EAC's 1 Year Anniversary

On April 24th, 2026 Explore Asian Culture led a presentation in the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children about AANHPI month. Our goal was to further educate Orlando youth who aren’t exposed to Asian culture about its rich and lush history, traditions, and activities. Since hospitalized children are unable to attend school due to long term illnesses, Explore Asian Culture brings Asian culture to these children with limited experience of it.

We first started with an informative presentation. The first steps to learning about. AANHPI Month is what it stands for: Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Month. This month is dedicated to celebrate the contributions and cultures of Asian communities. Things that you can do to honor AANHPI Month would be attending an Asian Cultural festival, celebrating Asian holidays such as Dragon Boat Festival, or even indulging in Asian cuisine. In an area like Orlando, a place with a diverse Asian population, it is very important to shine light and show appreciation for these communities. 

Our next slide detailed some geographical fun facts about Asia. Some fun facts include: Asia is home to over 60% of the world’s population and that Asia is home to the world’s highest mountain and longest river. EAC believes that when presenting a topic like AANHPI Month to people who are unfamiliar with it, it is important to start with basics such as fun facts. 

We then talked about some cross-cultural traditions that are celebrated in different ways all across Asia. For example, Lunar New Year. In Thailand, this holiday is called Songkran. A fun activity during Songkran is spraying each other with water guns since it is so hot outside. In China, however, Lunar New Year is celebrated with red decorations, packets with money, and big family dinners. It’s fascinating that one holiday such as Lunar New Year can be celebrated so differently! 

After talking about Lunar New Year, we recognized Asian figures such as R. F. Kuang, Kalpana Chawla, Yo-Yo Ma, and Beatric Laus(beabadoobee). These Asian figures are extremely accomplished, and AANHPI Month is an amazing time to highlight their achievements! R. F. Kuang is an author who has had several New York Times Bestseller books. Kalpana Chawla was the first woman of Indian origin to go to space. Yo-Yo Ma is recognized as one of the greatest cellists of all time, and he has performed for nine different US Presidents. Beatrice Laus is a Filipino singer-songwriter who has become a very popular musician across younger generations in the last couple of years.

Then, we highlighted some landmarks in Asia to inform our audience about the famous worldwide wonders Asia offers. We talked about Mount Fuji(a mountain in Japan), Angkor Wat(a Hindu temple), the Taj Mahal(a tomb in India), the Great Wall of China(the longest wall), Gardens by the Bay(a floral museum), and Mount Everest(the tallest mountain in the world). 

The next part of the presentation is a unique feature that EAC does for every AANHPI Month. We featured the speakers’ ethnic countries who were giving the presentation. Bianca Trujillo, with heritage from Japan, talked about fun facts about Japan. Emma Cheng, who is Chinese, highlighted fun facts about China. And I talked about Thailand, the country of which my mother’s family is from.  Explore Asian Culture enjoys having the speakers highlight a bit of themselves in each presentation! 

At the end of our event, we taught children how to make origami hearts, fortune tellers, and cranes! Origami is a very easy way to appreciate Asian culture, with different shapes ranging from easy to difficult. In the goodie bags we prepared for the children, we gave them multiple origami papers and linked instructions to shapes so that they can take a piece of Asian culture with them. We also gave the children fun fans, which will come in handy during the hot summer!

Since AANHPI Month was Explore Asian Culture’s debut presentation, giving a presentation on this event was special since it was like a one year anniversary. It has been an amazing year sharing Asian culture with others, and we are excited to do so for many years to come.