What would one get if Asian culture was fused with American pop culture? The product would be the Asian Awareness Night at the International House held Wednesday night. 

This was the third time the Asian American Association hosted the event and the first since 2006.  This year's theme was the Real Asian World.  Attendants were treated with Asian cuisine from local restaurants and comedic skits performed by the AAA.

Planning for the Asian Awareness Night began in early January. "We put a lot of time into Awarness Night," said AAA treasurer Peter Nguyen, "because it puts us (AAA) into the UT community."

The highlight of the night was the video spoof of MTV's The Real World.   Filmed primarily in Volunteer Hall's recreational room, the "Asian Real World" pitted Asians of different nationalities and one Caucasian American to live harmoniously while attempting to understand each other's cultures.  The film had a very humorous twist by playing on traditional Asian and American stereotypes. 

We wanted to show that there is cultural tension in Asia just like there is in America. We wanted everybody to have a good time too. Christie Sithiphone

"We've wanted to do this since our freshman year in 2005," said AAA vice-president Nickey Alana, "but no one really wanted to do it." 

Luckily this year the Asian American Association had Du Some Productions lead by Tennessee junior DuNo Tran.

AAA president Christie Sithiphone commented, "They were working on it until right before the doors opened. You see, DuNo is a bit of a perfectionist."

"Asian Real World" stared Tennessee students Jorel Newsome, Thinh Nguyen, Kenny Li, Christie Sithiphone, Emily Hwang, Grace Lee, Edwin Heisse, Nickey Alana, and Xu Wang. 

Filming was completed over two days with filming taking up to four hours at a time, but DuNo Tran made it easy, according to Kenny Li.  "He knows what to do.  We would go in there to film and he'd tell us what to do." 

Duno Tran and Jorel Newsome were Asian Real World's primary writers. 

"We wrote the script in one night," Newsome said.

Tran added, "After writing it I was like, ‘Wow! We came up with that!'" They explained that they used the script as a skeleton, allowing the actors to use improvisation for the meat.

"It was the actors that brought the characters to life," said Tran. "We tried to cater to the actors."

According to both Jorel Newsome and Steven Lam, DuNo Tran really brought the film together. 

"DuNo is the master at editing!" remarked Lam.

"He's a genius!" Tran replied. "I always want to do better."

All of the editing was done by DuNo Tran with most of it done over spring break.  Tran revealed that he has plans to make more revisions and edits of "Asian Real World" and hopes to put the final version on YouTube.

Christie Sithiphone noted that the purpose was of Asian Real World was to explain that there is cultural differences between Asian countries. 

"We wanted to show that there is cultural tension in Asia just like there is in America...We wanted everybody to have a good time too." 

Attendee Kyle Youngblood confirmed the idea.  "It was extremely entertaining but very informative at the same time.

Apart from the Asian Real World, two skits were performed and a poetry reading by Christie Sithiphone.  The purposes of these were to reveal the pressures and negative stereotypes associated with Asian-Americans. 

"The problem Asian-Americans face is this. They think, ‘Should I be more Asian or American?'" Alana added that the difficulty is balancing Asian heritage with the American culture of their peers.

Real Asian World was the AAA's second premier event in this academic calendar.  Last semester, AAA brought comedian Elliot Chang.  Future plans include expanding the next Asian Awareness Night by focusing more on Asian-American issues and include a wider Asian representation.