By Marisa Young | Reporter
The Asian Leaders Network partnered with the Waco Downtown Farmers Market to celebrate the Lunar New Year and educate locals on Asian culture.
Jaja Chen, the board chair of Asian Leaders Network and organizer of the Lunar New Year Farmers Market Celebration, said she hopes this event will help to further cultural awareness of the Asian community locally.
“We really wanted to create a Lunar New Year celebration here in Waco because we want to see more cultural festivals and be able to share more Asian heritage,” Chen said.
This is the second consecutive year the ALN has partnered with the Waco Downtown Farmers Market, and also been able to showcase the Baylor Lion’s Dance performance. Because of this, Chen said the organization has been able to establish close relationships with some of the vendors and organizers within the Waco Downtown Farmers Market.
“Many of our vendors that are part of ALN actually started up their businesses here at the farmer’s market, and that’s part of what led to this partnership,” Chen said.
Austin senior Jonas Hartsell attended the Lunar New Year celebration, and said he appreciated the opportunities the event provided for the promotion of minority cultures.
“It’s important for smaller communities such as Waco to offer a place … for those cultures to also be promoted in,” Hartsell said.
Hartsell said he thinks the efforts of the ALN are “really eye-opening for people” who don’t otherwise interact with Asian culture.
He believes events such as the Lunar New Year Farmers Market are necessary to “open up everyone’s worldview and show people that there’s other things you can eat, there’s other art you can look at, there’s other things you can wear.”
In the “surprisingly diverse” population of Waco, Hartsell said he thinks the main issue regarding diversity is the recognition aspect.
“We have diversity, just not the celebration of it,” Hartsell said.
The ALN is a nonprofit organization made up “entirely of local Asian leaders,” so their work reflects a labor of love for educating the local community. According to Chen, Waco’s growing Asian community currently composes less than 2% of the city’s demographic. However, despite their small numbers, Chen said they are a mighty group of leaders here in Waco.
“That’s what ALN is all about … we want to increase more awareness about Asian culture and also to celebrate all the local Asian vendors, artists, creatives, that are doing work here,” Chen said.
