Sorority Sister. Net-Asian sorority interview

When I was asked if I knew Asian sororities existed I was kind of at a loss. I assumed they did. A site visitor shared some info but she wanted to remain anonymous. Her interview is pretty cool. She is the member of a popular Asian sorority but she decided that she would like to stay anonymous. I don't plan to do this (anonymous interview) often, but her interview is cool, and I know who she is and she's legit.

1.MTV used to have a popular series named Sorority Life. Do you think they would ever feature an Asian sorority on the show?
I don't think that MTV would do that just because of the nature of these sororities. First of all, most of the Asian sororities have much a smaller number of active members in each chapter. Usually it's less than thirty people. The MTV series tends to pick groups that have close to 80 actives because there's more tension and drama. With a big group like that it's hard for people to be close to each other hence the anxiety. The smaller size would be hard to play on for them. Plus there are fewer chapters with houses than social sororities. I think it'd be interesting to show that cultural sororities are distinctly different than their social counterparts. It's not all about parties; it's not all about guys. I think that it would be nice if MTV decided to help break that stereotype but I know that it'd be hard for them to market the idea

2.Can you name some of the popular Asian sororities?
Sure. Because the interest for Asian sororities is hard to find at small schools, there's a lot of competition between the sororities for potential rushes. Even so, there are plenty of Unity events and parties to get the sororities to get to know each other better. For instance, there was a 4th of July *Unity* party in NYC this year hosted by five Asian sororities in order to promote. The largest at the moment is alpha Kappa Delta Phi (aKDPhi). They were founded on the west coast in the late 80's- early 90's. One of the oldest Asian interest sororities was founded in the 1930's and was originally for women who wanted to be teachers. That one, Sigma Omicron Pi (SOPi), was forced to disband for several years during the Japanese internment and were recently started up again in California. Chi Alpha Delta was also started on the West Coast in 1929, bragging right for the oldest Asian American sorority. Kappa Phi Lambda (Kappa) started at SUNY Binghampton in the mid-nineties and are currently expanding through the Midwest. Sigma Psi Zeta, Delta Phi Lambda, Delta Chi Lambda, Sigma Alpha Phi, Chi Sigma Phi and Sigma Lambda Kappa have been founded since then and are smaller organizations in general.

3.Why do you think more people aren't aware of the existence of Asian sororities?
I think that many aren't aware of Asian interest sororities because a lot of them are so new on the college scene. Mid-80s and nineties isn't going to have the same campus appearance as the social organizations that have been around since the 1800s. Also, they aren't at every school. A lot of these sororities are at schools with big campuses, a larger Asian population. The smaller, mainly Caucasian private schools don't have enough interest in this type of organization so it's hard to get the word around.

4.Are there Asian fraternities? Do the Asian fraternities and sororities have a sense of family and camaraderie?
There are definitely plenty of Asian frats though I can only name three off the top of my head. The largest- Lambda Phi Epsilon (LPhiE)- was actually founded at the same school as alpha Kappa Delta Phi and they participated in pledging in their founding mothers. Lambda Phi Epsilon is of similar size to aKDPhi and they have their national conventions together every year. Lambdas recently became an international organization when they inducted brothers in Toronto. Pi Delta Psi (PDPsi) was founded at SUNY Binghampton in the mid-nineties. Coincidentally, Kappa Phi Lambda (a sorority) was also founded there in 1995. Pi Delta Psi is more on the East coast. Xi Kappa, Alpha Xi Omega, Omega Sigma Tau, Nu Phi Alpha and Beta Theta Chi are smaller Asian or South East Asian interest fraternities. There are also Indian organizations such as Iota Nu Delta (IND). And yes, we love the Asian frats and they love us. We always have parties and mixers together. I know one of our chapters had three mixers in the same week with the same frat! Like I said before, LPhiE and aKDPhi have their national conventions together. Last year PDPsi and Kappas had their conventions together as well. You can always except to see sorors at brotherhood rallies and you'll see the boys wearing their letter jersey's at our parties. Part of these connections is that the Asian population is usually close-knit any ways. It's people's friends from back home, from elementary school. I know my big sis grew up in Korea and ended up knowing LPhiE brothers from down the block. Any ways, we hold a lot of group events together, participate in Lip Sync/ step shows together, show off strolls and whatnot. Another part of this might be the pressure from families to meet a nice Asian boy and settle down. One of my pledge sisters only wants to marry a Catholic Korean doctor. So hanging out has 'other' reasons too! hehe.

5.Do Asian sororities often let other minorities join the groups?
They are always open to allowing women of other races to join. Usually white women will join Asian sororities while finding Hispanic/ African sorors is much more rare. I am not sure why this is. We have always tried to rush everyone but, in the end, it is hard to explain to other women that Asian *interest* is not exclusive. It means only that our work benefits Asian women- not that we aren't interested in other cultures. The fraternities have much better luck with finding interest. They have many Caucasian, black, Hispanic, Indian brothers who try to get others to join because of the sense of camaraderie. LPhiE has almost a whole chapter of Caucasian brothers as well as some very outgoing African brothers on the East Coast.

6. Do Asian families value sorority/fraternity involvement?
The problem with a lot of Asian families is that sorors are first generation. Their parents came over to the USA anywhere between a year to three decades ago. This leaves girls with parents that are unfamiliar with the idea of a sorority or fraternity. They believe it's a cult or it's just a group of friends when, in reality, Greek life is something completely different from both conceptions. I know that my mother didn't know what a sorority was. And my dad was too much better because he believed that I was going to become a raving drunken whore like he'd seen in several movies. There's actually a running joke that we should make the national site into every Asian language so that our parents would understand us. The parents who do understand are much more supportive of the cultural groups than the social ones. They are comforted that their kids have grown up respecting their heritage instead of simply adopting the American way of life.