Reading and discussion with R.O. Kwon, August 4.

via ro-kwon.com / Smeeta Mahanti.

City of Asylum will host a reading and discussion with R.O. Kwon on August 4. Kwon provides a synopsis of her latest novel, The Incendiaries:

A powerful, darkly glittering novel about violence, love, faith, and loss, as a young Korean American woman at an elite American university is drawn into acts of domestic terrorism by a cult tied to North Korea.

Phoebe Lin and Will Kendall meet their first month at prestigious Edwards University. Phoebe is a glamorous girl who doesn’t tell anyone she blames herself for her mother’s recent death. Will is a misfit scholarship boy who transfers to Edwards from Bible college, waiting tables to get by. What he knows for sure is that he loves Phoebe.

Grieving and guilt-ridden, Phoebe is increasingly drawn into a religious group—a secretive extremist cult—founded by a charismatic former student, John Leal. He has an enigmatic past that involves North Korea and Phoebe’s Korean American family. Meanwhile, Will struggles to confront the fundamentalism he’s tried to escape, and the obsession consuming the one he loves. When the group bombs several buildings in the name of faith, killing five people, Phoebe disappears. Will devotes himself to finding her, tilting into obsession himself, seeking answers to what happened to Phoebe and if she could have been responsible for this violent act.

The Incendiaries is a fractured love story and a brilliant examination of the minds of extremist terrorists, and of what can happen to people who lose what they love most.

The event runs from 5:00 to 6:30 pm. It is free and open to the public, though RSVP is required (coming soon). The City of Asylum's Alphabet City venue is located at 40 N. West Ave. on the North Side (map).

GlobalPittsburgh happy hour with visitors from South Korea and China, August 1.

The next GlobalPittsburgh First Thursdays happy hour on August 1 will welcome visiting English teachers from Korea National University of Education and students from China.

The 43 teachers of English from the Korea National University of Education will participate in the Intensive English Teacher Training Program, a 4-week program that is run through the English Language Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. The 28 students from China are coming for an experiential summer camp organized by Chatham University.

Meet globally-minded people from Pittsburgh and all over the world to make new friends and learn more about different cultures at our GlobalPittsburgh First Thursdays monthly happy hour. Bring your friends, family, and colleagues or come alone - we are a very friendly group!

The happy hour runs from 5:30 to 8:00 pm at Roland's Seafood Grill in the Strip District (map). Tickets are required and prices range from free to $10.

Korean performers from Brush Theatre to present Doodle POP! in Pittsburgh in May 2020.

via @brushtheatre.

Korean performers from Seoul-based Brush Theatre will perform Doodle POP! in Pittsburgh as part of the 2020 Pittsburgh Children's Theater festival.

The mischievous Doodle POP! duo invites you into the delightful doodling world! Join as they experience an exciting adventure in an ocean world they imagine and create while on stage. What will happen to them in this beautiful but scary watery world, as will they try to return a turtle doodle to the sea safely?

With live sound effects, stunning animation, and an abundance of theatrical imagination, this is a touching and exciting screen show for anyone ages 3+

The performance is scheduled for May 16, 2020, at 2:00 pm. Group tickets are available now but individual tickets will not be available until next spring. It will be held at the Byham Theater in the Cultural District (map).

Night Market Gourmet to replace TOP Shabu Shabu in Oakland.

Night Market Gourmet will replace TOP Shabu Shabu on Atwood Street this fall. Signage went up in June announcing the temporary two-month closure, and a banner is up announcing that Night Market Gourmet is coming soon.

Somi's "Birthday" at next K-pop Dance Class, July 27.

The weekly K-pop Dance Class at Yanlai Dance Academy will do Somi's "Birthday" for its eighth meeting on July 27. The class is held each Saturday from 4:00 to 5:00 pm, and the cost is $18 for a drop-in session. Yanlai Dance Academy is located at 2260 Babcock Blvd. in the North Hills (map).

킹캉.

Teacher trainees from Korea National University of Education (한국교원대학교) in Cheongju attended the July 23 Pittsburgh Pirates game and met infielder Jung-ho Kang during warm-ups. The cohort of 43 teachers attending a month-long training program at the University of Pittsburgh's English Language Institute this summer.

Library orientations for new Chinese, Japanese, Korean students at Pitt: August 14 - 16.

The University of Pittsburgh's Hillman Library will host library orientations for new Chinese, Japanese, and Korean students from August 14 - 16.

Would you like to know...

• A librarian who speaks your native language?
• The difference between academic libraries in the U.S. and libraries in your home country?
• The many wonderful services that the library offers to help your area of study and research at Pitt?
• If so, please come to attend one of the library orientation sessions.

Chinese sessions:

• August 14: 11 - 12 pm
• August 14: 3 - 4 pm
• August 15: 11 - 12 pm
• August 16: 2 - 3 pm

Japanese session

• August 14: 2 - 3 pm

Korean session

• August 16: 2 - 3 pm

Sessions are free but seating is limited and registration is required (and can be completed online).

Studio Ghibli film Kiki's Delivery Service (魔女の宅急便) in Pittsburgh, July 28, 29, 31.

The 1989 Hayao Miyazaki film Kiki's Delivery Service (魔女の宅急便) will play at several theaters in western Pennsylvania on July 28, 29, and 31, as this month's installment of the GKIDS Studio Ghibli Fest 2019. A synopsis from the distributor:

Celebrate the 30th anniversary of this beloved coming-of-age story from the legendary Studio Ghibli, creators of Spirited Away, and Academy Award®-winning director Hayao Miyazaki, about a resourceful young witch who uses her broom to create a delivery service, only to lose her gift of flight in a moment of self-doubt.

It is a tradition for all young witches to leave their families on the night of a full moon and fly off into the wide world to learn their craft. When that night comes for Kiki, she embarks on her new journey with her sarcastic black cat, Jiji, landing the next morning in a seaside village, where her unique skills make her an instant sensation.

The movie will play locally at the AMC Loews Waterfront and the Cinemark theaters in Monroeville, North Hills, Pittsburgh Mills, and Robinson. The July 28 and 31 shows will be in Japanese with English subtitles and the July 29 shows will be dubbed in English. Tickets are available online.

2019 Chinese movie Dancing Elephant (跳舞吧！大象) in Pittsburgh, from July 26.

The new Chinese movie Dancing Elephant (跳舞吧！大象) will open nationwide, and in Pittsburgh, on July 26. From the distributor:

Li Chunxia, the leader of the "four little swan" dance class of the Children's Palace, is unconscious for 15 years in a car accident. After waking up miraculously, she finds that she changes from "Little Swan" to an "Elephant" weighing two hundred pounds and loses her life for the past fifteen years. Chunxia decides to pick up her life and attend a dancing contest which is organized by her dancing teacher. She finds back her childhood partners and a weird dancing teacher. Five of them, whom are considered as loser by others, restore the courage and passion to life together.

The movie will play in Pittsburgh from July 26 through 31, and tickets are available online. It is presented in Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles. 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.

July 24 screening scrapped, but The Farewell still to play in Pittsburgh August 2 through 8.

A screening of The Farewell originally scheduled for July 24 has been removed, but the film starring Awkwafina and Tzi Ma will still play in Squirrel Hill from August 2 through 8. From the distributor:

In this funny, uplifting tale based on an actual lie, Chinese-born, U.S.-raised Billi (Awkwafina) reluctantly returns to Changchun to find that, although the whole family knows their beloved matriarch, Nai-Nai, has been given mere weeks to live, everyone has decided not to tell Nai Nai herself. To assure her happiness, they gather under the joyful guise of an expedited wedding, uniting family members scattered among new homes abroad. As Billi navigates a minefield of family expectations and proprieties, she finds there’s a lot to celebrate: a chance to rediscover the country she left as a child, her grandmother’s wondrous spirit, and the ties that keep on binding even when so much goes unspoken. With The Farewell, writer/director Lulu Wang has created a heartfelt celebration of both the way we perform family and the way we live it, masterfully interweaving a gently humorous depiction of the good lie in action with a richly moving story of how family can unite and strengthen us, often in spite of ourselves.

Tickets for the Squirrel Hill Manor shows are available online.