About 1 percent of students at Eastern are Asian, and that 1 percent is working together to educate students about the culture.

“It’s really good timing for EIU to expand its programs,” said Jinhee Lee, assistant professor of history and coordinator of the Asian studies minor.

For Kenny Bae, coming to Eastern was a shocking experience because it was not as diverse as he thought it would be.

“For a university I was surprised,” said Bae, a senior physics major.

Bae transferred to Eastern without researching the school and did not except to find that only 1 percent of students are Asian.

There are organizations on campus to bring the culture together and teach others about it as well.

The Asian American Association is one group, founded by students about five years ago, that encourages all students to learn about the culture.

“They are very proud of themselves and what they are doing for the university,” Lee said of the students.

In the past, AAA has had a tea ceremony at Tarble, gone to a Korean Film Festival in Champaign and learned how to use chopsticks.

“I’d like (students) to think about what you can do to expand your horizons,” Lee said.

Expanding horizons was the main message that Lee wanted to get across to the about 30 attendees at the University Board lecture “Asia in EIU, EIU in Asia.”

Although Lee does not like speaking in public, she was happy to do so Wednesday.

“I love speaking when I have a message to deliver,” she said.

Her message is that students should be more pro-active and informed about Asian culture.

Many students have contacted Lee asking about ways to learn about Asian culture and possibly learning to speak Japanese and Chinese.

“Somehow students realize the lack of education,” Lee said.

Lee helped to inform students and faculty of the relationship between Asians and Americans through photos, a clip from a film and facts from history.

She showed photos of the AAA members at the events and the clip was from the documentary “Fog of War,” which was about the Vietnam War.

Vietnam is one of the five wars in which the United States has fought in Asia.

There are five for sure that can be counted but depending on where you see Afghanistan, it could be six, Lee said.

Lee explained some patterns of the relationship between the United States and Asia, which include ignorance and racism.

There is ignorance because there is a gap between perception and reality especially because most students in K-12, and sometimes in college, do not learn about Asian cultures, Lee said.

Racism exists partly because there is a lack of mutual respect, Lee said.

The history Lee explained opened the eyes of many attendees.

“I guess I have been kind of naive of Americans view toward Asia and the Asian perspective of the U.S.,” said Tristan Sodergren-Baar, a junior history major.

Sodergren-Baar attended the event because Lee is his professor but also he is interested in Asian culture and an active member of AAA.

Because of the photos shown by Lee and hearing of the experiences of people who have been to Asia made Sodergren-Baar interested in going there to teach.

One person who went to China to teach is Dana Blumthal, 24, who graduated from Eastern in December 2004 with a degree in history.

In a recent email she wrote to Lee, Blumthal said, “I wanted to go to a place that was so completely different from the (United States).”