If a prefrosh didn’t know any better, one might assume that, based on the modest flyers plastered around campus, last Friday’s annual Mabuhay performance—intended to showcase the talents of the University’s Asian and Asian American community—might be too humdrum an event for a Friday night. However, as the two hours of vibrant dancing, explosive music and intimate poetry unfolded with the speed and intensity of a bullet train, one would soon learn that this could not be farther from the truth.

Even before the show started, the students organizing the event made it clear that the evening was more than entertainment: it was activism. A slip of paper inserted into the show’s program (as well as some chalkings around campus prior to the show) invited students, prefrosh included, to ask why, unlike many peer institutions, the University does not have an Asian American Studies department.

The show began with a perfectly metrical, almost ominous drumbeat in the darkness. Strange silhouettes formed on the stage’s backdrop. When the lights came up, dancers in dramatic masks emerged performing the Lion dance, a traditional Chinese dance usually performed to celebrate the New Year. As the drumbeats intensified, the dancers mimed attacking the audience, then fell back and pretended to fall asleep as the drumming slowly and softly faded out.

The 15 student performances also included multiple spoken word performances, included one by Queens Poet Laureate Ishle Yi Park. One piece that Park performed, addressing her uncle’s struggle with the English language, provided one of the night’s most powerful moments.

“A lot of people were really moved and were crying in the audience,” said Maria Hwang ’08, who was one of the show’s seven emcees.

Another highlight was a group performance of tinikling, a traditional folkdance from the Philippines, which transformed mid-performance into a rousing hip-hop-influenced routine.

“It was really cool how it went from something traditional into something more modern,” said Jeri Ho ’08.

Also popular with the audience was a piece that can only be described as a “Matrix”-style ping-pong game, inspired by a popular YouTube clip. Two students acted out a ping-pong game with fake legs and arms attached to them, manipulated by another student standing behind them.

“It was like 3D with really exaggerated movements,” Hwang explained.

The show’s seven emcees — Hwang, Cecil Apostol ’08, Melanie Jung ’08, Chenoa Tanglao ’08, Derek Kuwahara ’09, Chayanee Ubol ’08 and Thomas Ryu ’08 provided effortless transitions from one act to another.

“It was great how they all pulled it off,” Ho said. “It was like a show within a show.”