The Taiwanese Affinity Group (TAG) hosted a night market at Castilleja last Friday, featuring cultural activities and lots of homemade food.
A staple of Taiwanese culture, night markets are known for their street food and vibrant atmosphere. Students flooded the center of campus after school was dismissed, with food stalls lining the Circle featuring everything from fresh noodles and steamed pork buns to tanghulu and bubble tea.
“Getting a chance to expose my friends and peers to a different culture was really important and personal to me,” Katherine Cheng ’26 said.
Chloe Cheng ’27 echoed this sentiment: “TAG is a really meaningful place for all the Taiwanese students here at Castilleja.”
For Kailee Kuan ’25, co-lead and co-founder of Casti TAG, the highlight of the event was “making it all come true.” Collaborating with the ACE Center and the maintenance team, TAG put together this night market to close out their first year as an affinity group on campus.
“The whole idea behind this event was to bring more awareness to TAG. Because we’re a new affinity group, we wanted to make sure we marked our presence on campus,” Kuan said. “So I hope people learned about what our community is and what type of culture we have.”
From painting colorful banners to cooking and bringing food from their own homes, TAG members all pitched in to make the event a huge success.
“We all definitely got a lot closer through the planning process,” Isabelle Chen ’27 said. “Setting up in half an hour was a challenge, but we got it done with help from Chinese+ and KASA members who volunteered, even with middle school flag football being on the Circle at the same time.”
Music, face paint and games such as darts and ring toss also helped make the night market come to life. “We had so many ideas of what we wanted to do—lots of games and other activities—so narrowing it down was difficult,” Kuan added.
Kuan hopes that students look forward to more night markets in future years, building on the success of this event and the vibrant community it has helped cultivate at Castilleja.
