"Sounds Upstairs: Flying Strings Youth Ensemble," November 10 in Oakland.

The Flyinkg Strings Youth Ensemble will perform November 10 at the Carnegie Library in Oakland.

The Flying Strings Youth Ensemble is a talented group of musicians blending traditional Chinese and Western music. With members from across the U.S. playing diverse instruments, including pipa, guzheng, erhu, zhongruan, flute, violin, cello, and piano, the ensemble is committed to both musical excellence and community service. This program takes place in the South Wing Reading Room

The event runs from 2:00 to 3:00 pm and is free and open to the public. The Oakland branch of the Carneige Library of Pittsburgh is located at 4400 Forbes Ave. (map), accessible by numerous city bus lines.

Album making-of documentary RM: Right People, Wrong Place in Pittsburgh, from December 5.

The upcoming film RM: Right People, Wrong Place will play in Pittsburgh-area theaters from December 5.

A film that chronicles artist RM's eight-month production of his second solo album, “Right Place, Wrong Person,” while candidly recording the endless concerns of the person Kim Namjoon, and the things he immerses himself in and loves.

It plays locally December 5 through 8, and December 14, at the AMC Loews Waterfront and the Cinemark in Robinson, and tickets are available online.

"The Promise of Intimacy: Digital Lives of Queer Filipinx/a/os in Manila and Los Angeles" at Pitt, November 7.

The University of Pittsburgh's Gender, Sexuality, & Women's Studies Program will present Dr. Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza and his talk "The Promise of Intimacy: Digital Lives of Queer Filipinx/a/os in Manila and Los Angeles" on November 7.

Mobile digital technologies are transforming how people communicate with one another. They offer a promise for quick and easy platonic, romantic, and/or sexual connections. With the intensification of people’s reliance on and everyday engagement with mobile digital media platforms, the study of mediated intimacies is relevant and needed more than ever before. Spanning several years of ethnographic research, both in Manila and Los Angeles, queer Filipinx/a/o men in my study complained that it was difficult to find meaningful connections through socio-sexual apps. In their pursuits of intimacies, queer Filipinx/a/o men in my study experienced frequent forms of failure, generating various affective responses that shape their actions and beliefs. In the accounts of these experiences, failure is not a totalizing experience. Nor do these experiences necessarily lead to definite endpoints. Such possibilities still create many forms of exclusions to intimacy, yet the queer Filipinx/a/o men who shared parts of their lives continue to aspire, to hope for an experience of intimacy. Some openings and possibilities inspire responses and alternative paths toward the realization of brief moments of connection, and small moments of pleasure. My study seeks to understand queer Filipinx/a/o men’s digital lives and how their experiences inform complex negotiations on and offline in the search for connection, especially when feelings are amplified and complicated by social categories of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality.

It runs from 1:00 to 2:00 pm in room 2322 Cathedral of Learning.

Chinese film The Unseen Sister (乔妍的心事) in Pittsburgh, from November 7.

The Chinese film The Unseen Sister (乔妍的心事) will play in Pittsburgh from November 7.

Qiao Yan (played by ZHAO Liying) is a big star in China, acclaimed for her performances and popular with audiences. But she is tiring of her gilded life and feels ready to break with her manager/business partner Shen Haoming (played by HUANG Jue). Her long-lost sister (played by XIN Zhilei) suddenly turns up in Beijing, soon after Qiao Yan has fallen victim to an anonymous attempt at extortion. Qiao Yan finds herself losing control of events as she’s plunged into memories of her distant childhood in a village in Yunnan Province (South-west China, close to the border with Myanmar) and her fraught relationships with her mother and father. Before long she has to juggle decisions about her career with escalating events which threaten to overwhelm not only her emotional stability but also her entire sense of her personal identity.

It plays locally at the AMC Loews Waterfront and tickets are available online.

2024 action film Weekend in Taipei in Pittsburgh, from November 7.

The 2024 action film Weekend in Taipei, set in the Taiwanese capital and featuring a number of Taiwanese actors in co-starring roles, plays in Pittsburgh-area theaters from November 7 through November 14.

John Lawlor is a pit-bull DEA agent married to his job -- there's not a bad guy he can't stop, nothing he won't sacrifice to close out a case. Joey Kang is a top "Transporter" in Taipei -- fast-driving and fast-thinking, she's difficult to pin down, impossible to catch. The two of them weren't supposed to fall in love, but fate brought them together... before forces of crime and corruption tore them apart. Now, 15 years later, fate puts Joey and John on a collision course during a weekend in Taipei. And the two will discover that the only thing harder than falling in love... is falling back in love.

It plays locally at the AMC Loews Waterfront, the AMC Classic Mt. Lebanon, and the AMC Classic Westmoreland, and tickets are available online.

Registration now open for Pittsburgh Taiko beginner workshops, November 10, November 24, and December 15.

Registration is now open for Pittsburgh Taiko beginner workshops, held November 10, November 24, and December 15 at their studio in Bellevue.

Pittsburgh Taiko is offering several beginner workshops in November and December for people who just want to give taiko a try, or folks who might be interested in joining our performing group. No previous experience necessary!

Each workshop is a 3-hour introduction to taiko, including some taiko history and culture and focusing on hands-on basics. You’ll learn how to stand, how to hit, and some simple patterns that come together to make a percussion melody.

Read more and register at JASP's website! https://japansocietypa.org/events We're excited to see you there!

Registration is required and may be completed online. The studio is located at 2 N Balph Ave, 2nd Floor, in Bellevue (map).

Pittsburgh Opera presents Madama Butterfly, featuring an entirely Japanese and Japanese-American creative team, March 2025.

Pittsburgh Opera will present Madama Butterfly in March 2025 with an entirely Japanese and Japanese-American creative team. PennsylvAsia readers can save 20% on tickets through an exclusive promo code.

MADAMA BUTTERFLY

Music by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa • MARCH 22, 25, 28, 30, 2025

His escape is her cage.

In this groundbreaking new production created by an all-Japanese and Japanese American creative team, Madama Butterfly’s story is transported to a fantastical realm where reality and dreams intersect.

Pinkerton puts on a VR headset and transports us into a vibrant virtual reality playground where he has ultimate control. As his avatar, a U.S. Navy Lieutenant, he can seduce and marry his fantasy girl and abandon her just as easily. But to Cio-Cio San, this is no game and the love and betrayal she feels is all too real.

Enveloped in Puccini’s stunning music, this visually beautiful production is the perfect match. Pittsburgh Opera is proud to partner with Cincinnati Opera, Detroit Opera, and Utah Opera to co-produce this reinvention of Puccini’s classic, uncovering new and resonant meaning for all audiences to enjoy.

 

Pennsylvasia readers can save 20% with the promo code POASIA!

Tickets are now available online. The performances are held at the Benedum Center in downtown's Cultural District (map).

Fanmade: Enhypen in Pittsburgh, November 8 and 9.

The 2024 documentary Fanmade: Enhypen will play in Pittsburgh on November 8 and 9.

FANMADE offers a peek into the global K-pop sensation ENHYPEN's journey and their deep connection to their fans, called ENGENEs, during their tour.

The Hollywood Reporter writes:

The film follows parallel journeys between the group and Engenes. It will show Enhypen as they perform on their U.S. arena tour, building towards the Samsung Galaxy Fanmade concert, where five female fans come together to create a unique experience for the band and the fans, according to a release.

It is scheduled to play locally at the AMC Loews Waterfront, and tickets are available online.

Asian beauty store Maison Beauty coming soon to Squirrel Hill.

Maison Beauty, an Asian skincare and cosmetics store, is coming soon to Squirrel Hill. It describes itself as "Pittsburgh’s one stop shop for all Asian Beauty products," and will be opening at 2021 Murray Ave. (map).

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan performing in Pittsburgh, November 16.

The Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan will perform in Pittsburgh on November 16.

Claimed as “Asia’s leading contemporary dance theater” (The Times), Cloud Gate has set out to engage with local history, culture, and subject matter through classical, folk, and modern dance for over 50 years. Cloud Gate combines their practices in Qi Gong, martial artist, modern dance, street dance, and ballet—transforming ancient aesthetics into a thrilling celebration of motion.

Cloud Gate shares 13 Tongues by artistic director CHENG Tsung-lung, a work based on Bangka/Wanhua, the oldest district of Taipei, and legendary 1960s street artist “Thirteen Tongues”. Through imagination and storytelling recalling childhood memories and visual art, 13 Tongues evokes centuries of human endeavor, behavior, and belief.

The performance will be held at the Byham Theater in downtown's Cultural District (map). Tickets are now available online.