Brown Taiwan Society hosted its annual Night Market last Saturday, bringing together cultural student organizations and performance clubs for an evening of food and entertainment.
Inspired by traditional night markets in Taiwan, BTS hosts the event in Sayles Hall and welcomes hundreds of students every year. According to Brian Kao ’26, the secretary of BTS, traditional Taiwanese night markets typically feature games, street food and shopping. He emphasized that an important part of the markets is gathering people together.
This year, twelve student cultural organizations — including the Brown Chinese Student Association, the Thai Students Association and the Korean American Student Association — sold traditional foods at booths arranged throughout the market. Four performance groups entertained the crowd.
Wei Yang Chan ’26, a member of Brown University Merlions, participated in the Night Market by selling pulut hitam, a popular Southeast Asian glutinous rice dish. Chan said he enjoyed buying mango lassi from the South Asian Students' Association and lu rou fan, a braised pork rice dish at the market.
BTS Co-President Lauren Chiu ’25 said that BTS hosted more than 700 students at this year’s market — an increase of about 100 from last year. Preparations for the event involved consistent communication with the Student Activities Office, coordination with more than a dozen student organizations and budget planning that began back in October.
Chiu said that, during the preparations, she looked forward to sharing Taiwanese culture with other communities through food. “I think food is a really good vehicle to introduce people to a culture,” which is one of BTS’s core values, she added.
“As someone who’s now away from home, I feel like it’s a mission and a dream to make something homey on campus,” Kao, an international student from Taiwan, said.
He continued, sharing that the night markets of Taiwan are an essential part of his childhood memories. Kao said that it is exciting for him to see the larger Brown community attend the Night Market and enjoy Taiwanese culture through food and performance.
