ECAAR Night Market 2/28
COMMUNITY
The Education Coalition for Asian American Representation (ECAAR, for short) invites the Mercer Island community to their annual Night Market, which will take place Saturday, February 28, from 4:00-8:00pm in the Mercer Island High School Commons.
ECAAR—this event’s facilitator—is a Mercer Island High School club composed of roughly 30-40 students that is focused on uplifting the AAPI community through educational initiatives and cultural exchange. Currently, ECAAR’s leadership team is made up of seven students: James Young, Angel Nguyen, Vinh Luu, Kim Tran, Jeffrey Yeh, Riddhi Bukka, and Han Sun.
The night market has been an annual effort since the club’s founders came up with the idea four years ago, hoping to celebrate overlooked and underrecognized Asian/Asian American cultural customs. It has since become a cornerstone of ECAAR’s efforts to bring AAPI culture into the broader Mercer Island community.
The night market is inspired by traditional Taiwanese night markets and highlights the diversity of various Asian cultures through a mix of student-run booths, community vendors, and interactive activities. Some invited food vendors include Puffle Up, selling the viral 10-yen cheese coin; the Crawlspace Gastropub, selling spam musubi and Korean BBQ chicken tacos; Mochi & Co. selling Taiwanese bubble waffles; Tsukime Matcha, selling ceremonial grade matcha drinks; etc. Additionally, the night market also features a variety of merchandise vendors like Woolfoo Studios, a Korean small business selling handcrafted woolen items; Brightspot Design, selling cute and simple Asian-themed designs on tote bags, keychains, stickers, lunch bags, and more; Squares Works, a Japanese-themed shop selling maps and cute decorations; and Over the Rainbow Tea, bringing their gachapon machines among many other vendors. Please check out our website to see our full list of outside vendors: https://ecaarnightmarket.square.site/. Along with these outside vendors, students also host their own booths, hosting activities and selling other authentic foods. Some of these student-run booths include ring toss, cornhole, taiyaki, flan, matcha cupcakes, hand drawn photo booths, raffles, traditional korean games like ddakji and gonggi, etc. Lastly, this year, ECAAR is bringing in the GĐPT Liễu Quán Lion Dance Team at 6:00 PM. Lion dance is a traditional Asian dance popular around Lunar New Year, designed to ward off evil spirits and bring good fortune into the new year. It is a staple in many Asian cultures, especially Chinese, and involves several energetic lions alongside loud and vibrant percussion instruments.
The night market is open to the public. Come celebrate the new year and learn more about Asian culture. Typically the night market is attended by over 300 people including students, parents, community members. For more information, refer to our website or our Instagram page: @ecaarmi.
This night market is just one piece of our efforts to bring AAPI culture into the broader Mercer Island community.
