Welcome, Xia.

Red Pandas are from Asia. The Pittsburgh Zoo just put one on display. That's all the motivation we need to post a cute video.



Pittsburgh's red panda "Xia" is two years old and comes from a zoo in North Dakota. From KDKA:

[Zookeeper] Bamrick says she behaves like a house cat, friendly on her own terms. Despite her appearance, the red panda is not related to cats, raccoons, or foxes.

For that matter, the zookeeper says, “It’s not a panda. It’s been classified with the giant pandas, and classified with raccoons and bears. They’ve kind of settled on their own group. If you look back tens of millions of years, they have common ancestry, but today they’re one of a kind.”

North Korean take-out coming to Pittsburgh's Conflict Kitchen this fall, maybe.

Popsicles in Wonsan, 2012, from Joseph A. Ferris.

Pittsburgh's Conflict Kitchen---"a take-out restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries with which the United States is in conflict"---recently opened in Oakland's Schenley Park. Accompanying news of its relocation from East Liberty and its Iranian menu is that North Korean food will be coming this fall. From the Pitt News yesterday:

While Conflict Kitchen’s current menu features authentic Iranian cuisine, its organizers hope to bring North Korean food to Oakland’s Schenley Plaza soon.

As of now, the Conflict Kitchen’s crew plans to travel to South Korea in August to meet with North Korean refugees and conduct food research. These face-to-face interactions allow for more direct information and a better product. Sayre said that while the crew formally conducted food research on a trip to Cuba, some of the best information and tips they received were from ordinary people they ran into on the street informally. The crew always attempts to experience a country’s food firsthand before bringing it to Pittsburgh, but in some cases, such as North Korea and Iran, field research is not feasible.

And from The Last Magazine in February:

While exploring Cuba, Rubin and Weleski came across the North Korean embassy in Havana and decided to pay the cultural attaché a visit. They discussed regional dishes and found out that North Korea’s food is in many ways similar to that of its bête noire, South Korea. While they acknowledge that a North Korean edition of Conflict Kitchen may be problematic, they nonetheless want to shed light on the human side of the conflict, cooking up coexistence through ethnic dishes regardless of the degree of controversy.

A Pop City Media post from March says they will offer both North and South Korean food, which is useful considering there are tens of thousands of American military personnel there, both symbolizing and actually representing this country's heavy bootprint all across East Asia.

Much of what the restaurant does know about North Korean food has heretofore come from Cuba, via that North Korean embassy. The Pittsburgh City Paper on their preparations up to last fall:

While research hasn’t stretched to visiting the country, Rubin and Sayre did stop by the North Korean embassy in Cuba, or at least rung the doorbell and chatted for 45 minutes with an employee returning from a morning run.

The Los Angeles Times wrote in 2012 of the then-impending Korean menu:

"People are going to be thinking, 'Are we going to be eating twigs and rocks?' " Rubin joked as he repaired the cafe's front counter, where employees dish out food and try to get customers to talk about the conflict du jour.

One thing Rubin learned from the Korean diplomat, who was polite but did not let his uninvited guests into the embassy, is that North Korean cuisine isn't much different from South Korean. The two countries were, after all, one until 1945, the diplomat reminded them in flawless Spanish. He noted, however, that northerners lean toward buckwheat rather than rice noodles.

Wikipedia will give you a quick overview of regional Northern Korean food. The "maybe" in our title is there because talk of North Korean food has been going on since 2010.

"Thai Hana" restaurant coming to Oakland.

This sign for "Thai Hana" recently went up at 3608 Fifth Ave. in Oakland, in what most recently was AJ's Inca Peruvian restaurant.



Thai Hana will join an Indian place, a Lebanese place, a pizza place, and a Popeye's on this Fifth Ave. block. Over the past year Miss Saigon 88, Rose Tea Cafe, and Sushi Fuku opened in Oakland and joined a half-dozen other Asian places, so in spite of this blog's focus I am a little sorry to see the Peruvian place go.

Update, 04/24/13: Signage went up.

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters at Carnegie Library Oakland, April 7.

The Carnegie Library Oakland branch will show Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters on April 7 as part of its monthly Foreign Film Series. Frequently ambiguous---mindful perhaps of copyright violations---the library's website describes the unnamed film thus:

A look at acclaimed Japanese author and playwright Yukio Mishima, the impossible harmony he created between self, art, and society, and his famously committed public seppuku (ritual suicide).

The movie runs from 2:00 to 4:00. Wikipedia and IMDB have more, and Roger Ebert gave it four stars.

Korean film Hwang Jin Yi (황진이) at IUP, April 3.

Indiana University of Pennsylvania will show the Korean movie Hwang Jin Yi (황진이) as part of its Asian Studies Club Film Festival on April 3. Hwang Jin Yi is a historical drama on the life of Hwang Jini--same person, different romanization--a 16th-century gisaeng. The Korean Film Database summarizes:

A story of HWANG Jin Yi, the most renowned courtesan of the Chosun Dynasty, and her love affair with a male servant named Nom-yi.

Koreanfilm.org gives it a very unfavorable review, though. The movie will be shown in room 233 Keith Hall (campus map) at 7:00 pm, and is free and open to the public.

Woodblock print exhibition "The Art of Japanese Noh Drama: Tsukioka Kōgyo, 1869-1927" at Pitt, March 29.

The University of Pittsburgh's Barco Law Library Gallery (map) will exhibit "The Art of Japanese Noh Drama: Tsukioka Kōgyo, 1869-1927" on March 29. A University Library System website describes the collection:

Nōgaku zue 能 樂 圖 繪, or Pictures of Noh, is a spectacular series of Japanese color woodblock prints by the artist Tsukioka Kōgyo (1869-1927). The University of Pittsburgh owns a rare, complete set of this series, published at Tokyo between the Meiji years 30-35, or 1897-1902. Bound in traditional folding-album format, the series comprises five volumes of 261 prints inspired by the plays of classical Japanese noh theatre.

The collection is digitized and is available for browsing on that ULS website, but in real life it

comprises five bound Meiji period printed albums, protected by a silk wrap-around chitsu (chemise) and stored in a modern archival box. Each volume is of equal size and thickness and bound in the manner of traditional Japanese orihon, or folding scrolls. Each volume contains fifty-two or fifty-three full-page, multi-colored woodblock prints of noh (also spelled: nō, nô) theatre subjects.

Also at Pitt and on the topic, the Special Collections Department on the 3rd floor of Hillman Library houses the Barry Rosenthal Japanese Print Collection of woodblock prints from the 18th through 20th centuries.

Taiwanese film Three Times (最好的時光) at Maridon Museum rescheduled for April 5.

Butler's Maridon Museum will show the 2005 Taiwanese film Three Times (最好的時光) on April 5 as part of this year's Spring Film Series. It was originally scheduled for March 25. Wikipedia says about the movie:

[Three Times] features three chronologically separate stories of love between May and Chen, set in 1911, 1966 and 2005, using the same lead actors, Shu Qi and Chang Chen.

The Maridon is an Asian art museum at 322 N. McKean St. in downtown Butler (map) that presents Asian films from particular countries as part of its spring and fall series. Last year it was China and Vietnam. The show starts at 6:30 and is presented by Dr. William Covey of Slippery Rock University.

IUP's growing Japanese program.

A press release from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania's Asian Studies page:

Yongtaek Kim received a grant of $25,000 from the Japan Foundation’s Institutional Project Support–Small Grant Program.

The grant will be used to hire adjunct faculty to teach introductory Japanese language classes and also to expand the program’s online presence.

The grant is being matched by funds from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences for the purchase of tablet computers for use in Japanese language classes.

IUP is a midsize state school about an hour east of Pittsburgh that for a while has had solid programs with an international reach. It runs several international film series each year, and has an active Japanese Student Association (their Facebook page is here). The department hasn't publicly advertised the upcoming Japanese instructor position, though feelers have been informally put out in western Pennsylvania.

Japanese festivals at CMU, Pitt on March 29 and 30.

This weekend there will be two Japanese festivals at Oakland's two largest universities. On Friday, March 29, the Japanese Student Association at CMU presents Matsuri (festival) from 4:30 to 9:30 pm at the CMU University Center and Merson Courtyard (campus map). The event's website says:

We wanted to share a snippet of this eventful festival here in Pittsburgh, right on CMU campus. Come by to try a taste of Japanese street food, play with some traditional arcade games and enjoy a range of performances from Japanese Taiko Drumming and a traditional Koto performance to Japanese Pop and Rock Fusion of Contemporary Japanese Music.

We have put in a lot of effort into authenticity; we purchase things online and ship them from Japan. We hand craft our booths to make it look like what you see on the streets in Japan. Enjoy the event to its fullest by paying attention to the details we've put in!

Food and games at the festival require tickets, which you can pre-order online. All of the profits made will be donated to Minato Middle School, which was completely destroyed by the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.



On March 30 at the University of Pittsburgh is the annual Cherry Blossom Festival, put on by the Japanese Culture Association. To plagiarize the Facebook event page:

We're extremely excited for this year's festival which has the potential to be one of the best yet!

With performances from:

-Pitt Taiko
-FRESA
- and Japanese Sword demonstrations from Loren Keifer

That's not all, we'll have all sorts of fun booths set up, including:

-Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) from JASP
-Japanese Tea with Amy Svoboda
-Kimono Fashion with Evan Mason
-Video Games

And of course we'll have copious amounts of delicious Japanese street cuisine, such as; takoyaki, yakisoba, okonomiyaki, taiyaki, onigiri, and mochi.

It will be held from 2:00 to 5:00 at the William Pitt Union Ballroom.

To see cherry blossoms in Pittsburgh you'll have to wait another week or two. On April 6 is the Pittsburgh Sakura Project's Spring Planting Festival, and both Philadelphia and Washington D.C. (two cities close enough for a weekend trip) are holding their large cherry blossom festivals throughout April.

Pitt Night Market (匹大夜市), March 29.

The Chinese American Student Association at Pitt brings news of its Pitt Night Market on Friday, March 29 from 9 pm to midnight in room 548 of the William Pitt Union.

Time to bring back the infamous NIGHT MARKET! Culturally dominant in Chinese cities, night markets are a pivotal aspect of urban life in Taiwan and China. Tonight we will be bringing you a glimpse of just what its like to be at a night market. There will be free games and prizes, as well as traditional night market foods and drinks (i.e. scallion pancake, bubble milk tea, etc). Better not miss it!

三月29日2013年
匹大夜市
地點: 學生活動中心 WPU 748
時間: 21:00

夜市是在中國大陸與台灣的都市生活不得不有的一個不分。今晚我們要讓大家感受到一點點夜市的氣氛。會有免費的遊戲與獎品更會有經點小吃飲料（蔥油餅，珍珠奶茶，等等）。千萬不能錯過的活動喔！

No word yet on the availability of stinky tofu, but this looks like a good time. Though Pittsburgh hypes the Strip District as something of a market---and it's a fine destination in its own right---the city doesn't have anything that matches the activity, the variety, and the mass of humanity of Asian cities a Taiwanese or Chinese night market.


Taiwan night market, by luces. Hard to find photographs under a Creative Commons license, but you can browse more in this Flickr group.