"MEPPI Japan Lecture Series – U.S.-Japan Relations from a U.S. Government Perspective", downtown on January 21.

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania will host Joseph Young and his talk "U.S.-Japan Relations from a U.S. Government Perspective" on January 21.

Chinese New Year Celebration: Year of the Monkey at Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, February 7.

The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh will hold "Chinese New Year Celebration: Year of the Monkey" on Sunday, February 7.

In ancient times, Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on Chinese New Year. Twelve came, and Buddha named a year after each one. Come celebrate the Chinese year 4714, the year of the Monkey, with Silk Screen Asian Arts and Culture Organization. Make art, enjoy live music, and join the Steel Dragon Lion Dance Team for a parade through the Museum for the finale!

The celebration runs from 1:00 to 4:00 pm and is free with museum admission ($14 for adults, $13 for kids aged 2 through 18, and free for infants under 2). The museum is located at 10 Children's Way on the Northside (map).

More information about Squirrel Hill Lunar New Year 2016 events in February.

Via Uncover Squirrel Hill.

In December the first Squirrel Hill Lunar New Year 2016 celebration was announced, and more information about the two weeks of festivities was recently made available online.

The events begin on Saturday, February 6 with the Kick-Off Celebration at the Jewish Community Center (map). From the Uncover Squirrel Hill website:

Bring the entire family to experience this celebration of Chinese and Asian cultures! Enjoy performances by Steel Dragon Lion Dancers, Taiko Drummers, HaiHua Chinese Youth Orchestra, Korean Children’s Choir, Dong Yum Doe Korean Martial Arts, and many more. Watch and learn with demonstrations of origami, dumpling making, and calligraphy. You’ll also find plenty of crafts for the kids, including making paper lanterns. This event is free; food will be available for purchase.

The event runs from 1:00 to 5:00 pm. A Lunar New Year Dining Passport that offers 10% off participating Chinese and Asian restaurants in the area will also be available on the 6th.

Other events throughout the celebration include a Children's Celebration at the at the Carnegie Library in Squirrel Hill on February 10, a Teen Time Celebration at the Carnegie Library in Squirrel Hill on February 16th, and a Lunar New Year parade down Murray Ave. on February 21. More information is on the Uncover Squirrel Hill site.

Organization of Chinese Americans [OCA] Youth Lion & Yoyo Team at Carnegie Library in Oakland, January 24.

via the OCA Pittsburgh Facebook page.

The Carnegie Library in Oakland will host the OCA Youth Lion & Yoyo Team on January 24 as part of its World Kaleidoscope series.

2016 movie Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu (傷物語Ⅰ 鉄血篇) at Hollywood Theater, from February 27.

The Hollywood Theater in Dormont recently announced that it will show the 2016 Japanese animated movie Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu (傷物語Ⅰ 鉄血篇) from February 27.

"The Vanished Capital and the Vanished Poet: Landscape and Poetry in the Noh Tadanori" at Pitt, January 20.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Dr. Elizabeth Oyler of the University of Illinois-Urbana at Champaign and her talk "The Vanished Capital and the Vanished Poet: Landscape and Poetry in the Noh Tadanori" on January 20. A synopsis, from the Asian Studies Center homepage:

Taira Tadanori is among the most famous heroes from the Genpei War (1180-1185), the divisive civil conflict that brought Japan’s first warrior government to power. Renowned both as a poet and a man of arms, Tadanori is commemorated in the epic war tale recounting the conflict, The Tale of the Heike (Heike monogatari), as well as several noh plays, including the eponymous Tadanori. This presentation addresses the way that play meditates Tadanori’s dual identity as a warrior-poet and explores the poetic and battlefield landscapes that define him, demonstrating how language and place reveal hidden, traumatic absences.

The talk begins at 2:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map), and is free and open to the public.

"Informal Education and Cultural Transmission through Uyghur Language Websites" at Pitt, January 20.

The University of Pittsburgh's Institute for International Studies in Education in the School of Education will host Dr. Rebecca Clothey of Drexel University and her lecture "Informal Education and Cultural Transmission through Uyghur Language Websites" on Wednesday, January 20.

Pan Izakaya to open this spring.

The new Shadyside izakaya we wrote about on Sunday will be called Pan Izakaya, according to today's Post-Gazette profile.

The 50-seat restaurant will be the latest venture from Mike Chen, longtime Pittsburgh restaurateur behind the innovative Everyday Noodles in Squirrel Hill, China Palace in Wexford and Monroeville as well as Sushi Too in Shadyside.

“Pittsburgh is ready for this,” he said. With more Pittsburghers destination-dining around the U.S. and the world, they’re bringing home expectations for the kinds of restaurants they’re looking for in their own community.

. . .

Construction on the space will start within the next few weeks. Decor will be “very Japanese,” which will include wood accents and will highlight the bar — which makes sense, considering an izakaya is an after-work drinking place, he said. And the drinks he’ll highlight include many variations of sake.

Stocking a sake bar is a challenging task in terms of navigating the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB). Since sake is not a popular beverage in Pittsburgh at the moment, he’s having to source from suppliers in Philadelphia and through special orders. Pan will also include amenities like sake storage.

1937 Chinese movie Street Angel (马路天使) at leaf & plate, January 15.

The Shadyside tea house and restaurant leaf & plate will show the 1937 Chinese movie Street Angel (马路天使) on Friday, January 15.

"Mandarin Chinese Speed Language Partnering" at Pitt, January 22.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center is hosting "Mandarin Chinese Speed Language Partnering" on Friday, January 22.

Want to improve your Mandarin Chinese or help new language learners? Join us at our inaugural speed networking event where native and mandarin speakers of all levels will converse in a series of brief exchanges. Meet, socialize, and hopefully find a great language partner! Light refreshments will be served.

The event starts at 12:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map).

Pitt's new wushu club.

Today's Pitt News profiles Gina Bao,a first-year student at the University of Pittsburgh who started a wushu club there in December.

Before she had ever attended class, had midnight fries at market or swiped her panther card, Gina Bao had already written the constitution for her wushu club at Pitt.

Bao, a first-year student studying neuroscience, started the club in December 2015 to teach students about wushu, a modern version of kung fu that involves combat martial arts moves with jumps and aerials. The club held its second practice Jan. 9, when eight members from all experience levels showed up to learn wushu techniques in the William Pitt Union Dance Studio. Beginning with simple lessons in bowing and stretching and progressing to complex combinations of running and kicking, Bao hopes to train the members to compete in a national collegiate wushu tournament in just four months.

Tanpopo Ramen, izakaya coming to Shadyside.

Tanpopo Ramen is coming to 815 S. Aiken Ave. (map), the former location of the S. Aiken Bar and Grille. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette alluded to it in a December 24 piece looking back at 2015 and looking ahead to the new year:

What’s coming for 2016? I predict more out-of-town restaurateurs discovering Pittsburgh; more fast-casual restaurants; a couple of chef-driven Japanese places, from an izakaya to a ramen shop to a yakitori place; and more food trucks with the city’s end-of-year rule changes that will make things easier for mobile food.

Interesting to note that Tanpopo Ramen, LLC is registered to Mike Chen, the owner of Everyday Noodles and several other restaurants in the area. Records also show that a Tan Izakaya has had the 815 S. Aiken as its principal address since October, and is a registered as a Pennsylvania Fictitious Name under the purview of Tanpopo Ramen, LLC, with the address on file that of Everyday Noodles in Squirrel Hill.

2015 Chinese movie Mr. Six (老炮儿) in Pittsburgh through January 14 (at least).

The 2015 Chinese movie Mr. Six (老炮儿), which opened in China and Pittsburgh on Christmas Eve, will continue to play at AMC Loews Waterfront through at least January 14.

申通快递 coming to Pittsburgh?

That sign is in the window of 2023 Murray Ave. (map) in Squirrel Hill, in what was most recently a dentist's office. STO Express (申通快) is a Shanghai-based shipping and logistics company that has been expanding globally in the last few years, and in 2015 it opened stateside locations in: New York City; Brooklyn, NY; two locations in Flushing, NY; Edison, NJ; and Las Vegas, NV.

Nothing about a possible Pittsburgh expansion is online yet, though Squirrel Hill would make sense if the opening, in fact, happens. It is a neighborhood with a significant international population and one that borders on two universities with growing Chinese student bodies. A 2014 Brookings Institute report notes that the top origin for Pittsburgh's international students is China, with Beijing and Shanghai being the #1 and #4 cities, respectively. According to a piece in The Pitt News last fall on the growing Chinese student bodies at two universities a few miles from Squirrel Hill:

The 2,404 Chinese international students at [the University of Pittsburgh] account for more than 50 percent of the University’s total international students. In the summer and fall of 2015 alone, Carnegie Mellon University admitted 1,101 students from China.

For what it's worth, that feature---as well as an article linked yesterday and two pieces by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's food critic Melissa McCart, "America's Next Great Chinatown Takes Root in Pittsburgh" and "The Asian influence"---cites that population growth as the impetus being more authentic, and more-authentic, Chinese restaurants in the area.



Update (9:00 pm): Yes, that's a STO Express. These photos were taken later in the day.

"No Chinatown? No Problem!" writes James Chan on Pittsburgh's Chinese food offerings.

"No Chinatown? No Problem!" writes critic James Chan in a round-up of Chinese restaurants in Oakland and Squirrel Hill. The reason Pittsburgh has an increasing number of authentic Chinese restaurants in spite of lacking an ethnic Chinese enclave is its growing Chinese student population:

The answer to the 21st century emergence of authentic Chinese food in Pittsburgh is actually related to another phenomenon I recently chronicled: the appearance of authentic Chinese restaurants in college towns. The surge in mainland Chinese college students has brought authentic Chinese food to dozens of towns like Storrs, CT, Tallahassee, FL, and Lawrence, KS, for the first time ever. Today’s Chinese foreign students from mainland China are more numerous, more well-heeled, and less inclined to compromise their eating habits than prior generations of international Chinese students from Hong Kong and Taiwan. While Pittsburgh is not a college town in the traditional sense, it is home to major universities like the University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne, and Carnegie Mellon, which have brought thousands of mainland Chinese students into Pittsburgh in search of education… and authentic Chinese food.

For other recent articles on the topic of authentic Chinese and Asian food in Pittsburgh, see the Pitt News's November 19 piece "Hungry for more: Competition heats up among Oakland’s Asian restaurants" and a piece by Post-Gazette food critic Melissa McCart for Saveur, "America's Next Great Chinatown Takes Root in Pittsburgh".

On Ensemble: Contemporary Taiko Quartet in Pittsburgh, January 14.

via the On Ensemble website.

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh Taiko will present "On Ensemble: Contemporary Taiko Quartet" for a January 14 performance in the Hill District. From the JASP website:

On Ensemble is at the forefront of the growing taiko (Japanese ensemble drumming) community in the United States. Led by childhood friends Shoji Kameda and Masato Baba, On Ensemble has made a name for itself by combining the powerful rhythms and singing of traditional taiko with vibrant jazzy melodies.

The group has achieved recognition worldwide, from being the first American group to have been invited to perform at the prestigious Nihon no Taiko concert series in Japan in 2013, to their three critically-acclaimed albums. Their fearless musical explorations have taken the ancient instruments of taiko into new realms and have established a distinctly modern expression for the art form.

The event runs from 7:00 to 9:00 pm in the Elsie H. Hillman Auditorium at the Hill House on 1835 Centre Ave. (map). Tickets are $20 for JASP members, $25 for adult non-members, $10 for students grades 5 through university, and free for students grade 4 and under. Ticket information is available at the JASP event page.

Free Chinese, Japanese, Korean courses at Carnegie Library in Oakland continue in 2016.

As the new year begins, a reminder that the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has free Chinese, Japanese, and Korean classes at its Oakland branch (map). Depending on the class and the particular volunteer teacher, the sessions range from a period of casual free talking to more rigorous class with workbooks and chalk-and-talk instruction on grammar and usage.

Here's a look at what's coming up, in order of proficiency level:

* Let's Learn Chinese (next meeting January 7). Presented by University of Pittsburgh School of Education graduate Kasper Hua every Thursday evening from 6:30 to 7:00 pm in the Children's library, and aimed at small children through stories, songs, and games.
* Chinese for Beginners (next meeting: January 10). Held the second and fourth Sunday of the month from 3:30 to 4:30 in the Large Print Room.
* Chinese II (next meeting: January 3). Held the first and third Sunday of the month from 3:30 to 4:30 in the Large Print Room.
* Chinese Conversation Club (next meeting: January 14). Held the second and fourth Thursday of each month from 6:00 to 7:00 in the Large Print Room. For intermediate and advanced learners.

* Japanese for Beginners (next meeting: January 11). Second and fourth Monday of the month from 6:30 to 7:30 in Classroom A.
* Japanese II (next meeting: January 12). Second and fourth Tuesday of the month from 6:30 to 7:30 in Classroom A. "Japanese II is geared toward those who already have a basic understanding of Japanese and are interested in increasing proficiency," says the library website. "Ability to read and write hiragana is required to take this class."
* Japanese Conversation Club (next meeting: January 5). Held on the first and third Tuesday of the month from 6:00 to 7:00 in the Large Print Room. For intermediate and advanced learners.

* Korean for Beginners (next meeting: January 3). Every Saturday from 1:00 to 2:30 in the Large Print Room. Focuses on reading Hangeul and producing basic phrases.
* Korean II (next meeting: January 2). Every Saturday from 11:00 to 12:30 in the Large Print Room.

Students may join the class at any time of the year, though registration is now required for many of the classes. This can be done online by clicking on the class and submitting your name and email address. For more information about the courses, and to register for one, visit the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh homepage, click events, and search for Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.