UW-Madison South Korean student groups have decided to postpone the annual Korea Night culture celebration scheduled for Monday, out of respect for the nation's mourning following the Virginia Tech shootings.
""I don't think there could have been any better opportunity than Korea Night to actually show about our culture and to show that one person cannot represent an entire country,"" Chai Sun Chang, Korean American Student Association president, said of the tragedy.
The annual cultural event, coordinated by KASA with the Korean Students and Scholars Association and the Korean Undergraduate Student Association, intended to celebrate and educate the community about the Korean culture.
However, according to one of the coordinating groups, it was not a collaborative decision.
Chang said KSSA decided to cancel the event without talking to other coordinators who thought Korea Night should still be held.
He said he received a call the day after the shooting, informing him KSSA had called Associated Students of Madison and pulled the funding for the event.
""The country has an emotion of sorrow so that's why we decided on not doing our celebration,"" said KSSA board member and former president Yongho Jeon.
KUSA President Jin Woo Yin agreed with Jeon.
""Korea Night is sort of like a celebration, so I think celebration at this point in time is not proper. That's the main reason we wanted to call off Korea Night this year.""
Chang said the decision to call off the event based on the tragedy at Virginia Tech reflects the Korean culture.
""Korea is a very collective culture, so if a person in the group does something wrong, the group kind of feels guilty,"" Chang said.
Though frustrated with the ""hasty decision,"" Chang said KASA understands the decision to postpone Korea Night and looks forward to celebrating the event next semester.
