{shortcode-fa32c8f75758db3be5673386c9d59a7bbf7448fc}

On the evening of Nov. 20, Harvard Commons at the Smith Campus Center was transformed into a vibrant Southeast Asian Pasar Malam — a Malay phrase that translates to “night market” — for the Singaporean, Indonesian and Malaysian Association’s (SIAMA) inaugural event, which drew over 400 registrations and filled the space across three floors.

From 7 p.m. onward, crowds streamed in and made their way to the second floor, where they were greeted by culinary staples catered by Selera Bunda, a Singaporean home kitchen based in Boston. The spread featured fragrant nasi lemak (rice cooked in coconut cream), egg sambal (hard-boiled eggs simmered in chili paste), ayam masak merah (chicken stewed in sweet and spicy tomato sauce), char koay teow (stir-fried flat rice noodles), and satay (grilled meat skewers).

Along the staircase, stalls offered kuih-muih — rainbow-hued Malaysian coconut milk and rice-flour desserts — as well as cultural games and activities. At one station, students worked furiously through timed Singaporean math problems, hoping to score among the top five and advance to a live trivia segment later in the evening.

Across the space, clusters of students, alumni, faculty, and community members gathered around shared plates. Among them were Dunster House deans Shirley Lee and Taeku Lee, who attended with their daughter.

“My husband spent part of his childhood in Malaysia, so we’re very excited,” Shirley Lee said, highlighting the personal resonance of the event for their family.

Taeku Lee added to her sentiment.

“It’s fun seeing so many people who look like they came from Malaysia, hearing the accent,” he said.

For SIAMA co-presidents Victor Ngow ’28 and Marianne Wang ’28, the event was about more than food or festivity — it was about recreating a cultural atmosphere that felt like home, especially in a campus environment where Southeast Asian culture exists but meaningful opportunities to engage with it feel rare.

“It is something very quintessential to growing up in the region,” Ngow said. “Whether it’s for getting food, knock-off clothing, or just a midnight snack.”

That familiarity took on deeper significance once he arrived in the United States.

“Coming here for the first time, I felt a huge hit of homesickness, and really started to appreciate the things that I found so mundane back home,” he said.

Wang recalled that the idea emerged not through formal planning, but through shared nostalgia.

“Our club is a really homey club,” She said. “I think it was just one of our dinners where someone brought this up, and they were like, ‘You know how night markets are really popular at home — why not bring it here so that we can get a taste of home and our friends can get a taste of where we come from?’”

She emphasized that the goal was not perfection, but connection.

“It’s meant to just be something that we all work together on, something that's fun. It’s going to be a taste of home regardless. And honestly, that in itself is enough motivation,” she said.

For many attendees, Pasar Malam offered a casual, communal break from the relentless pace of classes, clubs, and deadlines.

“I feel like Harvard needs more of these kinds of events,” said Sabrina H. Ottaway ’29, who had heard about the event in passing from a friend. “Our lives are so dominated by our classes or by extracurricular activities, and there’s not a lot of space and schedule for casual events for people to hang out. It’s easy to discount events like this, but I feel like they’re actually really important to people’s everyday lives.”

Throughout the evening, music by Southeast Asian artists piped through the speakers — Malay pop, Mandarin hits, and Singaporean classics — blending with the hum of conversation, rustling plates, and easy laughter. Later in the night, several SIAMA members took to the stage for karaoke performances, met with cheers from friends and strangers. The top scorers from the math challenge booth were then brought up to compete in a live round, answering rapid-fire questions to bursts of applause when they got it right — and good-natured groans from the crowd when they didn’t.

Both organizers expressed hopes that Pasar Malam would not be a one-off event, but the start of a recurring tradition that could eventually expand to include other cultural organizations across campus.

For Ngow, the turnout revealed a wider appetite for these cultural spaces, as the event drew not only Harvard affiliates, but members of the broader Boston Southeast Asian community.

“It was great having all of you here with smiles on your face,” he said.