Pitt Players present[ed] The Yellow Jacket.

From 1942's The Owl, the University of Pittsburgh's yearbook (via Documenting Pittsburgh).

Around this time in 1941, the Pitt Players opened their season with "the delightful Chinese fantasy" The Yellow Jacket.

In line with the Players' policy of producing at least one experimental drama each year, Mr. Whitehill chose this allegorical satire of the Oriental theatre convention. Over make-believe mountains, across imaginary rivers, through mythical snow storms, Woo Hoo Git (John Reid) made his way in search of his lost heritage. Fantastic spiders did not daunt him, nor were the temptations of beautiful women in "the flowery paths of pleasant ways" enough to turn him from his quest. The play was comparable to an Oriental Our Town . . . The play was more than amusingly novel, and the Players presented it admirably.

A 2010 Theater Journal article, "Trying on The Yellow Jacket: Performing Chinese Exclusion and Assimilation", goes into the contemporary politics and modern interpretations of the play, which not surprisingly didn't age well.

Jackie Chan movie CZ12 (十二生肖) at the Waterfront.

The Hong Kong movie CZ12 (十二生肖) was released in the US on October 18 and is playing in Pittsburgh at the AMC Loews Waterfront. It stars Jackie Chan and was, until this year, the second-highest grossing Chinese-language movie in China. Hong Kong's South China Morning Post summarizes:

Reprising the adventurer/thief role he first played in 1987's Armour of God, JC (the character's name) is hired to steal animal head relics that once were displayed in the Summer Palace in Beijing. Along the way, he encounters a greedy collector (Oliver Platt) forging fakes, bumbling and accident-prone French folks, some pirates, and a beautiful antique activist (Yao Xingtong) who gets him to grow a conscience.

A cursory glance around the internet shows mostly poor reviews, though, including the SCMP's, which calls the movie "sad and sorry" and writes "CZ12 is like watching a former star athlete struggle in a meaningless game."

Showtimes for today and Thursday are 2:10‎, ‎4:40‎, ‎7:20‎, and 9:55pm‎, with 11:05am‎ and ‎4:35pm‎ on Friday and Saturday.

Grave of the Fireflies and My Neighbor Totoro among four Asian movies at Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Film Festival.

The Three Rivers Film Festival, which runs in Pittsburgh from November 8 through November 23, announced their schedule of films today, a lineup that includes four Asian movies and one Lao-language film. The four are the classic Japanese animated films My Neighbor Totoro (となりのトトロ) and Grave of the Fireflies (火垂るの墓), China's A Touch of Sin (天注定), and Singapore's Ilo Ilo (爸妈不在家). Schedules are available online, and we'll have more detailed posts on the movies in the next two weeks. (No, Grave of the Fireflies and My Neighbor Totoro will not be shown back-to-back, as they often are.)

Panel discussion "Political and Economic Trilateralism in Northeast Asia: The Future of Relations Between China, Japan, and Korea" at Pitt, October 24.

From the University of Pittsburgh Asian Studies Center Facebook page.

On October 24, the University of Pittsburgh Asian Studies Center will host "Political and Economic Trilateralism in Northeast Asia: The Future of Relations Between China, Japan, and Korea" at 12:30 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (campus map).

Hong Kong movie A Simple Life at Clarion University Venango College, October 26.

On the 26th, Clarion University's Venango College will show A Simple Life (桃姐), the 2012 Hong Kong movie that's part of the school's Independent Film Series. Dramacrazy provides a summary likely plagiarized from elsewhere:

A solemn yet humorous exploration of seniority, the film tells a bittersweet story revolving around the lives of elderly maid Sister Tao and her master, played respectively by veteran actress Deanie Ip and superstar Andy Lau, whose past screen collaborations serve to inspire enormous chemistry between their characters. Their impeccable performances have earned numerous prestigious prizes for the film, including Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival, Best Director, Actor, and Actress at the Golden Horse Awards, and the rare feat of the Big Five (Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Actor, and Actress) at the Hong Kong Film Awards. Sister Tao (Deanie Ip) has served five generations of the Leung family since she was thirteen. Today, at over seventy years old, she continues to take care of Roger (Andy Lau), the only member of the family left in Hong Kong. After suffering a stroke at home one day, Tao realizes it's about time she retired, so she asks Roger to find her a nursing home for rehabilitation. Tao struggles to adjust to the strange new environment as well as her eccentric fellow inmates, but Roger is there to care for this mother figure who has devoted her life to his.

The movie runs from 7:00 to 8:30 pm and is held at the Robert W. Rhoades Center. The Venango College campus is held on the outskirts of Oil City, PA (map), and over the years has shown a number of foreign movies not often seen around here.

Greenfield's Beautiful World Variety Store closing at the end of the year.

Beautiful World Variety Store, at the corner of Murray and Hazelwood Ave. in Greenfield (map), is closing at the end of the year, according to the owner. It has some neat Asian knick-knacks, as well as, um, a variety of other things: greeting cards, jeans, wigs, cleaning products, and lucky bamboo. Everything is on sale prior to the December 31 closing, so that may mean a run on $1.00 Chinese grandparent bobbleheads.

Chang-jin Lee's "Comfort Women Wanted" at Wood Street Galleries, November 1 through December 1.

Chang-jin Lee's "Comfort Women Wanted" will run at the Wood Street Galleries downtown from November 1 through December 1 (map). A profile of the exhibition on the galleries' website:

Comfort Women Wanted exposes the fates of nearly 200,000 young women who were exploited as sex slaves by the Imperial Japanese Army in Asia during World War II. The artist uses the remembrance of these “comfort women”—some of whom are still alive today—to increase awareness of sexual violence against women during wartime.

“In Asia, the comfort women issue remains taboo and controversial, while at the same time, it is almost unknown in the West,” says artist Chang-Jin Lee. “The comfort women system is the largest case of human trafficking in the 20th century. Human trafficking is the fastest growing industry in the world, and the second largest business after arms dealing in the 21st century. So, the comfort women issue is not just about the past, but it is very relevant today.”

"Comfort Women Wanted" features both video and print works, and additional information is available on the artist's website. Lee's work was last in Pittsburgh in June when her "Floating Echo" was under a bridge at the Three Rivers Arts Festival.

Nakama voted "Best Japanese" by Pittsburgh City Paper readers again.

Today the Pittsburgh City Paper released the results of their 2013 "Best of Pittsburgh" readers' poll, with Nakama winning in the "Best Japanese" category.

The art of hibachi has taken off in Pittsburgh, thanks in no small part to Nakama. Diners sit grill-side as chefs prepare shrimp, chicken and delicacies like Kobe beef and chateaubriand. Also on the menu is a selection of sake, noodles and starters. If you want to avoid the show, you can order the full menu at tables by the bar.

Nakama won last year, too, and in 2008, 2009, and 2011. Little Tokyo and Fukuda came in second and third place, respectively. Nakama was also voted "Best Sushi". Kiku, Chaya, and Teppanyaki Kyoto---favorites of this blog and among local Japanese---didn't place in any category. Nicky's Thai Kitchen was voted Best Thai and Sesame Inn was voted Best Chinese, those two also repeat winners from 2012.

Maz receives enthusiastic welcome.

연광적환영 받는 결승.

The Dong-A Ilbo covers the Pittsburgh Pirates' World Series victory on October 15, 1960. If you are interested in 20th-century Korean history but are easily prone to getting lost for days in old newspapers, avoid Naver's "News Library" archive.

Squirrel Hill Magazine profiles Chaya.

The Fall 2013 issue of the quarterly Squirrel Hill Magazine has a profile on Chaya, a restaurant on Murray Ave. considered by Japanese in Pittsburgh to have the best Japanese food in the city. In addition to the usual background information, the piece alludes to owner Fumio Yasuzawa's hobby of collecting material for a Japanese cultural center here.

Yasuzawa is now focused on building his Japanese book collection. Hundreds of volumes, along with Japanese movie DVDs, line rows of metal shelves in Chaya’s basement. He hopes to someday make the collection widely available, perhaps as part of a Pittsburgh Japanese cultural center.