Comfort Women Wanted exposes the fates of nearly 200,000 young women who were exploited as sex slaves by the Imperial Japanese Army in Asia during World War II. The artist uses the remembrance of these “comfort women”—some of whom are still alive today—to increase awareness of sexual violence against women during wartime."Comfort Women Wanted" features both video and print works, and additional information is available on the artist's website. Lee's work was last in Pittsburgh in June when her "Floating Echo" was under a bridge at the Three Rivers Arts Festival.
“In Asia, the comfort women issue remains taboo and controversial, while at the same time, it is almost unknown in the West,” says artist Chang-Jin Lee. “The comfort women system is the largest case of human trafficking in the 20th century. Human trafficking is the fastest growing industry in the world, and the second largest business after arms dealing in the 21st century. So, the comfort women issue is not just about the past, but it is very relevant today.”
The art of hibachi has taken off in Pittsburgh, thanks in no small part to Nakama. Diners sit grill-side as chefs prepare shrimp, chicken and delicacies like Kobe beef and chateaubriand. Also on the menu is a selection of sake, noodles and starters. If you want to avoid the show, you can order the full menu at tables by the bar.Nakama won last year, too, and in 2008, 2009, and 2011. Little Tokyo and Fukuda came in second and third place, respectively. Nakama was also voted "Best Sushi". Kiku, Chaya, and Teppanyaki Kyoto---favorites of this blog and among local Japanese---didn't place in any category. Nicky's Thai Kitchen was voted Best Thai and Sesame Inn was voted Best Chinese, those two also repeat winners from 2012.
Yasuzawa is now focused on building his Japanese book collection. Hundreds of volumes, along with Japanese movie DVDs, line rows of metal shelves in Chaya’s basement. He hopes to someday make the collection widely available, perhaps as part of a Pittsburgh Japanese cultural center.
With the help of an Awesome Pittsburgh grant, this time we are delivering a night of haunted delight with features that will not only make this event the first of its kind in the city but one of the most amazing nights all around:General admission is free, though $25 VIP tickets are available. Advance registration is required, and can be done so online.
- FREE nomicakes by Yummyholic ("What's a nomicake?" You have to come and fall in love for yourself!)
- Trick-or-Treating
- Mini Night Market
- Asian Horror Gallery
- Haunted Photobooth
Featuring music by DJ Duo Tracksploitation
21+ ONLY
Dress Code: Black and/or Red Colors. Keep it classy please, no jeans. Dress to kill..
In this year's annual cultural program from Handa City, Aichi prefecture, Japan, participants will work with a master wagashi (traditional Japanese sweets) maker Masahiro Koie to learn how to make artful sweets and the history and culture of Japanese sweet makers.It will be held from 1:30 to 3:30 pm at the Asian art museum located at 322 N. McKean St. in downtown Butler, some 40 miles north of Pittsburgh (map). Registration is required and can be done by calling 724–282-0123 or by signing up with the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania.
Ocean Heaven is about a terminally ill father, Sam Wong (Jet Li) as he works his job in an aquarium and struggles to look after his 21-year-old son Dafu, who has autism (Wen Zhang). Sam has single-handedly brought up his son since his wife died 14 years ago and looks after him day and night attempting to help him learn basic tasks in order to care for himself, as well as searching for a home for his son before he passes away. As the story progresses, the growing relationship between father and son as well as the community around them become clearer. Ling ling (Gwei Lun-mei) plays the role of a clown who is part of a small traveling circus (they perform in the aquarium for a short period of time) and who gets on well with Dafu, leading to a close friendship between them.The movie plays at 7:00 on the 26th at the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild on the Northside (map). Tickets are available online for $25 for adults and $15 for students, though films not part of opening night are $10 and $5, respectively.
dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories and artistic expressions of people with different disabilities
In "The Rocket," a boy believed to bring bad luck leads his family and a couple of ragged misfits through Laos to find a new home. After a calamity-filled journey through a land scarred by war, he tries to prove he's not cursed by building a giant rocket and entering the most lucrative and dangerous competition of the year, the Rocket Festival.The Rocket will play at Waterworks Cinemas (map) at 7:15 pm. A complete list of films will be announced on October 21.
In Lao with English subtitles, "The Rocket" is Australia's submission for consideration in the foreign language film category for the 86th Academy Awards.
The weight of expectations and unrealized possibilities in love hampers both Weichung (Richie Jen) and Mandy (Kimi Hsia), siblings who find themselves uneasy when faced with the impending demands of domesticity. For Mandy, the issue is her engagement to Sen-Sen (Stone), a reliable, bland hubby-in-waiting, who she dumps after an existentially panicked episode in a department store. Weichung's issues, however, are a bit more cumbersome. Just as his wife, Feng (Mavis Fan), opens discussions about a second child, Weichung's homosexual urges, once thought repressed, reemerge and lead to open flirtations and dates with a nerd-dreamy flight attendant (Wong Ko Lok). Rather than stressing the familial bond between brother and sister, writer-director Chen introduces a team of hip gay men, led by marriage planner Stephen (Lawrence Ko), who both council confused Weichung and give Sen-Sen a makeover.The movie starts at 5:00 pm and, like all movies in the festival, will be shown at the Harris Theater in the Cultural District (map).
Central to the artist’s work are the themes of remembrance and oblivion, dreaming and sleeping, traces of the past and childhood and dealing with anxiety. Shiota explores the relationship between waking life and memories through hauntingly beautiful installations that incorporate everyday objects like shoes, pianos and hospital beds encased in webs of yarn. Stretched in multi-layers in a gallery space, Shiota weaves disorienting cocoons of black yarn that reflect the artist’s desire to ‘draw in the air’.It will run through May 31, 2014.
The site-specific installation of new works by Shiota will fill the eight rooms in the building at 516 Sampsonia Way—a 19th-century row home with a storied past—which is suited to the artist’s work. Its interior is cosmetically untouched; the raw condition of the building lends itself well to reflections on the past and the conjuring of memories.
There will be a food bazaar fund raiser this Saturday at church (Located on 821 South Aiken, Shady Side) from 2:30-4pm for the University of Pittsburgh Korean Heritage Room. You can contact Hain Byeon (hlb40@pitt.edu) to pre-order any of the items below.Pre-ordering is not necessary, though, a comment beneath the post says. This church is the site of the annual Korean Food Bazaar each May.
bulgogi (불고기) - $12.00
gim bab (김밥) - $ 5.00
dduk bokk gi (떡볶이) - $5.00
goon mandoo (군만두) - $5.00
yook gae jang (육개장) - $8.00
hae mul pa jun (해물파전)- $2.00
shik hae (식혜)- $3.50
california rolls - $5.00
gut jul ee (겉절이) - $5.00
ho dduk (호떡) - $1.00
pat shi lu dduk (팥시루떡) - $4.00
Whether your Korean skills are intermediate or advanced, join us to practice lively Korean Conversation and will meet every Saturday in the Large Print Room on the First Floor.It will be held from 3:00 to 5:00 pm in the Large Print Room. Registration is required and can be done on the event's webpage. For future meetings, visit the Carnegie Library website, click "Events" and search for "Korean Conversation".
Wife is suffering from stomach pain and she firmly believes that she can find a cure from Doctor. However, Doctor has no idea how. Husband goes to an empty lot in search of a snake. When he hunts, he wears a beekeeper’s hat. Sister talks but who knows if it is the truth? Life is a constant struggle to find a right answer.A trailer is available on Kim's website. "Bite of the Tail" is part of Program B, which begins on Friday night at 9:15 and on Saturday the 5th at 7:30.
Carnegie Mellon University's Art Lecture Series will host Yasumasa Morimura on October 3. Wikipedia describes him as an appropriation artist who, by definition,borrows images from historical artists (ranging from Édouard Manet to Rembrandt to Cindy Sherman), and inserts his own face and body into them.The CMU School of Art's webpage previews the lecture:
YASUMASA MORIMURA’s fascination with the self-portrait, gay and transgendered life, art history and popular culture aligns him closely with the work of Andy Warhol. Renowned for his reprisals of iconic images drawn from art history and the mass media, Morimura literally assumes his own place in the historical narrative. In the process, he conflates issues of originality and reproduction, gender and race to create what he calls a “beautiful commotion.” Like Warhol and many artists today, Morimura explores the fluidity of sexuality and gender, and the meaning of difference in highly structured societies.The talk will run from 5:00 to 6:00 in McConomy Auditorium, CMU University Center (campus map). As the website says, the Andy Warhol Museum will present "Yasumasa Morimura: Theater of the Self", from October 6, 2013 to January 12, 2014.
brings the sounds of traditional Taiwanese, Chinese and neighboring Asian traditions into modern times with skillful compositions that open new passageways for east-west cultural dialogue. Accompanied by the sound of traditional instruments such as the Chinese erhu, zhong-ruan, and Chinese percussion, the sublime singer and dancer Mia Hsieh leads a powerful ensemble on ethereal journeys that are enchanting audiences and critics across five continents.All descriptions of the band plagiarize each other, so it's more informative to watch their performance videos on their YouTube channel.
* Don HoThe show is 21 and over, and tickets are $35. Additional Vietnamese shows are planned at Mount Airy in November and December.
* Thanh Ha
* Justin Nguyen
* Helena Ngoc Hong
* Archie
are miniature sculptures that were invented in 17th-century Japan to serve a practical function (the two Japanese characters ne+tsuke mean "root" and "to attach"). Traditional Japanese garments—robes called kosode and kimono—had no pockets; however, men who wore them needed a place to store their personal belongings, such as pipes, tobacco, money, seals, or medicines.The cost for each is $5, and registration is required. The programs are led by local Japanese and history teacher Dixie Lipnichan, and attendees
will learn the history of the Netsuke, and about the folklore behind the carvings, they will visit the Maridon's wall of over 100 Netsuke, and make their own carving to take home.The Maridon Museum of Asian Art is located at 322 N. McKean St. in downtown Butler, some 40 miles north of Pittsburgh (map).
"Small spaces can be made to be very dramatic and beautiful and affordable to pull off," [homeowner Ed McHugh] said. "Many people do not have the luxury of having large, expansive spaces."
Drug War belongs to a subgenre that’s particular to [director Johnnie] To: crime movies that blend real-world details with oddball characters and narrative left turns, resulting in something that feels both realistic and heightened. Set in the mainland city of Jinhai, Drug War follows a group of narcotics agents who score a big break when they arrest Louis Koo, a Cantonese meth supplier. Faced with the possibility of the death penalty under China’s strict drug laws, Koo becomes an informant for the police, offering them an even bigger break in exchange for clemency: the chance to nab his boss.The Pittsburgh Filmmakers website has information on showtimes, with the first screening at 8:00 on Friday and three additional showings through the weekend.
Four girls: each abandoned, each eventually adopted by an American family. Now they are teenagers in American suburbs, a world of minivans and school activities. Each is clearly confident enough to navigate her local terrain. Each is introspective about her roots, curious about her origins, though perhaps not so confident about meeting her birth family, should that possibility arise.Somewhere Between will be shown at 7:30 pm, September 16, in 1500 Posvar Hall (map) on the University of Pittsburgh campus. It's free, and include discussion from three speakers. See the flyer above for more on the screening, and the movie's official website for more on the documentary.
The movie explores the psychology of being immigrant in American society. The young women have that consciousness that minority status in America forces. Immigrants are simultaneously insiders and outsiders, always conscious of our identities. The sense of exile from all lands, living somewhere between this and that, is the norm. Many immigrants respond by trying to surrender everything that would be deemed “exotic,” whether it means overcompensation with language, makeup, or even surgery. These girls, however, seem exceptionally comfortable in their own skins. I suspect much of that has to do with the fact that their experience is an exponentially exaggerated version of the common immigrant experience. But, I suspect that just as much results from their adoptive parents' concerns in raising them. One mother learned Chinese, while all the parents seem to take their adoptive daughters back to China, almost annually.
a hypnotically beautiful dream from the Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai, opens with curls of smoke, eddies of water and men soaring and flying across the frame as effortlessly as silk ribbons. The men are warriors, street fighters with furious fists and winged feet, who have massed together on a dark, rainy night to take on Ip Man (Tony Leung), a still figure in a long coat and an elegant white hat. Even amid the violent whirlpools of rain and bodies, that hat never leaves his head. It’s as unyielding as its owner.Tony Normon writes today in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Zhang Ziyi's performance was "so luminous that I considered myself lucky to be alive to enjoy [it]."
an anime, gaming, new media, and Japanese culture con taking place in Erie, Pennsylvania on September 20, 21, and 22, 2013. The location is the Reed Student Union of Behrend College, 4701 College Drive, Erie, Pennsylvania, 16563. Events include live music by the Waddledees, video gaming of all eras, an anime dance party, cosplay masquerade, geekpop karaoke, drawing, crafting, fan-run panels and more! Our focus is on creativity and participation. Passes are available at the door...$10 per day ($5 with Behrend student ID), $20 all weekend ($10 with Behrend ID).
Otakichi Tanaka
Nagasaki, Japan
One of our neighbors from across "the way." Doesn't say much, but is always listening and when you can get him to talk, he's the most entertaining boy around. Persevering, you ask? You'd think he was if you knew he attends both day and evening school, wouldn't you? Well, he does, and is just as big a booster for the Evening School as any member of it. We're proud to have him with us and happy that he picked Pitt to come to.
Central to the artist’s work are the themes of remembrance and oblivion, dreaming and sleeping, traces of the past and childhood and dealing with anxiety. Shiota explores the relationship between waking life and memories through hauntingly beautiful installations that incorporate everyday objects like shoes, pianos and hospital beds encased in webs of yarn. Stretched in multi-layers in a gallery space, Shiota weaves disorienting cocoons of black yarn that reflect the artist’s desire to ‘draw in the air’.Pop City adds more:
The site-specific installation of new works by Shiota will fill the eight rooms in the building at 516 Sampsonia Way—a 19th-century row home with a storied past—which is suited to the artist’s work. Its interior is cosmetically untouched; the raw condition of the building lends itself well to reflections on the past and the conjuring of memories.
Shiota, who has worked out of Berlin since 1996, came to Pittsburgh at the beginning of August and has been covering the interior of the building with more than a million feet of yarn.The opening reception is on the 12th from 7 to 9 pm. The new gallery is located at 516 Sampsonia Way (map), a few houses down from the museum's main building and down the street from the City of Asylum.
“She’d never had that big of a space to work with before,” Vanim says. “It’s nice to work in a space that has a little more character and a little more history to it. She’s used to working with plain, white gallery space.”
Employees need to be capable of both working in the kitchen as well as interacting with our customers on topics related to our focus country in the sales window and at our dinners. Employees must bring a keen interest in international politics and cultural relations. Our employees are the face of Conflict Kitchen, and their conversations with our guests are at the core of our mission. We expect our employees to be expert conversationalists, deeply versed in the culture and politics within our focus county. We also expect our employees to learn how to produce our cuisine in an efficient, consistent, and professional manner.Those interested may submit a resume via the restaurant's website. It's currently serving Cuban food, and will debut its North Korean menu in October.
