The story
Wichita Asian Festival in Wichita
The Wichita Asian Festival is organized by the Wichita Asian Association, a nonprofit founded in August 1981 by four Asian community members seeking to promote cultural awareness and understanding of Asian cultures in the Wichita area. For more than four decades, the association has run the annual festival alongside academic scholarships and a Miss WAF scholarship pageant.
In August 1981, four members of Wichita's Asian community sat down to discuss forming an organization with a clear, four-part mission: to promote cultural awareness among the many distinct Asian communities in the region, to foster understanding and appreciation of Asian cultures among the broader Wichita public, to strengthen young people of Asian ancestry's connection to their cultural roots, and to create opportunities for expression through Asian cultural arts.