The third annual USC Sings was held in Tommy’s Place on November 1. Organized by the USG Performing Art Committee (PAC), clubs representing different Asian cultures showed diverse cultural performances, including Chinese Kung Fu, Japanese Tea Ceremony and documentaries about Vietnamese family traditions.
“The event was actually pitched last year, and I took it on,” said Sydney Hurter, a sophomore economics and mathematics student and the event producer of the show, sharing the behind-scene story of the performance organization. “We started last summer, started getting going, and then it all sort of came together in the last week.”
The Bridge of Asia included performances from China, Japan, India and other Asian countries, offering a platform to share cultural heritage.
Kung fu is a Chinese martial art that incorporates elements of punching, kicking, blocking, stances, jumps and forms. In the performance, Kung Fu at USC displayed Chinese Wushu in different categories, like straight-sword, barehand and broad-swords.
Eric Yeh, coach of the Kung Fu at USC, introduced this Chinese cultural heritage before the show.
“The biggest value that Kung Fu has is really utilizing the whole body, being the one in all of our forms and routines, try to emphasize every single part of your body.”
Not only a platform for cultural representation, the Bridge of Asia provided opportunities for new possibilities between different cultural performances.
USC Asli Baat is an award-winning premier South Asian fusion a cappella team. Their performance was the first time Asli Baat cooperated with a dance team.
“The collaboration process is actually super fun,” said Megan Rajan, one of the co-captains. “This is our first time doing a collaboration with any kind of dance team. So it was a lot of us practicing on our own, sending over recordings to them.”
The event was also a chance for clubs to explore performing in a new cultural environment. Founded in 2005, Trojan Men has competed in prestigious events like the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella and USC’s Absolut A Cappella contest, earning numerous awards along the way.
James Roth, a senior majoring in theater and linguistics in East Asian languages and cultures, performed a Chinese song. Roth’s mother is Chinese, and he said the Chinese language and culture is “something I’ve kind of grown up with.”
Now, in college, Chinese culture is incorporated into one of his majors.
“I want to kind of obtain full fluency and be able to really get in touch with that half of my heritage,” Roth said.
Roth also expressed his excitement for realizing his dream with the Trojan Men, “I was like, I’m Chinese. I love to get my Trojan Men, my a cappella group, to sing a Chinese song… and it’s played out really well. I’ve really loved the way the guys have helped me with this.”
MaKenna Harding-Davis, a sophomore studying music composition, was there to support her friends.
“To me, the bridge seems to represent bringing different groups together,” she said.
MaKenna shared her understanding of the performance.
“Asia is a huge continent with so many unique cultures, and I feel like here at USC, there are so many different cultures to represent, and I think the goal of this performance was to bring them together and to find unique ways to have them collaborate.”