of that was the Filipino culture,” Tecson said. 

The first headliner of the day was Bergara, a co-host of popular YouTube series “Buzzfeed Unsolved.” The influencer sat across from Canicosa and APIDA co-chair Jenny Yen, a junior business administration major, while they asked him questions about his career, Asian representation in the media and Bergara’s own relationship with his Asian identity. 

“I’m half Japanese and half Mexican, (so) I was always in this no-man’s land, where I didn’t really know which (identity) to lean toward,” Bergara said to the audience. “Our household was a little toward the Mexican skew, but as a funny joke, I look Asian. I had all these Mexican sensibilities, but I looked Asian; I had to figure out a way to belong.” 

Priscilla “Priska” Liang was another headliner featured in the APIDA celebration. Despite her small stature, Liang’s powerfully emotional voice rolled over the crowd, silent except for cheering after long notes that were expertly held. Before Liang sang her favorite unreleased song “Sunbeams,” she spoke about the freedom of being an Asian American artist. 

“It’s so great to be something you may not have seen before,” Liang said to the crowd while on stage. “And even though that’s a tiring process, because you’re literally reconstructing as you’re becoming, it’s such a privileged place to be. We can make any reality that we want; right now, there’s no canvas for us. We can just do whatever the f*** we want.” 

In an interview with The Panther, Liang said that being Asian American means balancing one’s individual and family values.

Popular Filipino-American singer AJ Rafael was the final guest performer at Chapman’s April 7APIDA celebration. Photo by MADDIE MANTOOTH, Staff Photographer.

“It can be difficult to upkeep Confucius ideals of family honor and also this Americanized ideal of ‘Go for exactly what you want,’” Liang told The Panther. “The main thing to keep in mind is that there’s no right answer, and there’s no wrong answer. We are in charge of our own lives, but we are also fully in charge of balancing those two sides of ourselves. We need to have good boundaries within ourselves, within our family and within our communities to navigate it.”

Sprinkled throughout the celebration were tributes to both traditional and modern styles of dance: representing the more traditional side was a Vietnamese lion dance done by performing group Gió Nam Múa Lân and Tinikling, a customary Philippine folk dance, was performed by Kapamilya, Chapman’s Filipino club. K-Pop dances performed by APSA members and Chapman K-Pop dance team Twilight made up the contemporary category in addition to a hip-hop dance put together by Kapamilya members. 

Event attendee Quinci Cartmell, a freshman global communication and world languages major, told The Panther she could feel the passion in every performance. 

“I loved the energy throughout the night,” Cartmell said. “Everyone who performed was amazing, and I could feel the passion.”

When the sun went down and the lights turned red, Filipino singer Rudy Kalma ran onto the stage. Kalma was a bold interruption in the acoustic vibes of the other artists who performed, bringing hip-hop and a bit of pop to an audience of young adults who thrive on these genres. 

Kalma performed with a cool confidence that invigorated the audience and had them waving their hands and nodding their heads to each bar. 

Kalma said performing was “much needed, necessary, healing,” and he “felt like [he] was in community with everyone here at Chapman.”

Rafael was last to perform at the APIDA celebration. A large crowd gathered to watch the artist, who inspired many young Filipino Americans during a time when there was little Filipino presence in the media.

“I would say (my Filipino identity) has strengthened (my music), because I am proud of where I come from,” Rafael said. “I really believe in representation. I feel that it is an empowering thing to know your roots and know your history.” 

Along with singing his own songs like “Without You” and “Red Roses,” Rafael performed a medley of Disney songs dedicated to the “Disney kids and Disney adults as well.” Concluding the night, Rafael invited the audience to surround the stage for the final song, “She Was Mine.” 

Being Asian American means blending the old with the new; it means creating a fusion between the traditional and modern to create something entirely its own. It means drawing from childhood memories of warm words spoken in a native tongue and using these memories to influence your art. 

It also means breaking away from collectivist values to embrace individual uniqueness and artistry. The place Asians have in blending cultures and identities is what makes the culture so deeply interwoven in art and every sphere.