Chinese Nationality Room at Pitt turns 75 today.

The Chinese Nationality Room in the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning turns 75 today. The room was dedicated on October 6, 1939, and the photograph above is from the University of Pittsburgh Historic Photographs Collection.

A City of Asylum house on Sampsonia Way (map), North Side. More information about "House Poem" from City of Asylum.

Japanese tea ceremony demonstrations in western PA on October 9, 11, 18.

There are several Japanese tea ceremony demonstrations scheduled for western Pennsylvania in October.

Indiana University of Pennsylvania's Japanese program will host Tea Culture in Japan ceremony on October 9. The cost is $1, and the 90-minute program consists of:

* Talk about modern Tea culture in Japan
* How to brew Sencha (hands-on, they are going to bring 10 pots so teachers can try)
* Play songs about tea (Zui zui zukkorobashi, and Chatsumi)
* Tea farming (ppt)
* Chakabuki (tea tasting game). Taste five different kinds of tea and guess their names
* History of tea (including Chinese tea presentation)
* Baisa-ryu school Sencha Tea ceremony

Presenters Fumiyo Iwadachi and Ami Nishiyama are coming from Handa City near Nagoya, Japan. Nishiyama also has a Chinese tea master license along with a Baisa-ryu school Sencha license. She will perform Chinese tea ceremony when they talk about the history of tea.

The program runs from 10:20 am to 11:50 am in the HUB's Monongahela Room (campus map). Reservations can be made by emailing Dr. Yong-Taek Kim yt.kim at iup.edu.

The Japan America Society of Pennsylvania is presenting two Tea Culture in Japan presentations in the Pittsburgh area on October 11. The first is from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm at the Way Wellness Center in Fox Chapel (map). The second is from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm at Mookshi Wellness Center (map) in Regent Square. Registration is required for the events and can be done so at the JASP website. The cost is $10 for JASP members and Japanese language teachers, and $20 for general admission.



The Maridon Museum in Butler (map) will also host a Traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony on November 18 at 12:30 pm. The cost is $25, and reservations are required and can be made by calling 724-282-0123.

Nikki Lee at Carnegie Mellon University School of Art, October 14.

From "The Hispanic Project".

Carnegie Mellon University's School of Art will host Korean photographer and filmmaker Nikki Lee on October 14 as part of its Fall 2014 Art Lecture Series. The school profiles Lee:

She received a broad education at institutions including the Fashion Institute of Technology, Chung-Ang University, and New York University. Lee became known early for her “Projects” series, in which she insinuated herself into subcultural groups, working for two to three months to be accepted in each social group. The varied groups of people included seniors, Hispanics, swingers, yuppies, lesbians, and others. For each project, Lee changed what she wore, where she shopped, and how she presented herself. In her recent series “Parts,” Lee curates scenes of herself with a significant other showing intimate dynamics and details of a relationship, then physically cuts her partner out of each printed photograph.

More on Lee in a (now somewhat dated) 2007 KoreAm cover story.

The lecture starts at 5:00 pm in Kresge Theater (map), and is free and open to the public.

"Music and Dance of West Java: The Past, Present, and Future of Sundanese Performing Arts" at Pitt, October 11.

The University of Pittsburgh Department of Music will present "Music and Dance of West Java: The Past, Present, and Future of Sundanese Performing Arts" on October 11, to celebrate the new agreement between Pitt and a visiting Indonesian performing arts school.

Musicians and dancers from the Indonesian College of Performing Arts (STSI) in Bandung, Indonesia will present an evening of vocal music, instrumental music, and dance. The performers will explore a broad range of cultural expressions from the ancient aristocratic tembang Sunda Cianjuran (Sundanese vocal poetry accompanied by zither and flute) to the ebullient music of bamboo instruments and the popular jaipongan dance that thrilled audiences in the 1980s.

The performance starts at 8:00 pm in the Bellefield Hall auditorium (map) and is free and open to the public.

Yesterday, the university announced a Memorandum of Understanding between it and the Indonesian College of Performing Arts to be signed on October 10.

Department of Music Chair Andrew Weintraub, who has collaborated on projects with the Indonesian College for 30 years, says the partnership will bring about an exchange of students and creative artists and will enhance the exploration and understanding of Sundanese culture and performing arts, a core strength of Pitt's ethnomusicology program.

"Stronger relationships lead to better understanding of cultural diversity, and vice versa," he said. "A formal agreement between Pitt and the Indonesian College will facilitate better communication between the two schools. Our goal is to generate collaborative research projects, a student exchange at the graduate and undergraduate levels, and, eventually, the development of a Pitt in Indonesia study abroad program."

Chinese language and culture class in Fox Chapel resumes October 9.

The Thursday evening Chinese Language and Culture class at Fox Chapel Area High School (map) resumes October 9.

Whether for travel, business, or fun, join us and learn useful phrases and fascinating information about Chinese language, culture and holiday celebrations from an American who lived in Taiwan for 17 years. In this interactive class, practice simple dialogs and sample traditional Chinese snacks like moon cakes.

The class runs each Thursday from 7:00 to 8:00 pm through November 13. The cost is $24 for Fox Chapel residents and $29 for everyone else. Registration information is found online.

Pitt signs MOU with Indonesian College of Performing Arts.

The University of Pittsburgh today announced a collaboration with the Indonesian College of Performing Arts,

launching a partnership designed to further the two schools' common objectives of research and study in the field of Indonesian music and culture.

From the university release:

Department of Music Chair Andrew Weintraub, who has collaborated on projects with the Indonesian College for 30 years, says the partnership will bring about an exchange of students and creative artists and will enhance the exploration and understanding of Sundanese culture and performing arts, a core strength of Pitt's ethnomusicology program.

"Stronger relationships lead to better understanding of cultural diversity, and vice versa," he said. "A formal agreement between Pitt and the Indonesian College will facilitate better communication between the two schools. Our goal is to generate collaborative research projects, a student exchange at the graduate and undergraduate levels, and, eventually, the development of a Pitt in Indonesia study abroad program."

Expect a post here shortly on the October 11 performance "Music and Dance of West Java: The Past, Present, and Future of Sundanese Performing Arts" at Pitt, hosted by the Department of Music.

Korean Conversation Club at IUP, Tuesday afternoons.

Indiana University of Pennsylvania now hosts a weekly Korean Conversation Club. "Learn Korean Through K-Pop, K-Drama, and More" said the department release that advertised the first meeting on September 23.

The Korean Conversation Club meets every Tuesday afternoon. The club is open to beginners as well as to the public.

The next meeting is October 7. The class runs from 4:00 to 5:00 pm in 103 Wallwork Hall (map). Korean is currently offered at IUP as a Critical Language, in less-formal tutoring sessions led by graduate students or other native Korean speakers.

Japanese short "The Great Rabbit (グレートラビット )" part of Ann Arbor Film Festival tour stop in Oakland, October 3 and 4.

Trailer.

The seven-and-a-half minute short "The Great Rabbit (グレートラビット )" by Atsushi Wada is among the short films that comprise the Ann Arbor Film Festival, which makes a stop in Pittsburgh on October 3 and 4.

Once we called the noble, profound and mysterious existence The Great. We have moved with the time, our thought and consciousness has changed. And yet what makes us still keep calling it The Great?

The short films will be shown at the Melwood Screening Room in Oakland (map) as part of Pittsburgh's RADical Days. "The Great Rabbit" is part of Program B, which runs on Friday the 3rd at 9:15 pm and Saturday the 4th at 7:30 pm. Admission is free.

Chinese film Shower (洗澡) at Maridon Museum, October 9.

The Maridon Museum will show the 1999 Chinese film Shower (洗澡) on October 9. A 2000 Robert Ebert review summarizes:

The customers of the bathhouse in "Shower" hardly seem to spend any time anywhere else. The old men are there from morning to night, bathing, soaking, being rubbed, playing cards and staging fights to the death with their pet crickets (one feeds ant eggs to his champion; his opponent accuses him of using "steroids"). Master Liu has run this bathhouse since time immemorial and brushes off his son's suggestions that he retire: "I've done this all of my life and I like doing it!" The son is Da Ming, a successful businessman who lives in a distant city, but has returned because of an alarming postcard he received from his retarded brother Er Ming. The postcards seem to indicate that old Liu is dead or dying, but in fact Liu is presiding, as he has for decades, over the closed world of the bathhouse, where steam and ancient customs wall out the changing ways of modern Beijing.

The movie starts at 6:00 pm and is presented by Dr. Armand Policicchio, an Associate Professor of Asian Studies at Slippery Rock University. The Maridon, an Asian art museum that periodically shows Asian movies, is located at 322 North McKean St in downtown Butler (map), roughly 40 miles north of Pittsburgh.