"One Million Elephants Revisited", reading and disucssion on US bombing of Laos, August 6.

Laos has been in the local papers lately as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a visit there earlier in the month. Along with Vietnam and Cambodia, Laos is one of the countries pulverized by American bombing in the 1960s and 1970s, and the consequences of the war are of course still visible there. From a July 12 Washington Post write-up, via the Post-Gazette:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday became the first high-ranking U.S. official to visit Laos since the Vietnam War era, when the United States dropped some 260 million cluster bombs across the countryside in a nine-year campaign to crush North Vietnamese supply lines and bases.

Ms. Clinton met with Laotian Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong and other officials for talks that centered mostly on addressing that war's lingering effects -- including a sense of mutual estrangement -- and then toured a small museum devoted to its human toll.

Ms. Clinton walked through an exhibit of dangling cluster bombs and crude wooden artificial legs, made by villagers whose limbs had been blown off by unexploded ordnance -- the legacy of a war that Ms. Clinton herself had protested as a college student in the 1960s.

Then she met Phongsavath Souliyat, who had been blinded by and lost both hands to a cluster bomb. He told her he hoped that governments would ban the weapon.

"We have to do more," Ms. Clinton responded. "That's one of the reasons I wanted to come here today, so that we can tell more people about the work that we should be doing together."

As I wrote in November 2011, Americans are generally ignorant of the scale of destruction of the Vietnam War, have tended to manipulate its narrative to make the United States appear the greatest victim rather than the aggressor, and have calculated the war's devastation only in terms of its own losses. There are private groups doing more, though, and attempting to atone for our violence, such as Room to Read and Pittsburgh's Friends of Danang.

With Laos in the news again, and with the legacy of the United States' involvement there perhaps in the public's mind, the No Name Players present "One Million Elephants Revisited" on August 6th at the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning. The title refers to both the country's historical name of the kingdom (Lan Xang, "Million Elephants") and the original one-man production in Pittsburgh last April. Global Solutions Pittsburgh has a write-up:

In late 2011, local writer Robert Isenberg traveled to Laos to research a book on the Secret War, a nine-year bombing campaign that devastated this tropical nation. In April 2012, Isenberg presented his solo performance, One Million Elephants, at Grey Box Theatre, produced by theatrical mavens No Name Players.

Now the company joins forces with Global Solutions Pittsburgh to present a one-night event that includes readings from Isenberg’s book manuscript, a panel discussion about unexploded cluster munitions (UXO), and a gallery of photographs taken in Laos.

This presentation will take place on Monday, August 6th, 2012, in the Studio Theatre, in the basement of the Cathedral of Learning. The show begins 8 PM, tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door.

Ticket proceeds benefit No Name Players and Global Solutions Pittsburgh. Book and art sales benefit Legacies of War, an organization that helps educate Americans about Laos.

"Unknown Japan" film festival in Philadelphia this August, September.

1967's Love for a Fool (Chijin no Ai) runs on August 15.

Unknown Japan IV opens August 8th in Philadelphia and runs each Wednesday evening through September 12th at The Bellefield and PhilaMOCA. Unknown Japan is

a free biannual series (winter + summer) of rare Japanese films presented at various venues throughout the city of Philadelphia. All selected films have never received a VHS/DVD/VOD release outside of their country of origin (with the occasional exception of a film that may have been released in some form in a country other than the U.S., odds are you'll never have heard of it regardless).

All screenings include free popcorn courtesy of the JASGP as well as brief pre-screening introductions by curator Eric Bresler.

Check the website for details. There's a movie from almost every decade from the fifties through the aughts, including Japan's first color film, a nearly unwatchable movie from J-pop group Morning Masume, and

an oddball and often uncomfortable comedy featuring a straight-laced factoryman who is thrust into the swinging '60s courtesy of a young lover with a penchant for dancing and romancing.

Smoothies Korea buys parent company Smoothie King, soon coming to PA.

Pop-up on the Smoothie Korea website today, leading to this press release.

American reporting on Asia tends to extremes and hyperbole. The Wall Street Journal's Deal Journal blog gets in on it today, writing about "South Korea's next cultural wave", the smoothie:

Masashi Action Machine in Pittsburgh this August.

Via the Masashi Action Machine website.

Japan's Masashi Action Machine will perform in Pittsburgh on August 1, 2, and 4 as part of the Jazz Dance World Congress held at Point Park University from August 1 - 5. The JDWC says of the Nagoya-based company:

Their distinctive style of jazz dance is based on the male’s rhythmic gymnastics which Mishiro has trained intensively before he started dancing. Sakamoto and Mishiro studied jazz dance under Frank Hatchett in New York since 1983 and has developed original jazz dance pieces which carry out the spirit of traditional Japan. With thrilling acrobatics and the beauty of Japanese culture, their pieces keep the mind of `wakon-yosai`, which means `the fusion of Japanese spirit and the Western abilities`.

Post-Gazette visits Sumi's Cakery, Squirrel Hill's Korean bakery.

Green tea (macha) cupcakes, via the Sumi's Cakery Facebook page.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette visited Sumi's Cakery (Facebook page), a Korean bakery on Squirrel Hill's Murray Avenue. The sweets at Sumi's are rather different than what American palates are used to, and taste lighter and less sweet than the heavy butter cream and whipped icing most commonly seen. Writes Jessica Suss:

Korean-style baked goods are very different from their American or French counterparts. Typically they are topped with a simple whipped cream frosting that is only very lightly sweetened. Pastries themselves are rarely very sweet and most Korean bakeries offer at least one savory option, as well.

That's not necessarily true of Korean bakeries in South Korea, where the ubiquitous chains like Paris Baguette and Tous Les Jours are known for heavily-sugared bread and brightly-colored cakes. With more Koreans traveling abroad, though, and more expatriates residing in Korea, these chains and the larger grocery stores are slowly expanding their offerings. Nonetheless Asian-style sweets can be off-putting for Americans used to very sweet . . . um, sweets.

I briefly previewed Sumi's in March, as the fourth Korean business in those three blocks of Squirrel Hill. The Pittsburgh City Paper visited a month later.

Some looks at the proposed Korean Heritage Room at Pitt.

As I wrote in May, the Korean Heritage Room Committee is currently raising funds to turn room 304 into another of the famed "nationality rooms" at the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning. (Actually, fundraising has been underway since early 2008). A crude scan of a pamphlet back in May showed a rendering of how the interior of the 피츠버그대학교 한국실 may look, but there are some better, and slightly different, pictures online via consultants Arumjigi (아름지기) and the Korean Heritage Committee website. From the latter:





A pamphlet from 2009 by 내촌목공소 (.pdf) has more details about dimensions and building materials of the design by architect Minah Lee.


via 내촌목공소 (Naechon Carpenter's Workshop).

Shim Hye-jin visits Pittsburgh.

Korean model and actress Shim Hye-jin visited her two nephews in Pittsburgh for the June 26th episode of 스타인생극장 (Star Life Theater). A short clip is on Youtube:



Because KBS no longer makes past episodes available online, you will have to find it elsewhere, like via NetskoTV:



If the embedded video doesn't work at first, try refreshing the page, or simply watching it at the link. The portion of her in Pittsburgh is just one part of the program; you can check NetskoTV and Google for the others.

Let the Bullets Fly in Pittsburgh, June 29 - July 3.

Pittsburgh's Harris Theater (map) will show the Chinese film Let The Bullets Fly (让子弹飞), starring Chow Yun-Fat and Ge You among others, from June 29 through July 3, 2012. From the theater's website:

Since its release this action-comedy-thriller has been lauded for its stunning mix of dark humor and eye-popping violence. Starring Chow Yun-Fat, it's become the highest-grossing film of all time in China. Set in 1920s Sichuan, it tells the tale of the bandit "Pocky" Zhang Mazi, who poses as a local governor in a dusty town, but finds himself at odds with the local mobster, who is not eager to share his turf with another drifter. A complex and deadly series of mind-games ensues between the two crooks, which are as violent as they are hilarious.

It opens with an 8:00 pm show Friday, has three weekend shows, and one each on Monday and Tuesday.

Pittsburgh is also currently showing through June 26 the Japanese movie I Wish, which, based on my discerning taste, is . . . meh, okay.

이용실이란?

Min's Jazzcuts gets it 88% right. The Korean-owned salon has an ㅇ instead of a ㅁ, which turns "beauty salon" into something approximating "utility room". As a temporary sign seen on Google Maps---which shows the street, like most streets in the area, as it looked in 2008---has the correct Korean spelling, and as the place has Korean owners and an exclusively Asian clientele who would notice the mistake, it was probably just too much trouble to have the sign redone.

DIYKaiju at The Gallery on Baum.

The Gallery on Baum (4643 Baum Blvd. in Oakland) is currently showing

an exhibition of strange beasts and giant creatures: featuring exclusive japanese & american vinyl monsters, memorabilia + more

Kaiju means "monster" in Japanese (Godzilla, Rodan, et al). You'll find some links to Pittsburgh kaiju designers on this 2008 event page, just to give a general idea about the current exhibition.

Oishii Bento temporarily closed due to fire.

Oishii Bento, a small restaurant serving Japanese and Korean fast food in Oakland, will be temporarily closed due to a fire Wednesday night.


Oakland Ave., Friday afternoon.

Oishii Bento was voted best Japanese restaurant in Oakland by readers of The Pitt News in 2011, and was the editors' pick for best sushi place in the neighborhood. It might get some competition, as Sushi Fuku is set to open across the street in the old Quizno's location. That will be the fifth Asian restaurant on the Oakland Ave. block between Fifth and Forbes Aves.

Teen Tanabata Japanese Festival in Brookline, July 7th.

Colorful Tanabata celebration in Sendai, by FlutterbyNessa.

Brookline's Carnegie Library branch (map) will have a Teen Tanabata Japanese Festival on Saturday, July 7th:

Manga, anime, and SO much more!! Come celebrate Tanabata with the Brookline library with an all-out festival celebrating Japanese culture!

Wikipedia tells us:

Tanabata (七夕, meaning "Evening of the seventh") is a Japanese star festival, originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi (represented by the stars Vega and Altair respectively). According to legend, the Milky Way separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. The date of Tanabata varies by region of the country, but the first festivities begin on July 7 of the Gregorian calendar. The celebration is held at various days between July and August.

So we'll see how similar Pittsburgh's version is to the real thing. It will be celebrated in Asia this year on August 24, but it's nice to have some events here in July to break up a slow summer.

Asian immigrants to Pittsburgh up, potential "brain gain".

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes that Asians and Asian-Americans are now the second-largest minority group in Pittsburgh.

That puts Pittsburgh right in line with the national trend, according to a Pew Research Center report released Tuesday.

The report says that Asian immigrants have overtaken Hispanics as the immigrant group with the greatest number of new arrivals in the country. Asian-Americans comprise 5.8 percent of the nation's population, and 3.17 percent of Pennsylvania's population, according to the report. In the Pittsburgh metro area, 2.1 percent of the population by 2010 Census data is Asian, compared to 1.3 percent who are Hispanic. Within the city limits, 5 percent are Asian, compared to 2.3 percent Hispanic, from the same census data.

And it's not just Pittsburgh's rivers attracting Asian-Americans. It's also institutions such as Carnegie Mellon University, UPMC and employment opportunities with the Marcellus Shale industries, said Melanie Harrington, who works to welcome immigrants to the city through the organization Vibrant Pittsburgh. She listed the industries to which new Asian immigrants are attracted: the education sector, health care, technology, energy and business entrepreneurship, among many.

Who in the blue hell suggested anyone comes to Pittsburgh for the rivers, though? The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon attract a lot of Asian students, researchers, professors, and other professionals, but they are generally just here for the duration of their studies or for short-term contracts.

Although many Asians come to Pittsburgh for the universities -- nearly 81 percent of Carnegie Mellon's international students last year were Asian -- those who stay in the country don't always choose to live in Pittsburgh. Zipei Tu came from China in 2006 to study at CMU, but he was the only one in his class to remain after graduating. Mr. Tu, who works in international sales for an information technology firm, said his friends left for San Francisco, New York and Washington, D.C. He added that the "temporary" population of Chinese immigrants in Pittsburgh -- mostly students -- is greater than the permanent population.

"Let me put it frankly," he said. "I don't think people here are as open as in other areas."

If you look at the 2010 census map, compiled by the New York Times, you can see where Pittsburgh's Asians are living.



As expected, concentrations are highest in Oakland, Shadyside, and Squirrel Hill. That tract around Fifth Ave. and Craig Street, where they've crammed 2,400 people into high-rises, has the highest in the city at 31%.



The maps provided by the Pew Research Center's report, "The Rise of Asian Americans", break it down even further. Though you can't see neighborhood-by-neighborhood data, you can see where Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, Filipino, and Asian-Americans have gathered. Not surprisingly, concentrations are highest in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and State College.


Japanese in Pennsylvania, for example.

Real ramen in Pittsburgh?

lol, no, not really. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a June 14th article about a Ramen Brunch at a trendy restaurant that sounds promising:

Lately, ramen has been making cameo appearances at several restaurants.

Salt of the Earth serves a Ramen Brunch the third Sunday of every month. A few months ago, the sous chef duo of Kevin Rubis and Chad Townsend hatched the plan and now are the executors of the soup. It's the real deal, too.

At first it was just an idea. "When I had a bowl of ramen at Momofuku in Manhattan, I deconstructed it," says Mr. Townsend. "We can make that, I knew. It has to be easy since it's all about the components."

"Then one night after service, Chad and I started talking about ramen," chimed in Mr. Rubis. "We thought it would be a fun project. We ran the idea past our chef, Kevin Sousa, who gave it a thumbs-up."

But if you want good, authentic Japanese-style ramen near Pittsburgh, you'll need to travel to Morgantown, West Virginia.


Miso ramen at Yama, Morgantown.

Just off High Street, tucked into the dingiest slumlord-run building in town, is Yama (387 1/2 High Street, but facing Fayette Street), a Japanese-owned and -run restaurant best known for its miso ramen, shoyu ramen, and other noodle dishes. As there's hardly any Japanese community at the university, most of the customers are Japanese visitors from Pennsylvania or locals who have tasted real ramen before. The place doesn't look like much, but it's good, authentic, and still relatively cheap for stateside prices. The only complaint, besides the rundown apartment that houses it, is that the menu lacks Hataka ramen, the most famous regional variety of the dish.

Pittsburgh City Paper visits Teppanyaki Kyoto Restaurant

The Pittsburgh City Paper visits an Asian restaurant for the second time in the last couple weeks, this time going to Highland Park's Teppanyaki Kyoto Restaurant, which you read about here in February. It opened its doors at the beginning of the year, but was soft-opening and reservation-only for several months as its staff learned the menu. Teppanyaki Kyoto is one of the better-liked Japanese restaurants among Japanese people in the city, and among the most authentic. "Japanese" food around here is usually just sushi or hibachi steakhouses, with menus limited to the stereotypical food Americans like (Ichiban and Nakama are fine for what they are, but I cringe when they're rated the best Japanese in the city). Teppanyaki works the middle, with common-over-there favorites like karaage, okinomiyaki, and yakisoba.

Angelique Bamberg and Jason Roth touch on that in the City Paper:

perhaps more surprising than Pittsburghers' taste for tuna tartare is that it has taken us so long to discover the rest of Japanese cuisine. Sure, we all know about sweet teriyaki sauce on beef and salmon steaks, most of us learned to boil ramen noodles in college, and some have probably tried Japan's other staple noodles, soba and udon. Then there are hibachi restaurants, which merge an authentic Japanese cooking style — the griddle — with an inauthentic theater of juggled cleavers and sizzling meat. But these do not give a full picture of Japanese cuisine any more than pasta and pizza sums up Italian. In all the derring-do surrounding eating raw fish, we have all but ignored the deserving hot, hearty fare of an island nation as rocky and rugged as Western Pennsylvania.

Into this void, steps Teppanyaki Kyoto. Kyoto, of course, is the ancient imperial capital, whose name evokes the traditional Japan of tatami mats, temples and cherry blossoms, while a teppan is a flat iron griddle, and yaki means grilled or fried. In a small, serene storefront on Highland Park's revitalizing Bryant Street, Kyoto offers something like a Japanese version of a diner. There is a counter for watching food cook at the open teppan, and a menu comprised of humble yet delicious foods drawn from the menus of the lunch counters, train stations and family kitchens of Japan.

The restaurant is located on 5808 Bryant St. (map), a short drive from the Pittsburgh Zoo. The area looks a lot better today than it does on Google Maps.

The trend with dining reviews is to wait several months after opening, so we may have to wait a while to see a professional write-up on "Curry on Murray", a Thai curry place that opened at 2121 Murray Ave. in Squirrel Hill in the old Sababa location (and before that, Mr. Willies BBQ).

Japanese film I Wish at Melwood Screening Room, June 22 - 26.

Oakland's Melwood Screening Room will show the Japanese film I Wish (奇跡) from June 22nd through 26th. The Pittsburgh Filmmakers site sums it up:

Some have called director Hirokazu Kore-eda the heir to Ozu, and the proof is here in this sweet and wise film. The adventure begins with 12-year-old Koichi, whose parents are divorced, and who desperately wants to reunite his family. We see his sullen gaze on the active volcano that touches everything in his new town where he lives with his mother. His younger brother lives with his father. When he learns that a new bullet train line will open, linking the two towns, he starts to believe that a miracle will take place the moment the trains first pass each other at top speed. Features wonderful, natural performances from the kids. With subtitles. (Hirokazu Kore-eda; Japan; 2011; 128 min)

It opens on Friday at 8:00 pm, has showings Saturday at 5:30 and 8:00, Sunday at 3:00, and Monday and Tuesday at 8:00. More on imdb and Wikipedia, which notes the film enjoys an 85% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.



It doesn't look like it from Google Maps, but there is plenty of parking available outside the theater, since it sits almost at a dead-end in a neglected corner of Oakland.

Cambodian fusion rock band Dengue Fever in Pittsburgh, June 7th.

Dengue Fever will play East Liberty's Shadow Lounge (map) on June 7th. For the benefit of this post's title they're a "Cambodian fusion rock band", but both Wikipedia and the venue's site have more in-depth introductions:

Dengue Fever, whose exotic blend of Cambodian rock, Afro grooves, surf, and garage psych returns with Cannibal Courtship, the group’s first studio album since 2008’s Venus on Earth and their Fantasy Records/Concord Music Group debut. With 11 new tunes, Cannibal Courtship, features songs sung in English, and Khmer (Cambodian). The album also features beautiful backing harmonies by The Living Sisters. With Cannibal Courtship, the band has reached a powerful new plateau, deftly balancing the wide-ranging influences that inform their sound and songs. Longtime fans will get their required dose of Nimol’s haunting vocals and the band’s spooky, kinetic, mood-swinging sound on the new disc but the group, which produced the set together, has upped the creative ante.

A couple of songs from their latest release:

Pittsburgh's Koreatown . . . in Squirrel Hill.

A piece in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Sunday looks at growing diversity in Squirrel Hill, a neighborhood that borders the city's biggest employers (the universities and the hospitals) and brings people and businesses from all walks of life. This blurb caught my eye, from the owner of Murray Avenue's Aseoma C.K. Kim:

"[B]eing that this is a traditionally Jewish neighborhood, I think there's acceptance here," Kim said. "Some people are calling this an emergence of a Koreatown in Pittsburgh."

Yes, some people are. From this blog in March:

Squirrel Hill is starting to feel like a teeny-tiny Koreatown: there's a Korean grocery in Young's (영스), Korean food at Green Pepper and Aseoma, and now a Korean bakery on Murray Avenue.

And again in the post on Aseoma a couple of weeks ago.

The not-exactly-yet growth of a Koreatown in a Pittsburgh's Jewish neighborhood is interesting for a couple of reasons, and we can find some context for Kim's quotation. Koreatowns, and other newer ethnic neighborhoods, developed and expanded in cities across the country by supplanting older-generation ethnic communities that moved out or sprawled into the suburbs as the need for their enclaves decreased. If a real Koreatown develops in Squirrel Hill---and it's unlikely that it really will, beyond a grocery and a couple restaurants---or if another ethnic group there in larger numbers, it will be following a familiar pattern.

Ikebana class in Butler county, July 21.

Butler county's Maridon Museum will host an ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) class on July 21st. From their Spring 2012 newsletter (.pdf):

Saturday, July 21st from 10AM-1PM, Nancy Engle will be teaching an Asian Flower Arrangement class at the museum. Nancy has taught flower design at many colleges including locally BCCC, and Slippery Rock University. Cost for this class will be $35, all materials and lunch are included is this fee. All participants will take home their arrangement.

The museum asks those interested to make reservations.

ESL classes, services for international residents in the North Hills.

For better or worse, Pittsburgh is dominated by two large newspapers. They occasionally have coverage of local news and events, but when they do they essentially are read like press releases and don't have much personality. Some of the local weekly papers fill in the gaps, and although some of their stories are on the level of "Farmer Jones loses cow" or "Local restaurant debuts peach pie", you'll sometimes find some interesting stuff with an international connection.

Two local weekly circulars under the stewardship of the Tribune-Review recently had articles about ESL classes and cultural adjustment programs in the North Hills and the volunteers who staff them. On May 24th YourCranberry.com had a piece on "Cranberry W.I.N." [Welcoming International Neighbors] and the services they provide to new international residents and visitors.

Because relocating to a new country isn't always easy, the Cranberry Township is offering a helping hand through Cranberry W.I.N. — Welcoming International Neighbors — a volunteer program dedicated to helping international visitors and new residents by offering basic English tutoring and other personalized assistance.

The service not only helps those needing aid in basic or conversational English skills, but also assists with everyday types of questions, such as where to shop, how to use public transportation or even where to buy a car, said Chelsea Puff, community projects administrator for Cranberry Township.

"It's to help them get acclimated to the community and new environment," Puff said.

The volunteer service began in 2010 after the township hosted a focus group studying what types of challenges international residents in the area face.

Currently, there are about 20 volunteers who help with the program, many of whom have previously lived abroad so, Puff said, they know what it's like to live in a different country.

"They're looking at it as the same perspective as these international residents," she said.

The article directs readers to the Diverse Cranberry website, where they can find links to community resources and an application for the ESL tutoring program.

A few days later the McKnight Journal had something about ESL classes at a local church:

When leaders of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of the North Hills considered holding English-language classes for foreign-born local residents, they had no idea what the response might be.

"We were scared about what we were getting into," said John Russell, the director of the program for the church in Ross Township.

Yet church members wanted to help immigrants who might be feeling lost with just limited command of English.

Fifty students attended the first class in September, and the planning committee was "overwhelmed," said Russell, of Ross. When 60 came the next week, members were ecstatic. All told, 85 students registered.

During the last class of the season in May, organizers were certain their idea had been a good one, as the large meeting room filled with the aromas of an international food court. Study was over, and it was time for celebration with students contributing home-country favorites to the ethnic dinner.

The room buzzed with sounds of growing friendships; the English-as-a-second-language, or ESL, classes had become more than lessons for future conversations.

"We're very thankful, and we're amazed," said the Rev. Harry Metzger of McCandless, pastor of the church.

"It's been such a delight. The students are so friendly, kind, appreciative. Some don't want to break for summer."

The plan to create "a family atmosphere and a place to love these people," in Metzger's words, had been a success.

More information about the ESL classes on the church's website.

Pittsburgh Bonsai Society Spring Show, June 2nd and 3rd.

The Pittsburgh Bonsai Society will hold its annual Spring Show at the Phipps Garden Center in Shadyside's Mellon Park (map) on June 2nd and 3rd. The group's official site reads:

The public is welcome to visit our annual Spring Show at the Phipps Garden Center, 1059 Shady Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15232 (not Phipps Conservatory) on Saturday, June 2 from 10:00 to 5:00 PM, and Sunday, June 3 from 10:00 to 4:00 PM. The free event highlights the work our members put into developing these small works of art. Visitors can purchase trees, starter material, tools, pots and accessories in our vendor area. Visitors can also bring in their own trees for expert styling and care advice. There will be tree styling demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday at 11:00 AM. Visitors can participate in a workshop styling their own tree (Procumbens nana juniper or Scots Pine) for a $25 fee on Saturday at 1:00 PM. A Sunday workshop featuring a tropical tree will also be available, with details to come.

Japanese animated film Summer Wars in Dormont on Sunday, May 27.

The 2009 Japanese animated film Summer Wars (サマーウォーズ) will be playing at Dormont's Hollywood Theater (map) on Sunday, May 27th, at 2 pm and 4 pm. The synopsis from the movie's North American site reads:

Kenji is your typical teenage misfit. He’s good at math, bad with girls, and spends most of his time hanging out in the all-powerful, online community known as OZ. His second life is the only life he has – until the girl of his dreams, Natsuki, hijacks him for a starring role as a fake fiancée at her family reunion. Things only get stranger from there. A late-night email containing a cryptic mathematic riddle leads to the unleashing of a rogue AI intent on using the virtual word of OZ to destroy the real world, literarily. As Armageddon looms on the horizon, Kenji and his new “family” set aside their differences and band together to save the worlds they inhabit in this “near-perfect blend of social satire and science fiction.”

North Korean volumes in University of Pittsburgh library.

1972 film The Flower Girl.

The latest edition of Pitt magazine (not available online yet) has an interesting blurb about the growing collection of North Korean materials in the East Asian Library. It reads:

What do students in North Korea learn in school? How do books published in North Korea portray history, archaeology, literature, and other topics? Answers may be found in a special Pitt library collection that is among the largest repositories of primary source materials in the United States for scholars studying North Korea. Books, journals, and films from the insular country are hard to come by, but the head of Pitt's East Asian Library, Hong Xu, has cultivated agreements with libraries at Yanbian University near the Chinese-North Korean border and other institutions to obtain materials on behalf of Pitt. The collection contains more than 14,000 volumes and continues to expand.

A longer profile ran in the University Times last summer.

Given that many resources are available in digital form, the library aims to collect unique items, Xu said. “Students and faculty are more interested in getting hard-to-find materials and primary sources,” she said. Pitt’s collection has 82 different North Korean journal titles totaling more than 2,000 volumes, as well as some 400 North Korean books. The publications include pictorial journals that document current events and achievements, arts journals and publications by the nation’s medical science press.

Topics include history, archaeology, literature, economics and politics.

The collection also includes a dozen textbooks, including elementary school, high school and college-level texts. There is even a documentary on North Korean taekwondo.

You can find a list of Korean-language items on this EAL page, including a sizable list of movies.

City Paper reviews Aseoma.

The Pittsburgh City Paper visited Aseoma, sort-of a Koreanish fusion restaurant on Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill that specializes in Korean tacos. Restaurant reviews are often painful to read, but here's an excerpt:

[S]ince Aseoma is a full-fledged restaurant, Korean tacos were not all we had. Aseoma has extended its fusion efforts in several directions. For instance, it offers wings and sliders that, like the tacos, are made with distinctively Korean components. Rounding out the menu are some more authentically Asian street foods, such as dumplings and seafood cakes, and a selection of noodle- and rice-based entrees in a variety of Asian styles, from Chinese stir-fries to Thai-inspired curries.

I've been looking forward to this place for a while, especially if the fried 만두 is as good as the pictures make it seem. (Before you fixate too much on the "Korean" in "Korean tacos," though, here's an amusing blog post on this sort of overhyped "Korean" food.) Aseoma is next door to Green Pepper, a trendy but expensive Korean place that opened last year. As I wrote in March, there's almost a little Koreatown growing in Squirrel Hill: there's a small grocery, a Korean bakery, and a pair of Korean restaurants.

Before Aseoma last year, the space was occupied by Chopsticks, another Asian restaurant that advertised its daily specials in foreign languages. For a long time, though, I figured it was just a front for some low-level Chinese gang that ran the local massage parlor: the windows were (and still are) very darkly tinted, and I never saw any customers in or around.

Chopsticks in 2008, doing its best to hide from customers.

This City-Paper review is positive, and other reviews online are pretty good, too, although I've heard talk of frustration among friends of Green Pepper that another Korean place opened right next to it. That part of town has had a lot of turnover recently---recent departures include a Libyan restaurant, a Middle Eastern restaurant, and an Argentinean Cafe, while two new bakeries and a curry place are among the additions---so we'll see how much staying power Aseoma has.

Raising money for the Korean Heritage Room in the Cathedral of Learning.

A rendering of the proposed Korean Heritage Room to go in room 304 in the University of Pittsburgh's Catherdal of Learning.

For years there has been talk of creating a Korean Nationality Room in the Cathedral of Learning to join the 29 already there. Recently there have been renewed fundraising efforts to hopefully get construction started in 2013 and to have it open by 2014. A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article from March has some more information. The Korean Heritage Room Committee has a webpage, but their Twitter feed says it won't be ready until mid-May. It's not ready yet, but I've reprinted some information from a brochure in order to fill in the gaps:

Dear Korean Community Members and Friends of Korea,

As you may know, the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh is a historic landmark which receives the utmost admiration locally as well as internationally.

One of its unique features is that it serves the home of 29 Nationality Rooms, each exhibiting its own cultural heritage using various historic renderings and artworks and thus serves as tangible, permanent "ambassadors" of the represented nations.

In 2007, the University of Pittsburgh approved the installation of the Korean Heritage Room (KHR) and recently reorganized the KHR Committee has been diligently planning for the project.

An extimated cost of the project is $650,000 and thus far we have secured about $340,000 from the gnerous contribution from the Korean community, the Korean Foundation and Poongsan Incorporation of Korea. Additional grants are expected from Korea but we still have to raise substantial amounts of funds to complete the rom.

In parallel of the fund-raising effort, we are in the process of finalizing the design created by the Korean architects.

The design of the KHR is faithfully based on our historic academic institution, Sungkuenkwan. The room wil be equipped with a state-of-the-art audiovisual system including an interactive touch screen LCD monitor. Thus through this endeavor, we will have an opportunity to showcase our splendid 5000-year history and cultural image, as well as the intellectual and economic prosperity of South Korea.

The timeline of our project requires that our fund-raising be done by the end of 2012 in order for set completion of construction in 2013, and dedication in 2014. Although the task seems ambitious, it can only be possible with your support.

The brochure then says if you would like to donate, you may send a check made payable to the University of Pittsburgh to

Professor Sangyeun Cho
Computer Science Department
University of Pittsburgh
5415 Sennott Square
Pittsburgh, PA 15260

The plan is to turn room 304 into a Korean Heritage Room that reflects the era of Sungkyunkwan University's early years (the school was founded in 1398). Classroom space is at a premium now at the university, and because these Nationaliy Rooms are often more form than function that could be an obstacle. Nevertheless it will be an excellent addition to the building, a sign of the slow-but-sleady growth of the Korean-language program at Pitt, a reflection of the city's growth beyond the better-known European immigrant communities to a more modern reality.

Language exchanges and conversation partners in Pittsburgh.

There are a good number of free language classes in Pittsburgh at the Carnegie Libraries: Japanese, Chinese, Korean, German, French, Spanish, English as a Second Language, among others (search events on the CLP webpage for details). If you're looking for one-on-one exchanges, or just want to chat with someone from a different country, many local universities and language institutes run language exchange and conversation partner programs to help their international students share quality time with native English speakers, time that can be surprisingly hard to come by. A new semester means renewed need for conversation partners, and if you're in Pittsburgh you can contact the University of Pittsburgh's English Language Institute or Duquesne University's ESL program.

Schools in other areas have these outreach programs, too, so Google around. Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Penn State, and the University of Pennsylvania come to mind. It's a great way to help someone new to your city and to make a meaningful experience for both of you.

Pittsburgh International Folk Festival opens tomorrow.

The 2012 Pittsburgh International Folk Festival opens tomorrow, May 18th and runs through the 20th at the Monroeville Convention Center. Long a Pittsburgh tradition, this is the festival's 55th year. Tickets are $12 at the door.

Nothing personal against Monroeville---but the rotten traffic situation might make it personal---but this festival needs to be downtown or in Oakland. No doubt it moved east to avoid the nuisance and cost of the union-run David Lawrence Convention Center, but how great would it be to have the folk festival right next to the Strip District, or in among the universities in Oakland? Or to have as its neighbor the International Children's Festival running right now in Schenley Plaza?

Pennsylvania, other states, say no to Korean shellfish.

As reported by Philadelphia's CBS affiliate, among others, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture is advising consumers to discard Korean shellfish. Their May 16th press release reads:

The state departments of Agriculture and Health today advised Pennsylvanians to immediately discard and not consume any fresh or frozen shellfish from Korea due to a recent report from the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) saying these products may be contaminated.

While the FDA has not issued an official recall, states have been advised to treat Korean shellfish products as coming from an unapproved source. The shellfish products came from polluted waters and may cause illness. This includes oysters, clams, mussels, and scallops, but does not include canned shellfish products.

The Department of Agriculture has alerted all shellfish facilities. These are food establishments that include a building, or vehicle maintained, used or operated for the purpose of commercially manufacturing, processing, storing, or distributing shellfish products for human consumption.

As an added precaution, food sanitarians have advised restaurants and food retailers across the state during routine inspections that all fresh and frozen Korean shellfish products are considered adulterated and must not be consumed.

Consumers who have fresh or frozen shellfish products labeled with Korea as the country of origin should return or discard the product immediately.

To date, no illnesses related to Korean shellfish or shellfish products have been reported to the Department of Health or any local health departments in the state.

Similar warnings have turned up in other states throughout the country. The advisory will be most relevant to consumers who: (1) frequent Asian groceries, restaurants, and buffets; and (2) put any stock in these blanket advisories in the first place.

Silk Screen Asian Film Festival opens tonight.

Pittsburgh's 2012 Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival opens this evening with The Lady, starring Michelle Yeoh as Aung San Suu Kyi. The festival will run through May 20th, with 24 films at three venues throughout Pittsburgh: the Regent Square Theater, the Harris Theater, and the Melwood Screening Room. You can download a visitors' guide here, as well as get a list of movies with trailers. Highlights include India's Shala, Japan's Chronicle of my Mother, and the Philippines' Woman in the Septic Tank.

There's an Indian cooking class at Northland Public Library on May 21st. Register online, and check out their event calendar from time to time for the movies and classes they have throughout the month in the North Hills.

Pittsburgh's 2012 Korean Food Bazaar was very good.

I'm not sure how the organizers of the annual Korean Food Bazaar at Shadyside's Korean Central Church of Pittsburgh (피츠버그한인중앙교회) will measure the success of this year's festival---by attendance, by money raised, by new parishoners---but by my humble estimation it was quite good as far as these things go.

There's a lot of noise made by Korean government and tourism officials about the need to globalize Korean food and bring it up to the level of recognition around the world of, say, Chinese, Thai, or Mexican food. Some obstacles in the way of this, at least in the US, are: restaurants unwelcoming to non-Koreans, menus hard to understand because of the Korean language or poorly-rendered English, and prices several times higher than what they would be in Korea. This festival was the complete opposite. There were friendly multilingual volunteers all around offering their help, guiding visitors through the ticket-buying process, and checking up on people who looked lost or confused. The menu had plenty of English and the signs above the food stations had ingredients and cooking instructions laid out in plain English (probably a necessity given all the different dietary needs and preferences of that neighborhood).

Hoddeok was a big seller. (Hadn't had this in years!)

And the prices were right. Well, righter than usual. A few times I've mocked local Korean restaurants for charging $8 for kimbap, or $10 for a small plate of 떡볶이: two staples of poor students and late-night diners that usually cost around a buck a serving in Korea. Charging $8 for kimbap goes against the spirit and the appeal of kimbap. While nothing cost 오백원 today, people could still get their old favorites and try a little bit of everything without laughing out loud at the prices.

The menu (click to enlarge). The naengmyeon was the most popular.

All that said, I couldn't hold it against the organizers if they had made the Korean Food Festival exclusively, um, Korean: Korean signs, Korean-speaking volunteers, Korean-language advertisements. Plenty of church functions strive to appeal solely to their community, their parishoners, and don't feel any need to reach out any further. However, that they made the effort shows they're keen to share with their neighbors and build local awareness of both the church and the Korean culture(s)---immigrant, international student, adoptee, 2nd-generation, scholar, enthusiast, the curious---that comprise it. Who knows, maybe the popularity of this annual food festival will inspire other Korean festivals throughout the year.

Grillin'

Most of the food was in the basement. Here's bulgogi and chicken.

Hoddeok on the griddle.

Some smoothies and jewelry for sale.

Even if you don't think about Korean food very much, or don't care about how it's globalized or how bloggers over-emphasize the talk of its globalization, it's still a pretty good time. It's similar to your average church festival, complete with church ladies, cooking in the basement, and kids running around. It's one of several big food festivals in Pittsburgh each May, and it draws a decent mix of people. I'll be posting about it next year, too, hopefully with more details and better pictures.

Designer toy trading at Pittsburgh's Kawaii, May 6th.

Lots of cute stuff at Kawaii in Shadyside. Pay them a visit on Sunday to join their semi-annual Designer Toy Trading Party.

2012 Pittsburgh International Children's Festival, May 16 - 20.

The Pittsburgh International Children's Festival will be held in Oakland May 16th through May 20th, and will have events and activities spanning various cultures and themes. Highlights for readers of this blog may include: Origami Tales from the 16th through the 20th, daily Nationality Rooms tours, Chinese dances on the 19th, and on the 20th an origami storyteller and a Mixed Chinese Martial Arts Showcase.

Kennywood Asian Heritage Day, May 13th; Pittsburgh Folk Festival, 18th - 20th.

Kennywood has long been known for the ethnic and national heritage days it hosts throughout the summers, and this year the Asian Heritage Day will fall on May 13th. (Kennywood has also long been known for being a lot of fun.) Few details are available, but I did pull this flyer off the Pittsburgh Chinese Association of Science and Technology messageboard:

Also, I should probably mention the 55th Annual Pittsburgh International Folk Festival will be held at the Monroeville Convention Center the next weekend, from the 18th to 20th. The cost is $12 at the door. And very advanced notice for the McKeesport International Village Festival, August 14th to 16th.

Pittsburgh-born enka star Jero to make New York debut, June 9th.

From music-lounge.jp

Not exactly local news, but the Japan Society says enka star Jero---who was born in Pittsburgh in 1981 and graduated from Pitt in 2003---will be performing in New York City on June 9th.

Pittsburgh-native, Tokyo-based enka superstar JERO makes his New York debut at Japan Society! With his smooth voice and hip-hop stylings, JERO has breathed new life into this sentimental Japanese music genre often associated with themes of one’s hometown, lost loves and sake. Often referred to as the “Japanese blues” or “Japanese country music,” enka’s melodies and required vocal techniques make it a quintessentially Japanese musical style.

Tickets are $22 for Japan Society members, $28 for non-members, and can be purchased online. Here's a sample of Jero live:

US troops in Okinawa "WWII leftover", Post-Gazette says.

A thoughtful editorial in Tuesday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the announcement that the Marines will reduce their presence on the Japanese island of Okinawa by nearly half. A couple of excerpts from the short piece, which concludes by saying this limited withdrawal should be the "first [step]" toward removing the military presence from Japan:

U.S. taxpayers are still left pondering the logic of keeping 90 bases and 40,000 Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and U.S. civilians on Japanese territory. World War II ended 67 years ago; it's hard to argue that the United States must still "watch" Japan. Japan also has the world's third- largest economy, behind the United States and China, and is capable of paying for its own defense. The latest evidence is it has offered $3.1 billion to help finance the cost of moving the U.S. forces off Okinawa.

. . .

The claim that the United States must maintain forces in Japan to stand watch over China also doesn't hold water. In fact, U.S. troops there serve as a provocation to China.

Our country's fascination with war and its obsession with militarism is extremely troubling, not only for peaceful Americans but for the rest of the world. It's especially ironic when we consider that seven decades ago the United States sought to punish Japan for those very same tendencies.

The Marines really aren't leaving---they'll still be all over Japan, and these 9,000 will be just be moved to other islands---and this shift isn't really a victory for pacifism, or for intelligent foreign policy. After all, the editorial really tries to appeal to America's wallet, and not to its conscience. Nevertheless, reading an editorial like this is refreshing: a positive step, but it should be only the first one toward building a culture that considers peace, not war, as the true victory.

Korean food and culture festival in Pittsburgh, May 5th.

The Korean Central Church of Pittsburgh (피츠버그한인중앙교회) will host its annual Korean food bazaar on May 5th from 10:30 to 4:00pm. As the advertisement says, the menu will include bulgogi, naengmyeon, kimbap, kimchi, pajeon, yukgaejang, and other well-known Korean items. It might be your only chance to try kimbap for under $10 in Pittsburgh.

The church is at 821 S. Aiken Avenue in Shadyside, a block south of Walnut Street, the trendy shopping district in the neighborhood. The Korean festival will coincide with the annual "Walk on Walnut", benefiting local victims of domestic violence, and running May 4th through 6th.

Update: The Tribune-Review has a profile of the 2012 festival now.

2012 Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival, opens May 11.

Pittsburgh's 2012 Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival will open May 11th with The Lady, starring Michelle Yeoh as Aung San Suu Kyi. The festival will run through May 20th, with 24 films at three venues throughout Pittsburgh: the Regent Square Theater, the Harris Theater, and the Melwood Screening Room.

Ugh. So the 65-year-old allegedly responsible for sending threatening emails to current and former University of Pittsburgh professors, and the man behind some bat-shit crazy ramblings against Pitt on his Facebook page and another website, was an English as a Foreign Language teacher in China (here he is on a Chinese EFL jobs site). It's the oddballs, eccentrics, and misfits that Asian EFL attracts that help give the rest---the motivated, the curious, and the sincere---and the industry itself a bad name.

Stats on Asians seeking permanent residency in Pennsylvania, 2011.

Via Nullspace comes a set of links from the Department of Homeland Security about the numbers of, and certain trends among, internationals seeking permanent residency in the United States. Incoming residents from Asia and Oceana to the Pittsburgh region has gone up from 2006 to 2011, Nullspace writes, culminating with 1,826 last year. In 2011 there were 9,197 to the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington area, according to the DHS's Supplemental Table 3.

Looking at Pennsylvania as a whole in 2011, which had 12,071 from Asia based on Supplemental Table 1:

* 159 from Cambodia
* 2,247 from China
* 120 from Japan
* 13 from Laos
* 48 from Malaysia
* 584 from Philippines
* 481 from South Korea
* 94 from Taiwan
* 190 from Thailand
* 940 from Vietnam

Pittsburgh Sakura Festival, April 29.

The First Annual Pittsburgh Sakura Festival will be held April 29 at Pittsburgh's North Park. A short press release published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Saturday reads:

The Sakura Project, which has been planting cherry trees in North Park for three years, will plant more trees and hold a Cherry Blossom Festival from 3 to 5 p.m. April 29 next to the boat house in North Park.

Activities will include folk dancing, musical performances, kite flying, a tea ceremony, a raffle and an appearance by Takumi Kato, a world champion taiko drummer from Japan.

The Pittsburgh Sakura Project has been planting cherry blossom trees in North Park for several years.

The trees have been planted near the boat house, though I think they would look nicer planted closer to the water. The trees are still quite small, but have yielded some blossoms already.

A rainy day on March 24, 2012.

This festival won't coincide with a viewing party, as blossoms in Pittsburgh---like the ones at larger festivals in Washington D.C. and Philadelphia---have come and gone thanks to an atypically warm March. The Pittsburgh Sakura Project plants trees twice a year, spring and fall, so check their website for details and how to get involved.

Students deal with the University of Pittsburgh bomb threats in different ways:

Annmarie Grant, also an engineering major, said that she hasn’t been able to focus on her schoolwork with all the threats.

“It feels like everything is so surreal at this point. We aren’t focused on homework,” Grant said. “I colored all day and watched Korean television.”

lol wut?

Japanese film Anpo: Art x War at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art, April 12.

The Japanese documetary Anpo: Art x War will be showing April 12 at the Frick Fine Arts Building Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland. (The location was changed on April 9th due to repeated bomb threats to the Frick Fine Arts Building and other locations on campus.) The University of Pittsburgh Center of International Studies writes:

The 1951 US-Japan Mutual Security Treaty (ANPO) gave the U.S. the right to maintain armed forces on Japan’s soil. This sparked a protest movement in 1960 in which millions of Japanese citizens took to the streets. The film uses the work of Japanese artists, photographers, and filmmakers to guide the viewer through the opposition to the government response and the presence of U.S. military in Japan.
The director, Linda Hoaglund, is a filmmaker, raised in rural Japan by American missionaries.

Round table discussion with the audience to follow, with speakers Linda Hoaglund, Geralyn Huxley (Curator of Film and Video, The Andy Warhol Museum), and Charles Exley (Assistant Professor, East Asian Languages and Literatures).

Free lecture on "traditional" "Korean" fusion music, April 13.

The University of Pittsburgh Department of Music presents a lecture by R. Anderson Sutton "on Fusion Music and Contemporary Korean Cultural Identity". An excerpt from the abstract:

The notion of cultural purity is demonstrably a myth, as any careful historical analysis of cultural expression anywhere in the world can reveal multiple origins, blends, syncretisms, hybridities that are the inevitable result of human contact. Yet in Korea, as in many countries around the globe, some forms of cultural expression have come to be recognized as “pure” or “authentic” indigenous forms, often celebrated in official discourse as invaluable assets, to be nurtured and preserved against the perceived onslaught of foreign mixture and “pollution.” Korean official discourse on the arts and government-supported cultural policy in Korea has strongly favored the forms with the least evident influence from other countries and cultures, but the vast majority of Korean people today and in the recent past have felt remarkably little appreciation for many of these forms. While most would not deny that these forms are indeed part of their cultural heritage as Koreans and are clearly and unambiguously identifiable as “Korean arts,” they also feel culturally “estranged” from them. That they enjoy other forms of music in almost all contexts presents us with a challenge as we try to come to terms with Korean notions of identity and music. Korean fusion music, a broad and somewhat controversial category of diverse musical practices, all of which involve at least some perceivable cultural mix between unambiguously Korean elements and other elements with foreign origins that are readily apparent, is becoming an increasingly important response to the unsettled cultural terrain on which musicians find themselves in contemporary Korea. This paper considers examples of Korean fusion music, both mainstream and marginal, in an attempt to illuminate aspects of contemporary Korean cultural identity and its discourses in music.

These discussions on "pure" Korean---and "pure" anything, really---are not new among people who pay attention to contemporary South Korean culture, but it's nonetheless nice to see the discussion happening close to home, too. The lecture is free and will be held on April 13, 4:00 pm, in room 132 of the University of Pittsburgh Music Building.