{shortcode-db758afd399c71d1b544d8971003d0cd1eb42d3a}

Nearly 100 Harvard students and affiliates gathered in Lowell Lecture Hall Friday to watch eight undergraduates compete in “Mr. Asian Sensation,” a male pageant hosted by the Harvard-Radcliffe Chinese Students Association intended to fundraise for an Asian-focused charity.

Keagan H. Yap ’25, this year’s winner, said he will donate his $665 — raised in ticket sales — to APIAVote, a nonprofit he has volunteered for that promotes Asian American and Pacific Islander civic engagement.

Yap said he was pushed to enter the pageant by friends on CSA’s board who were “very encouraging and supportive” of him. “They told me that I should go for it my senior year. And I went for it,” he said.

Friday’s competition opened with a series of introductions in which the contestants were asked to tell their best pickup lines.

“Are you a camera? Because I can’t help but smile at you,” contestant Kevin M. Liu ’27 said.

In front of friends and families, the eight contestants then battled for the title in four rounds — a display of niche talents, a fashion show, a team trivia game, and a question-and-answer session with the audience. After the final round, the pageant’s organizers opened a Google form through which audience members could cast their votes.

In the talent portion, the participants performed a range of skills from comedy routines to card throwing to magic tricks.

Seiji K. Aoki ’28 solved a Rubik’s cube using only two pairs of chopsticks — an act that Angela A. Yang ’28, a host of the event, called “Asian to the max.” The crowd roared when he triumphantly left the stage, solved cube in hand.

Ian B. Kim ’28 sang a parody version of Frank Sinatra’s “The Girl From Ipanema” titled “The Girl From South Korea,” saying he “just had to spice it up a little bit.” Amav C. Khambete ’27 performed a Japanese rendition of “Let it Go,” to which the audience waved their cell phone flashlights.

In interviews after the event, several students said they appreciate the sense of belonging that Harvard’s Asian affinity groups like CSA provide. CSA Secretary Lily Song ’27 called the organization “a home for so many Chinese students and Asian students.”

Aoki said the inclusivity of Asian affinity groups at the College granted him “phenomenal” access to Asian culture.

“I grew up in Utah, a place with not a lot of Asian representation,” Aoki said. “Coming to Harvard and being able to access these big Asian affinity groups and communities has been one of the best things for me.”

“It’s very simple for me,” Yap said when asked what the pageant meant to him. “It’s a wonderful community and I’m very proud to be a part of it.”

Though the pageant was primarily a lighthearted night for the contestants and audience, several said they felt gratification for the event on a more personal level.

“One of my New Year’s resolutions was to be more flexible and go more out of my comfort zone,” Liu said. “I think I learned a lot from this.”

Contestants also said they hoped the diversity of the eight Mr. Asian Sensation hopefuls would help to dispel certain Asian stereotypes.

“We’re clearly not a homogeneous group, as you’ve just seen on stage right here,” Liu said. “We each have all of our unique personalities, our unique backgrounds that molded who we are today.”

In an interview after the event, contestant Ethan D. Nguyen ’28 said that YouTuber Ryan Higa — whose song Nguyen performed during the pageant as his talent — inspired him to think that “Asians can do whatever they want to do.”

“We’re not all model minorities, we’re not all pre-meds, and we’re not all good at math,” Nguyen said on stage after his performance concluded. “Trust me, I would know.”