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VIDEO: Asian Music Mondays brings culture to the airwaves

July 21, 2015
Photo by Yuanzhe Zhuang | The State News

Every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m., Impact 89FM brings a variety of music from all over Asia to MSU's campus. 

The program, Asian Music Mondays, was called "Asian Invasion" when it was established. Osteopathic medicine student Elise Yoon started working with the program in January, 2010. 

"I thought it was a fun name and it rhymed," Yoon said. "It's kinda like an invasion of culture into the rest of the world."

But some found the name offensive because of the connotations attached to invasion and the number of international students on campus, Yoon said.

The show not only features music from other Asian countries, but also news and information about cultural holidays, she said.

"It was always meant to be a cultural bridge, or to help people understand what's going on in different cultures," she said.

MSU alumna Jiaying Chen said she found reflecting on the cultural differences between the music of the East and West interesting. 

"For example, American students like to go out as individuals, but Chinese students like to go out as groups together," Chen said, "In the field of music, it’s a similar case. Most famous Asian group singers have more than 5, 10 or even 20 people in the group. " 

Usually when people talk about Asian music, "most people would think about J-rock, K-pop or Chinese traditional music, but there are many countries in Asia," international relations junior Ruipeng Lu said.

"I want to bring different types of music to the station," Lu said.  

Lu said working at a radio station helps to train students' ability to improvise and become more familiar with professional terms.

Chen said she hopes to have members of the community call in more often and share their suggestions.

"We hope to have more interactions with our audiences," Chen said. "We hope to hear more songs from audiences' recommendations." 

Chen wanted to bring the cultural values from music to the campus and the broader community. She said there are still spaces to develop and improve. 

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