On May 27th, UCLA’s Feast dining hall held its second annual Anime Dinner Night, hosted by UCLA’s own Japanese Animation Club (JAC). This event celebrated Japanese animation and anime culture through displaying themed decorations and dishes as well as featuring activities throughout the night. Similar to a miniature convention, many students cosplayed as various characters from a variety of anime shows. Tokyo Otaku Mode, an international business with locations in LA, also contributed to the decorations and manned a booth outside.

On May 21, the Pacific Islands Student Association at UCLA (PISA) hosted the inaugural “Polynesian Arts and Cultural Night” at the UCLA Tennis Courts from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. During this student-run event, PISA at UCLA collaborated with peers from PISA at UC Riverside, PIA at California State University, Long Beach, PIO at Azusa Pacific University, the PI Club at Long Beach Community College, and Polynesian dance group Tupulaga.

April 30 marked the 40th anniversary of what many of those in the Vietnamese diaspora refer to as the Fall of Saigon, or Black April as my generations tends to call it, recognizing that there was much more than one day, or one month of the hells of war. Every year, the Vietnamese Student Union’s Black April Commemoration seeks to commemorate the Vietnamese diaspora’s decision to leave the Vietnamese homeland in search of a better life.

During my junior year of high school, my friend Kimberly and I stood at a Walmart deciding whether or not we wanted to buy potato wedges from the deli and the ladies behind the cash register called us over. They asked us what ethnicity we were. “I’m Chinese and she’s Vietnamese,” I replied and they looked surprised.

Advertised as “shock therapy entertainment” in the trailer, “The World of Kanako” is certainly not a film for the faint of heart (or stomach for the matter). This film can best be described as a darker version of the “Taken” storyline with Tarantino’s over-the-top violence. Yet, if one can look past the spurting fountains of blood and disturbing use of household appliances, the story itself takes viewers on an intriguing exploration of the human psyche.

How we call what is happening in Baltimore will affect how we perceive people who commit acts of violence to draw attention to their oppression. If language choice matters, then choosing between the word protest and riot in media headlines will sway public opinion about the unrest in Baltimore.