Exploring the Asian identity may interest more people than presumed, if the opening day turnout of the NUS Arts Festival 2010 is anything to go by.

At the University Cultural Centre's foyer, a live band entertained visitors before the staging of opening play "wo(men)" on March 5, while a crowd of film enthusiasts waited to view "Short Films from Asia," a screening of five films from the Asian Film Archive.

Now into its fifth year, the festival, titled “Through Asian Lens,” was held over three weekends from March 5 to March 21 and featured a total of 48 shows, ranging from plays and film screenings to concerts and dance performances.

Out of these shows, 23 were free for the public to attend.

Music lovers could look forward to "Air on an A-String," an unconventional concert featuring Four to Tango, a string quartet, while film buffs had a deluge of choices, including "Winterland," a Norwegian film by award-winning filmmaker Hisham Zaman.

This year's theme was chosen to align with NUS’ vision of being a leading global university in Asia.

According to festival director Christine Khor, it aims to attract students to view stories and issues in the global world through the festival’s lenses.

“NAF 2010 leverages on the fluidity of arts to explore a whole range of topics related to the Asian story,” Khor said. “It was inspired by NUS President Tan Chorh Chuan’s vision in starting the Global Asian Institute.”

While previous years' themes were linked to the various NUS faculties, this year's festival theme displayed a marked contrast.

Last year’s festival, for instance, was named "Arts+Environment" and was organized in collaboration with the Faculty of Science to promote environmental issues, said Khor.

Having started out as a platform solely for student group performances supported by the NUS Centre for the Arts, the festival has gradually evolved to foster closer collaborations with professionals.

"wo(men)," shown on March 5 and March 6, was the result of the center's change in approach to provide learning opportunities for students.

Written by third-year theatre studies and English literature undergraduate Faith Ng, the play is about the comedic and dysfunctional lives of three women trying to survive family secrets and ties. It starred household names such as Neo Swee Lin and Lok Meng Chue.

“While the actresses might be seasoned professionals, a group of students worked closely with the cast, set designer and other professionals in the production since the beginning,” said Khor.

Khor added that a key initiative this year was to encourage and promote student works currently in progress.

Ongoing student works that will be showcased include dance performances such as "Anweshana: The Search for Nalanda" by NUS Indian Dance and "B" by recent NUS graduate Kiran Kumar.

As he waited to enter the cultural centre theatre for "wo(men)," 18-year-old Alvin Surya, a student at the Anglo-Chinese (Independent) School, said he was amazed at the number of programs on offer at the festival.

“I’m only here because my brother was on the production team and had a spare ticket. I’m pretty excited though, considering the amount of hype the play has received,” said Surya.

Meanwhile, tired of the usual Hollywood fare shown in cinemas, Canadian exchange students Adriana Morrison and Wang Yichuan had also visited the cultural centre on the opening day to catch "Short Films from Asia."

“We thought it’d be great to watch some Asian films, but I’ve just been blown away by how huge the festival is,” Morrison said. “We’ll definitely be back to watch more of the shows if this is good.”

Prior to the start of the festival, the organizers had embarked on an extensive marketing campaign in an attempt to reach out to NUS students.

“Besides promoting NAF on social media platforms like Facebook, we have also created a mobile website this year,” said Khor. “Students with mobile phones can access festival info, book tickets and recommend shows to friends on the go.”

The website had garnered almost 8,000 hits before the opening day of the festival, Khor said.

Yet for all their efforts, the organizers could have done more to create a buzz factor, according to some NUS students.

Anita Neo, a third-year English literature student, said the festival was too detached from the main campus.

“Nobody has talked about it in school and I’ll probably not go for any of the shows on offer,” Neo said.

Neo’s friend, third-year English language major Stephanie Png, echoed her sentiments.

“These kind of shows don’t really appeal to me,” said Png

Third-year communications and new media student Jerome Seow, however, said the festival could provide something for everyone.

“The programs might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it provides an outlet for students to relax and unwind at the end of the week, especially since this period is typically the busiest time for us,” Seow said.

A version of this article appeared in The Campus Observer on March 10, 2010.

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Above: An exciting range of shows covering dance, music, theatre and film were presented at the NUS Arts Festival from March 5 to March 21.