This past Friday, the Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) held their second-annual Mr. Asia pageant in the Mandela Room.

Doors were set to open at 6 p.m. where a crowd of students waited for the event organized by the VSA — a sub-group of the Asian Student Union (ASU) with the goal of “[promoting] unity and boost confidence among Asian and Asian-American students.” After weeks of hard work and preparation, VSA welcomed attendees to enjoy a night of food, entertainment and exciting performances from the talented contestants.

“The inspiration behind this year’s Mr. Asia is to show various Asian cultures through different performances and allow students to show their personalities as well on stage,” Lauren Wong, the president of VSA and a senior majoring in nursing, wrote in an email. “We did Miss Asia in the fall, and wanted to give male contestants an opportunity as well. We know that there are a lot of Asian organizations with banquets and events, but we wanted our main event to showcase many different cultures and performances so that the audience can have a wide variety of entertainment and learning experiences.”

This year’s contestants included Mr. Taiwan, Mr. China, Mr. Japan, Mr. Korea, Mr. Philippines and Mr. Palestine, whose addition, according to Wong, aimed to educate the community “that Asian does not just mean East Asian countries, but includes all countries outside of Europe.”

This year’s Mr. Asia was “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” themed and upon entering, attendees were given a mini Hershey’s bar and invited to get food and drinks before heading to their seats.

Christian Tai, who represented Mr. China and a freshman majoring in mechanical engineering, described why he joined Mr. Asia.

“In high school I didn’t really put myself out there and because of that I felt like I missed so many opportunities to meet different people and engage in different cultures,” Tai said. “I wanted to join Mr. Asia because it’s a chance to be a better me and I’m glad I did because I learned so much about myself and my fellow brothers.”

The event consisted of five different rounds which included an introductory catwalk, a cultural catwalk where contestants wore a traditional outfit from their respective country, a talent portion, a costume walk where each contestant dressed up as a different character from “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” and lastly a final walk followed by a Q&A session.

Some of the performances during the talent portion included Mr. Taiwan singing “Perfect,” by Ed Sheeran, Mr. Japan dancing to “Butter” by BTS and Mr. Philippines demonstrating a fencing routine.

Shinnosuke Nishio, who represented Mr. Japan and a sophomore majoring in philosophy, politics and law and an exchange student from Waseda University, mentioned his interest in joining Mr. Asia.

“As an exchange student, I only have 10 months in America and I only have a month left and before coming here, I decided that if I even have the slightest interest in something I would try it no matter what because whether it’s good or bad, it’ll end up as a great memory or experience,” Nishio said. “The things I have taken granted for in Japan and the things I have experienced were very different from here because I’m always surrounded with Japanese people, but here, the culture’s very diverse and I thought Mr. Asia was a great opportunity to embrace that.”

In between rounds, attendees had the opportunity to participate in a variety of mini games, such as one where they were blindfolded and had to guess the percentage of chocolate and another that involved a scavenger hunt where they had to find a certain trait such as the tallest person in the room or someone who speaks fluent Vietnamese.

With these mini games, there were opportunities for the winners to receive prizes such as Phonomenal gift cards, a Stanley cup, waffle makers and more.

Adel Hamdi, who represented Mr. Palestine and is a senior majoring in computer science, shared why he participated in Mr. Asia.

“When I first got to Binghamton, it was very hard to find a community,” Hamdi said. “I was kind of longing for a cultural community — an Arab community. There’s a very low population of Arab students on campus … we don’t just show face as much. I ended up almost finding refuge in the South Asian community. I know I said [that] I wanted to do Mr. Asia for a number of reasons, but at the end of the day, I really wanted to inspire other Arabs on campus to do the same — and finally, we have an Arab Student Association on campus.”

Before the finalists were announced, each contestant received an honorary sash for their participation and following this, the audience picks for best costume, social media favorite and crowd favorite were announced.

Mr. China took home the win for best costume while Mr. Palestine won both social media favorite and crowd favorite.

Shortly after, the finalists were announced which included Mr. Japan, Mr. China and Mr. Palestine.

Each contestant was asked a series of questions that included their favorite food from their culture and why, a stereotype from their culture and what they could do to change that perception and lastly, how they would continue to represent Mr. Asia beyond this event.

After deliberation from the judges, it was announced that Mr. Palestine was this year’s Mr. Asia.

Hamdi shared how he would continue to represent and carry Mr. Asia with him.

“I will take great steps, especially in the Arab Student Association, just to keep that growing on our campus,” Hamdi said. “But of course, it takes also much bigger movements and in the Palestine movement of course, is at a peak right now and it would take talking with the people at home, talking with your friends, just educating my friends, educating people and making sure they’re aware of what’s going on. I think that will broaden the horizon of our community and grow support, but it will also make us stronger, and I think we can do that through organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine.”

Wong expressed what she hoped guests took away from the pageant.

“I hope attendees were able to enjoy performances and learn more about different cultures,” Wong wrote. “In addition, I hope they had fun and were able to destress with the various mini games and prizes that we had. I also hope that we were able to garner a newfound appreciation for all cultures and the deeper cultural traditions and issues.”