Wednesday, February 3, 2016

"The Council of the City of Pittsburgh does hereby declare February 6 to 23, 2016 to be 'LUNAR NEW YEAR' in the City of Pittsburgh".



On February 2, Pittsburgh City Council issued a proclamation in honor of those who have organized the Lunar New Year Celebration in Pittsburgh, which will run from February 6 through 23 in Squirrel Hill.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

2016 Hong Kong movies The Monkey King 2 (西遊記之孫悟空三打白骨精) and From Vegas to Macau 3 (賭城風雲III) in Pittsburgh from February 5.



Two new releases from Hong Kong will show at the AMC Loews Waterfront from Friday, February 5: The Monkey King 2 (西遊記之孫悟空三打白骨精) and From Vegas to Macau 3 (賭城風雲III).

2015's Tokyo Tribe (トウキョウ トライブ トゥー) at Row House Cinema in March.



The Row House Cinema in Lawrenceville announced 2015's Tokyo Tribe (トウキョウ トライブ トゥー) as the fourth film in its Japanese film series this spring. An A.V. Club review of the "demented rap musical" offers a final take:
With its over-the-top violence, cast of bizarre bit characters (a beat-boxing henchwoman, a DJ granny, etc.), and a compulsion to interject phallic imagery that borders on coprographia, Tokyo Tribe throws so much at the viewer that it’s easy to get swept up in its deranged energy and overlook the fact that the movie doesn’t have a flicker of a brain cell, being not much more than a celebration of aggressive stupidity. Sometimes, that’s fine.
The other three films to play from March 18 to March 24 are: 1949's Late Spring (晩春), the 1991 Studio Ghibli film Only Yesterday (おもひでぽろぽろ), and the 1985 Kurosawa film Ran (乱). Details will follow on the theater's official site.

Monday, February 1, 2016

Artist Talk: Michael Chow at Pitt, February 9.



The University of Pittsburgh's Department of History of Art and Architecture will host restauranteur and artist Michael Chow on February 9, ahead of his exhibition Michael Chow aka Zhou Yinghua: Voice for My Father that opens at The Andy Warhol Museum on February 13.
Michael Chow joins Associate Curator of Art Jessica Beck in a discussion about his career as a painter, which first began in the early 1960s. After a 50 year sabbatical, Chow returned to painting and produced a new body of work, which will be on view for the first time in the U.S. at The Warhol. As a successful entrepreneur, Chow made a name for himself and surrounded himself with artists such as Andy Warhol, Jean Michael Basquiat, and Julian Schnabel. Chow also discusses a subtext of the exhibition, the influence and legendary career of his father Zhou Xinfang, a grandmaster of the Beijing Opera.
The talk is free and open to the public and starts at 5:00 pm, following a reception, in the Frick Fine Arts Building (map).

"Examining the pragmatic development of Chinese JFL students" at Pitt, February 5.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures will present MA Candidate Taranee Cao and her colloquia "Examining the pragmatic development of Chinese JFL students" on February 5. The abstract, via the DEALL website:
This cross-sectional study explores the development of pragmatics of Chinese learners of Japanese in foreign language contexts (JFL) by examining their request usages, which incorporates pragmatic transfer as a tool to interpret data. Discourse completion task (DCT) questionnaires were distributed to first-year, second-year and fourth-year Japanese learners at a university in China, as well as to some native speakers in the U.S. to elicit requests. Not only study years, but also the role of different questionnaire situations (balanced by hierarchy and propriety) are taken into consideration. Requests are examined according to the following categories: perspective, speech level, strategies, syntactic downgraders, semantic downgraders, and supportive moves. Based on data analysis, the preliminary findings are: 1) A significant leap from first-year group to second-year group can be observed. 2) In general, fourth-year group performed similar to or less native-like than second-year group. 3) Regardless of the improvement, the gap still exists between learners and native speakers in terms of pragmatics proficiency. 4) In Japanese, hierarchy plays a more important role in the request-making process than propriety. Hopefully, the study can reveal current teaching and learning situations of Japanese pragmatics at universities in China. By discussing learners' success and potential areas that need improvement, the findings could in turn shed light on language pedagogy.
The talk will begin at 12:00 in 4130 Posvar Hall (map), and is free and open to the public.

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Noodle bar, Japanese-style crepes, bubble tea at Love Yogurt in Oakland.

Stopped into Love Yogurt in Oakland the other day, a newer self-serve yogurt place at 229 Atwood St (map) in what used to be an office equipment store. It opened in November after relocating from the South Side, and---along with Fuku Tea and T4U---was one of three Asian tea and dessert places to open in Oakland the second half of 2015. It's recently begun to advertise its noodle and crepe offerings on Forbes Ave. Here's a look at the menu:


Friday, January 29, 2016

Michael Chow aka Zhou Yinghua: Voice for My Father at The Warhol, from February 13.


Via ArtAsiaPacific.

Shanghai-born restauranteur and actor Michael Chow will hold the first US exhibition of his Michael Chow aka Zhou Yinghua: Voice for My Father at The Andy Warhol Museum, from February 13.

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Teppanyaki Kyoto named Best Japanese by Carnegie Mellon's 2015-16 C-Book.


via Teppanyaki Kyoto's Facebook page.

Teppanyaki Kyoto was named the Best Japanese restaurant in Pittsburgh by Carnegie Mellon University's 2015-16 C-Book directory. It's a big win for the Highland Park restaurant, which is popular among Japanese people in Pittsburgh but which normally doesn't turn up on lists of the best, or rather most popular, Japanese places in the city.

Monday, January 25, 2016

Grit & Grace to rebrand to "G & G Noodle Bar" and "approachable Asian-style street food".

The Post-Gazette writes today that the Cultural District restaurant Grit & Grace will rebrand and reopen tomorrow as "G & G Noodle Bar". The restaurant will move to a
more casual menu at G & G Noodle Bar than the one at Grit & Grace, with options like big eye tuna sushi and addictive snacks like General Tso’s cauliflower for dim sum. For mains, look for noodles like tsukemen-style ramen ($15) and spicy dan dan noodles garnished with a poached egg ($13), along with dishes such as crispy Sichuan chicken over noodles ($14) and bulgogi lettuce wraps with flank steak ($10).

CAST-P 2016 Chinese New Year Gala (猴年春节晚会), January 30.

The Chinese Association for Science and Technology - Pittsburgh chapter will hold its annual New Year Gala on Saturday, January 30 in the North Hills:
We warmly welcome you to our 2016 CAST-P Chinese New Year Gala!
You will enjoy performances from excellent cultural and art organizations and teams such as: Yanlai Dance Adacemy, Win-win Kongfu Culture Center, Lydia Music Center, Pittsburgh Haihua Youth Orchestra, Pittsburgh Chinese School, Organization of Chinese Americans - Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University Chinese Student and Scolar Association, University of Pittsburgh Chinese Student and Scholar Association, Yu-ge, Qi-Wu-Zhongguofeng Dance Team.
There will also be a lucky draw for all the attendees to bring you good luck and fortune in the new year!r
Tickets are $5 for CAST-P members and $10 for non-members. North Allegheny Senior High School is located in Wexford, PA (map), roughly 13 miles north of downtown Pittsburgh.

Ka-Man Tse at Silver Eye Center for Photography, from January 29.



An exhibition featuring the photography of Ka-Man Tse will open at the Silver Eye Center for Photography on January 29. Tse was one of two winners of the Fellowship 16 international photography competition.
Fellowship 16 features solo exhibitions from our International Award and Keystone Award winners, selected from an open call for entries in mid-2015. International Award winner Ka-Man Tse (Brooklyn, NY) showcases her series Narrow Distances, which seeks to draw connections between LGBT culture and the Asian Pacific Islander community, as well as Tse’s own ongoing exploration of home, identity, and isolation as someone who was born in Hong Kong and raised in the United States.
An opening reception for Narrow Distances will be held on Friday the 29th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. The Silvery Eye Center for Photography is located at 1015 E. Carson St. (map).

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Pittsburgh Japanese Film Festival at Row House Cinema this March.



The Row House Cinema in Lawrenceville recently announced its Pittsburgh Japanese Film Festival coming in March. The three films scheduled are 1949's Late Spring (晩春), the 1991 Studio Ghibli film Only Yesterday (おもひでぽろぽろ), and the 1985 Kurosawa film Ran (乱), with a fourth still to be determined. Details will follow on the theater's official site.

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

2015 children's blockbuster movie from China, Monster Hunt (捉妖記), in Pittsburgh from January 22.



The 2015 Chinese/Hong Kong movie Monster Hunt (捉妖記) will play at the AMC Loews Waterfront theater from January 22. A Variety review offers a synopsis of this blended live-action and animated children's movie that is the highest-grossing film of all time in China:
What makes “Monster Hunt” so tyke-friendly is its easily digestible story arc, refreshingly devoid of Confucian morality, educational historical background or nationalistic grandstanding — in short, everything that makes most mainland children’s films such a yawn. Stylistically, the film blends Western demon-slaying elements, Japanese yokai folklore and even a distant echo of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” into a fanciful Chinese setting, beefing it with up robust martial-arts action with an eye toward holding the attention of adult viewers.

In a mythic kingdom, mortals and monsters who once fought each other now stay put in their separate domains. Their uneasy truce is disrupted when a coup in the monster land forces its pregnant queen to go on the run with her two loyal but inept retainers, Zhugao and his rotund wife, Fat Ying. Foreseeing that pandemonium will spill over to the humans’ realm, monster-hunt bureau chief Ge (Wallace Chung) puts up a handsome bounty for the unborn heir.
Monster Hunt was released in China on July 16, 2015, and will makes its US debut on January 22.

Tickets and showtimes are available at the AMC Loews Waterfront website. The theater is located at 300 West Waterfront Dr. in the Waterfront shopping complex in Homestead (map), across the Monongahela River from Greenfield, Squirrel Hill, and the rest of Pittsburgh.

Mandarin Chinese Speed Language Partnering at Pitt on Friday.


Via the Asian Studies Center Facebook page.

A reminder about Mandarin Chinese Speed Language Partnering on Friday, January 22, hosted by the University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center.

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

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