The "United Asian" Christmas Party: The UP Asian Center Christmas Party 2014

- December 15, 2014, Monday.

- Before anything else, this post is a semi-personal (??) post, but a very cultural one. It might not be an adventure post like what I usually write, but the photos will definitely be a feast for the eyes, just like how Christmas is supposed to be.

- Today, the UP Asian Center held its Christmas party right before the UP Diliman's annual lantern parade, as always. I was not able to join in this year's parade because of some personal matters, but at least I had the time to attend the Christmas party.

A photo with the sarimanok lantern of the Asian Center.

With my classmate Denzel. We're (so far) the only South-Asian majors in the Asian Center, 

- The Asian Center encourages its students to wear traditional Asian costumes during the party and the lantern parade. In line with this, there is of course the yearly Asian-costume contest for the students who have put on their costumes. However, the party organizers have once again banned me from joining the costume contest because of my reputation as a traditional-attire collector, and as a regular wearer of (casual) traditional clothes (I was assigned as one of the judges for the contest though.) Despite these circumstances (being banned and not being able to attend the parade,) I still chose an elaborate costume for this year's party, so I can outdo what I wore in last year's party and lantern parade (click here to see;) I decided to wear my Korean samulnori/pungmulnori costume. The samulnori or pungmulnori is a kind of Korean folk music using an ensemble of traditional percussion instruments, accompanied by chanting/singing, and dancing. This form of performing art originated from the rural farming communities of Korea, and is done during harvest, and other local celebrations. Those who participate in the pungmulnori ensemble dress in a particular costume with plain solid colors, normally blue, red, and yellow, symbolizing heaven, earth, and humanity respectively. Perhaps, the most interesting and notable feature of the samulnori/pungmulnori costume is the "sangmo," or the hat with the wire and ribbon. Dancers would skillfully shift their center of gravity, and use other body movements to make the wire/ribbon of the sangmo spin. I am not a professional sangmo dancer, and I have not attended any workshops, so trying my best to make the ribbon spin was one of the things I attempted to achieve in my vacant times during the party. (Last night, I was able to find one website that had a written tutorial, without visuals, about making the sangmo's ribbon spin. It was hard since I had to visualize the written instruction, but I think I nailed it for a beginner. I just can't make it spin quickly like the pros do.)  

One of my early attempts to make it spin.

- I felt that this year's Christmas party was a bit quieter than last year's. Oh, I was also assigned to be the emcee the last minute, so I tried hard to make the party alive. We had a few games after having some good food, but the highlight of course, was when the other students changed into their costumes. Compared to last year, this year's costumes had more variety.

Pinoy Henyo.

Trip to Jerusalem.

Another attempt in making it spin.

With my classmates and friends.

The United Asian Alliance: India, Japan, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Korea, Japan, Japan, and Undecided (Nica was undecided about what her outfit represented.)

Friends I haven't seen in a long time.

The participants of the costume contest. The kimono-wearing Japanese major (second from right) won. She had a kimono with an obi sash, a matching Japanese bag/purse, and Japanese sandals.

- Just before the party ended, I was able to encounter the igal-igal dancers who would be performing during the judging of the lantern in the parade. Since the heavy rain came, I was able to talk to them and have a short crash course on the igal-igal dance while waiting for the rain to go away, and while the staff was still preparing the lantern for the parade. I was able to catch up a bit during the crash course, since I attended a pangalay workshop previously (click here,) The pangalay is a dance from the Philippines' Tausug group, while the igal-igal hails from the Sama-Bajau group that resides in the Malayo-Philippine group of islands. The pangalay and igal-igal are closely-related dances, are distant "cousins" of the court dances of other Southeast-Asian countries, with all of these originating from classical Indian court dances. 

With one of the small Asian Center lanterns.

With the igal-igal dancers.

South Asian majors with the igal-igal dancers.

- The rain stopped shortly after my crash course, and as the lantern rolled away to the holding area of the parade together with the nicely-costumed staff, professors, and students, I went home. Right now, I am still dizzy from all the sangmo workout I did during the day. I was able to make it spin, so I'm happy.

Tea and Talks with the Sri Lankan Ambassador: Discussing Political Conflict and Resolutions in Sri Lanka

- November 26, 2014, Wednesday.

- Still fresh and dark-skinned from Taiwan (if you missed my posts, please click here for part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5,) I barely had any rest. I had to fix my things, and do some important school work, but I had also been looking forward to attending this forum held in the University of the Philippines Asian Center. The forum was entitled "Political Conflict and Conflict Resolution in Sri Lanka," and focused on the Tamil Eelam problem, vis a vis the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE.) The talk was to be done by none other than the ambassador of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to the Republic of the Philippines, H.E. S.V.D. Gamini Samaranayake, Ph.D. Moreover, not only was I able to attend this forum, but I was also asked to be moderator of the event just a day before the forum.

- The forum this afternoon, held from 2-5pm, was mostly packed with students from PUP, Asian Center faculty, some students from the Asian Center, and representatives from the UP Asian Center Alumni Association. Apart from the ambassador's secretary, Mrs. Wijeratne Mendis, minister of the mission/charge d'affairs, was also there to accompany the ambassador.

- Ambassador/Dr. Samaranayake used to be the senior chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Peradeniya in Kandy, Sri Lanka, and as an academic, he specializes on various aspects of Sri Lankan politics, from ethnicity to conflict resolutions. He has also a long list of publications and achievements in relation to his profession as an academic. Ambassador Samaranayake was just designated to the Philippines this year, so he shared to us that he is still feeling his way around the country, although he has been to the Philippines twice or thrice in the past for short visits.

Asian Center dean, Prof. Eduardo Gonzales, giving the welcoming remarks.

I don't have a photo of me speaking, so here's an alternative.

My adviser, Prof. Joefe Santarita, introducing the ambassador.

H.E. S.V.G. Gamini Samaranayake.

- As mentioned earlier, the ambassador's lecture focused on the issue of Tamil Eelam. Just for a bit of background, Sri Lanka has two main ethno-linguistic groups: the Sinhalese (Sinhala-speaking people,) and the Tamils (Tamil-speaking people who came from India since ancient times; there are still Tamils in India, with most of them living in the state of Tamil Nadu.) Tamil Eelam is the proposed independent state by the Tamils of Sri Lanka, and comprises of the northern tip, most of the eastern coast, and some parts of the western coast of Sri Lanka. The organization that violently pushed for this was the LTTE, the country's foremost secessionist group. Since the 70s until the organization's defeat by the Sri Lankan government in 2009, LTTE has unleashed several serious attacks and assassinations; their list of assassinated people include India's Rajiv Gandhi and former Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa.

Some important slides.

- Ambassador Samaranayake stated that due to the destruction that the LTTE has caused, the Sri Lankan government responded with what he calls the "5 Rs:" rehablitation, resettlement, reintegration, and reconstruction, and reconciliation. He concludes by saying that while the Sri Lankan government has achieved many things in the recent years, the challenge of having social and political stability still remains.

5 Rs.

Final slide.

 - The ambassador presented the whole thing, according to my professor, not as a diplomat, but as an academic (which he was, for the longest time, before being a diplomat.) Ambassador Samaranayake was quite frank about the things that went on in Sri Lanka, and the intensity of the horrendous attacks that were unleashed by LTTE.

Official poster of the forum.

"Rock on." (Of course he didn't say that.) 

Certificate of Appreciation.

- After the talk, he was briskly escorted to another room for some Sri Lankan tea and some native snacks (puto and bibingka.) I initially followed them to the holding room just so I could have a photo with him, but I ended up explaining the snacks to him. My adviser also invited me to stay with them in the room and have some private tea-time with them. I was the only student there, and I was having tea with my adviser, the Asian Studies dean, the ambassador, Mrs. Mendis, and the ambassador's secretary. I felt quite nervous being around the ambassador in such a small room, so he will surely notice any blooper that I may unintentionally do (which happens a lot to me, like tripping in front of the former Indian ambassador, click here.) I actually felt like Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldi, aka "Princess Mia" from Pincess Diaries, who had a hard and wacky time conforming to royal etiquette, trying her best not to do anything wrong, funny, or silly (but does anyway.)

Winning shot, taken by my adviser.

- Our almost-an-hour pre-dinner tea-time consisted of talks about the current situation of Sri Lanka, and possible academic, institutional, or cultural partnerships. Generally, tea-time was just chit-chat time.  We said our goodbyes to the ambassador just after the seasonal early sunset. As for me, the true victory for me was not (only) meeting the ambassador or moderating the forum, but it was not being able to unleash a clumsy blooper in front of the ambassador.

Rubbing Elbows with Iranian Diplomats

- July 8, 2013, Monday.

- Today was one of those days that I am EXTREMELY thankful for the invention of the internet, especially Facebook. All this time, I thought that the forum on Iranian public diplomacy, held in the conference room of the UP Asian Center, 10am-12 noon, was supposed to be tomorrow's agenda. While doing my report on my class this morning, I noticed a Facebook reminder of today's forum. Alarmed, I quickly got dressed and left the house.  In a weird twist of events, I got to the event on time, and I was one of the early people there. (I had less than an hour to work with from my house to UP, and my travel time is normally an hour.)

- The event was facilitated by Dr. Henelito Sevilla Jr., the Asian Center's resident faculty who specializes in West Asia, particularly Iran. The guests were none other than the Iranian ambassador himself, His Excellency Ali Asghar Mohammadi, and the main man of the day, His Excellency Ramin Mehmanprasat. H.E. Mehmanprasat is the head of the Center for Public Diplomacy and Media of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and was the former ambassador of Iran to Kazakhstan and Thailand. He is one of the most sought after Iranian diplomats in the field of diplomacy and politics.

- The forum mainly tackled on the role of mass media and culture in the field of diplomacy, concerned that ran bells in my ears; these are some of my interests and concerns on diplomacy. I also realized that Iran, like many countries, is far from what (Western) media portrays it to be. Hon. Mariano Dumia, former ambassador of the Philippines to Iran, also reacted on these, and testified that Iran is one of the most hospitable countries, a progressive one, and a glorious country built on 7000 years of civilization. Aside from these, the forum also mentioned the stagnant foreign relations between the USA and Iran, mainly due to the nuclear weapons, and that Iran is ready to open itself to improving the bilateral relations of both countries, only if the USA will change its attitude towards Iran.

H.E. Ali Asghar Mohammadi, ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Philippines.

H.E. Ramin Mehmanprasat, the head of the Center of Public Diplomacy and Media of Iran.

Plaque of Appreciation.

A gift from Iran from the Asian Center.

- I learned many things today, and am inspired to know more about Iran. It will definitely help me with my studies on India, especially since India has had many Persian influences, especially during the Mughal Empire, India's Islamic early modern empire, ruled by Turko-Mongolic people. (It was also the era responsible for the existence of the Taj Mahal.)

My turn!!

And another prized photo.

- Of course, I didn't miss my opportunity of taking photos with both distinguished guests, and today's bonus, I got to have the Iranian ambassador's calling card. Heehee.