Fisk 217 will be filled with loud music and maybe free food Saturday, April 17. The Hong Kong Student Association of Northwestern is teaming up with the HKSAs of University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Chicago for a night of song and dance, giving NU students the opportunity to connect with foreign students from across the Midwest.
HKSA President Felix Tsang said the HK Factor is based on Britain’s The X Factor, an American Idol-type talent show. Usually, HKSA’s biggest event is a basketball tournament with other Midwest schools, but this was canceled due to scheduling conflicts.
“We were thinking of doing something different, something more accessible to everyone else, something easier to attract people to come,” said Tsang, a sophomore in the School of Communication.
For two dollars, the audience will see about 10 performances, including singers and dance troupes from all three schools. HKSA members from each school will judge the performances. Three members of the Treblemakers, one of Northwestern’s a cappella groups, will perform, as will the ReFresh dance crew.
Weinberg senior Jennifer Wong, a Treblemaker, sees the HK Factor as an opportunity for different Midwest schools to interact in a new way.
“You see other schools come in for sports events, but they rarely come in for other events. I think it will be really interesting,” she said.
One goal of the HK Factor is to provide students from Hong Kong with new networking opportunities.
“I thought it would be a good change for Hong Kong people to meet each other because they might work together in Hong Kong in the future or bump into each other in some other way,” said Nelson Chan, the president of HKSA at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Tsang sees the event as something fresh for HKSA, the Northwestern community and the relationship between various Midwest schools. “You don’t really see a lot of performances by Asian Americans,” he said. “We’re trying to reach out. We’re trying to get our name out there so people come to our events.”