Introduction to Mandarin at Shaler Library, from June 16.

Shaler North Hills Library (map) will host a free, three-session Introduction to Mandarin Chinese on June 16, 23, and 30.

Presented by Teresa Blum and Joy Xu, native speakers of Mandarin Chinese. The instructors will introduce pinyin, tones, and numbers. They will also introduce the use of learning with the Mango language database.

The sessions run from 10:30 to 11:30 am in the conference room. Registration is required and can be made by calling 412-486-0211.

Korean movie The Front Line (고지전) at Parkway Theater, June 16.

The Parkway Theater in McKees Rocks will show the 2011 Korean film The Front Line (고지전) on June 16 as the second installment of this summer's "Asian Movie Madness". A summary from a 2012 A.V. Club review:

Jang Hun’s pulpy military thriller The Front Line is set during the waning days of the Korean War, as the commanders know they’re about to hammer out a truce, but the grunts in the field are still shooting at each other, under orders to seize as much territory as possible, for added leverage at the bargaining table. Shin Ha-Kyun plays a lieutenant sent to the Aerok Hills to file a report on a ragtag company where discipline is slack, and where an officer has recently turned up dead with a South Korean bullet in his brain, possibly at the hand of a rumored North Korean mole. When Shin arrives, he finds war orphans milling about, a baby-faced CO shooting up morphine, and soldiers wearing North Korean uniforms over their own to keep warm. In short, the lines between ally and enemy have long since been blurred, and these men are now fighting to survive long enough to see the peace they’ve been promised for years.

The movie starts at 7:00 pm and is free, as are all Asian Movie Madness films, which are held on the third Thursday of the month. The theater is located at 644 Broadway Ave. in McKees Rocks (map), a few miles west of the North Side.

"Storytime: Japanese and English" at Carnegie Library in East Liberty, June 16.

The Carnegie Library in East Liberty will host "Storytime: Japanese and English" on Tuesday, June 16.

Celebrate our city's diverse culture as we explore new words through songs, action rhymes and stories in both English and Japanese. For children ages 2-5 and their parents or caregivers.

The event runs from 11:00 to 11:30 am, and the library is located at 130 S. Whitfield Street (map).

Oakland's Sichuan Gourmet to have Sichuan menu, spicier dishes.

The Pitt News, the University of Pittsburgh's student-run newspaper, has an article today on two restaurants opening on Atwood St. One is the new location of Sichuan Gourmet, which has been in Squirrel Hill for several years and will open a new restaurant in what was formerly India Garden. On what will help distinguish Sichuan Gourmet from the several other Chinese places in the area, co-owner Wei Yu tells the paper:

While his original location in Squirrel Hill has both Sichuan and American menus, Yu said his second location in Oakland will only have a Sichuan menu, to set itself apart from other Chinese restaurants in the neighborhood.

“The other restaurants are totally different,” he said. “They are tailored to American [tastes]. If you taste our food and compare to their food, you will find that the taste is not the same.”

The main difference, he said, is that his food will be much spicier.

“People from different parts of China have different tastes,” he said. “In east China, people eat sweeter foods. The sauce is more spicy in Sichuan.”

Jackie Chan movie Police Story: Lockdown (警察故事2013) at Parkway Theater in McKees Rocks, June 5 - 7.

The Jackie Chan movie Police Story: Lockdown (警察故事2013) will play at the Parkway Theater in McKees Rocks from June 5 through June 7. The movie was released in China in 2013, but will be released internationally on June 5. A plot summary from a Variety review:

Police captain Zhong (Chan) is called to an aggressively hip underground club by daughter Miaomiao (Jing Tian), who walked out on him six months earlier. Finding her dangling from the arm of owner Wu Jiang (Liu Ye, “The Last Supper”), whose diabolical grin and tank of pet piranhas are the epitome of shady, Zhong launches the first of his many self-righteous lectures — on Miaomiao’s goth getup, her tattoos and her dodgy b.f. — but she lashes back, blaming his workaholic ways for her mother’s untimely death. They are interrupted by a suicide-bomb crisis, which turns out to be just a prelude to the real trouble: Wu has lured everyone to his hive in an elaborate kidnapping plan.

According to Facebook, the movie will start at 7:00 pm on June 5, at 6:00 pm on June 6, and at 5:00 pm on June 7. The theater is located at 644 Broadway Ave. in McKees Rocks (map), a few miles west of the North Side.

Chinese language program for kids at Carnegie Library in Oakland continues in June.

The Carnegie Library Oakland branch will host "Let's learn Chinese" programs for children each Thursday in June.

Experience Chinese language and culture through books, storytelling, songs, games and more!

The programs are led by Kasper Hwa, who earned a Master's of Education from Pitt this spring. They run from 6:30 to 7:00 pm in the Children's section on the first floor. The programs have been running since February, and I apologize for the late notice. Q_Q

North Allegheny hires Sanshiro Abe as new wrestling coach.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes today about North Allegheny's hiring of Sanshiro Abe as its new wrestling coach. The news actually came out in April, and Abe won't "come to town" as he was the coach at Oakland's Central Catholic High School since 2008. He wrestled collegiately at Penn State, but was born in Tokyo and competed for Japan at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Author Robert Yune at Carnegie Library in Oakland, June 17.

Robert Yune, a University of Pittsburgh professor and author of the forthcoming novel Eighty Days of Sunlight, will speak at the Carnegie Library in Oakland on June 17 as part of its Writers LIVE series.

Robert Yune’s debut novel, Eighty Days of Sunlight, comprises “equal parts hilarity and heartbreak in an accomplished debut,” said Kirkus (4/15). The story follows a young Korean-American man who struggles to come to terms with his cultural identity and dysfunctional working-class family. Yune’s stories have been published in the The Kenyon Review, The Los Angeles Review, and Avery, among others. He lives and teaches writing in Pittsburgh.

A book signing follows the program with copies of the author's books available from Mystery Lovers Bookshop.

The event runs from 6:00 to 7:00 pm in the Quiet Reading Room on the library's first floor. Tickets are free, but registration is required and can be done online or by calling 412.622.8866.

Umami Pgh pop-up event, June 1.

June 1 menu, via @umamipgh

Umami is an izakaya---Japanese pub---planned to open in Lawrenceville this August. Monday, June 1, will be the first pop-up preview of it in the neighborhood.

Roger Li is teaming up with Grapperia in Lawrenceville for his first event in an ongoing series to give Pittsburgh a taste of whats to come when the doors open for his new restaurant Umami Pgh, an Izakaya in the heart of Lawrenceville.

The event starts at 4:00 pm, and Grapperia is located at 3801 Butler St. (map).

15 Chinese nationals indicted in Pittsburgh in student visa fraud scheme.

The Department of Justice announced today that 15 Chinese nationals have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh "on charges of conspiracy, counterfeiting foreign passports, mail fraud and wire fraud".

According to the indictment, between 2011 and 2015, the defendants engaged in a conspiracy and a scheme to defraud Educational Testing Services (ETS) and the College Board by having imposters take college and graduate school standardized entrance examinations, such as the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). In carrying out the scheme, the conspirators had counterfeit Chinese passports made and sent to the United States, which were used by the imposters to defraud ETS administrators into believing that they were other people, namely the conspirators who would receive the benefit of the imposter’s test score for use at American colleges and universities. The majority of the fraudulent exams taken by the conspirators were taken in western Pennsylvania.

“The perpetrators of this conspiracy were using fraudulent passports for the purpose of impersonating test takers of standardized tests including the SAT, GRE and TOEFL and thereby securing fraudulently obtained admissions to American institutions of higher education and circumventing the F1 Student Visa requirements,” stated U.S. Attorney Hickton. “This case establishes that we will protect the integrity of our passport and visa process, as well as safeguard the national asset of our higher education system from fraudulent access.”