Sacramento State held a six hour long forum focused entirely on Asia that welcomed faculty, students and guest speakers to present knowledge and experiences with Asian culture to the audience on Monday.

Sac State’s Honors Program in association with Sac State’s Omicron Chapter of Phi Beta Delta, the society for international scholars, organized the forum.

Faculty and staff who had studied abroad in China, Japan and Korea participated in the forum and discussed their international experiences.

Among some of the guest speakers were two San Francisco State University professors who created a documentary together about three diverse families from an Oakland slum who won a settlement against their landlord.

The noon entertainment for the day included a few different presentations. The main act was a performance by world champion unicyclist and former Sac State student Kaori Matsuzawa.

“It was really neat, she was very graceful and elegant, it looked like she was dancing on the unicycle, that was really fun,” said Vanessa Arnaud, a Honors Program professor and one of the organizers of the event.

The martial arts performance by the Filipino club and singing from a group of Japanese 1A students were also a part of the noon entertainment.

Many of the students from the Honors Program participated in some of the performances and presentations for the forum. They were involved in activities such as performing short plays inspired by Confucius readings and a presentation of the art of Japanese folding screens and kimonos.

“I think it’s neat that our students did a lot of the presenting,” Arnaud said.

The overall purpose of this event was to get students and faculty to discuss and understand today’s issues in order to promote global understanding, Arnaud said.

Caleb Fountain, a junior computer engineer major and vice president of the Honors Committee, said his highlight of the forum was “…the interest and the attentiveness that the students had. We’re, learning different things about Asia, and it was really interesting to see.”

Cayla Gales can be reached at [email protected].