Mooncakes at Squirrel Hill's Dobra Tea.

Dobra Tea in Squirrel Hill (map) will offer mooncakes in September, the month of the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrated in China and elsewhere in Asia.

Jero's Pittsburgh hat.

Found while looking for something else, here's a hat sold in Japan a few years ago and modeled by Jero, the Pittsburgh native and 2003 Pitt graduate who has found fame as an enka singer. A limited selection of sizes is available from Cap Collector for a day's pay.

Pitt had as many Japanese as New Yorkers in 1896.

The University of Pittsburgh kindly scanned millions of pages worth of old documents and made the available online at Documenting Pitt. Flipping through them is a great way to spend a few months some time and learn a little about the international students at Pitt in the 19th and early-20th centuries.

The earliest record available of a Japanese student at what was then Western University of Pennsylvania is of two Japanese engineering students in 1893, Wahei Matsura and Saki Murayama. (The same year the school graduated its first African-American student, William Hunter Dammond.) There isn't a list of students by state and country of origin until the 1896 Catalogue of the Western University of Pennsylvania, which shows that one out of the 583 enrolled students was from Japan (the same as from Kentucky, New York, Germany, and Italy):



In 1916 an alumni directory was published, which lists alumni in alphabetical order and sorts them by country in another list. It includes 10 graduates from China, three from Japan, and one from Korea. Or, rather, one in Korea, as it's F.S. [Frederick Scheibler] Miller, a notable missionary and teacher there in the early-20th century.

Another collection shows that the early Western University of Pennsylvania yearbooks are a little bit like the ones of today: padded in the back with shoutouts and inside jokes. A nicer example from 1921's The Owl:

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.

Chiharu Shiota at Mattress Factory satellite gallery from September 12.

"Stairway", from Chiharu Shiota's official website.

Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota will have an exhibition at Pittsburgh's Mattress Factory satellite gallery on Sampsonia Way from September 12 through July 31, 2014. The museum's website summarizes Shiota and "Traces of Memory":

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’.

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.

Pop City adds more:

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.

“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.”

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.

Enter the Dragon in Oakmont, August 24 and 25.

Oakmont's The Oaks Theater (map) will show Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee's final movie, on August 24 and 25. The 1973 film is highly regarded and was added to the United States Library of Congress National Film Registry in 2004.

Two dollars from every ticket sold on the 24th go to the Warrior Mike Project to provide financial assistance to a local man injured in swimming accident.

Conflict Kitchen is hiring.

Conflict Kitchen, the Oakland foodstand that serves food from nations with which the United States is in conflict, is hiring. From the website:

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.

Dazzle Vision has Live from Pittsburgh CD.

Via the Dazzle Vision Facebook page.

Pretty old news by our standards, but Japanese metal band Dazzle Vision released Live from Pittsburgh on July 5, recorded in front of 1,100 at Pittsburgh's Tekkoshocon in April. It's $20 from JRockShop or $25 from YesAsia (which kicks back a little to this site). Video available for free on YouTube.


Display at Tower Records, via Dazzle Vision's blog.

Appreciation of Squirrel Hill hibiscus in the Korean news.

Gwangju National University of Education president, and University of Pittsburgh alumnus, Park Nam-gi has been in Pittsburgh for a month as part of a teacher-training and cultural-immersion experience with GNUE students. His appreciation of local Hibiscus syriacus (무궁화), which is the national flower of South Korea, was published in the Chosun Ilbo on the 16th. The website---one of the largest papers and news sites in the country---has a periodic series "The Unseen National Flower, Mugunghwa" ("보이지 않는 國花, 무궁화"), and Park's lengthy email on the nostalgia inspired by these plants growing in Pittsburgh is one installment. Here he notes that the walls of hibiscus he enjoyed as a child have been replaced by concrete, and that kids these days growing up in Korea are deprived the opportunity to appreciate the flower in nature:

'마을 앞 무궁화나무 앞에서 친구들과 만나 같이 학교에 가고, 무궁화꽃에 벌이 들어가면 꽃잎을 말아 벌을 잡아 놀기도 했어요. 그러나 무궁화 담장은 언제부터인가 시멘트벽으로 하나둘씩 바뀌더니 점차 사라졌습니다. 지금 아이들은 어렸을 때부터 자연스럽게 무궁화가 품고 있는 의미를 배울 기회가 없어졌지요. 미국 땅에서 무궁화를 보고 반갑기도 했지만, 한국에서 꽃피워야 할 무궁화가 피츠버그에 만발한 것을 보니 그 무궁화 또한 지구 반대편 고향을 그리워하고 있을 것 같아 때로는 슬프게 다가오기도 했습니다.'

박 교수는 피츠버그 사람들이 무궁화를 많이 심어놓은 이유를 알아봤다. '이곳 사람들은 무궁화를 정말 아끼고 좋아하는 것 같아요. 특히 잘 꺾이지 않고 예쁜 꽃이 계속 피기 때문에 정원수나 자연 담장으로 많이 심는다고 하더군요.'

Cambodian singing troupe tours Pittsburgh churches.

Churchgoing Pittsburghers interested in seeing a Cambodian orphan singing troupe can find the "Celebration of Hope" tour in the suburbs for the next week. According to a Post-Gazette story, the group of 18 children has performances scheduled in Oakmont, Pine Township, Zelienople , Penn Hills, and Monroeville through the 24th. From the paper:

The troupe of seven boys and 11 girls, organized by Oakmont-based South East Asia Prayer Center, are touring in an effort to raise awareness about their country and express gratitude for support from around the world. Pittsburgh is the next stop, where the group will spend 10 days performing at seven venues; the first performance is at 1 p.m. today at the Frick Art and Historical Center in Point Breeze, followed by Kennywood Park and several churches in the area.

The children, ages 9 to 17, come from five orphanages in Cambodia. Some have spent years in the homes, and some have just recently moved in. One is the 11-year-old adopted daughter of Pastor Sinai Phouek, the founder of Phnom Penh-based New Hope for Orphans of Cambodia, which partners with the Oakmont organization.

Not much advance notice given for their Frick and Kennywood performances, though. It's not the first time the Oakmont group has hosted Cambodian visitors.

"There was no fresh bamboo available": Pittsburgh's first panda encounter leads to "rampage" in 1939.

Flipping through Dubuque, Iowa's Telegraph-Herald, we find a story of Pittsburgh's brief encounter with a panda. From May 2, 1939:

Pittsburgh--(U.P.)--Three transport plane pilots struggled with a giant panda in midair Monday as the animal, being flown across country, wandered into the plane's cabin when the airliner came into Allegheny County for a landing.

The plane was landed safely, although the 70-pound animal bit First Officer M.H. Cassing on the hand as the ship came to earth. Passengers on the TWA plane were unaware of the pilots' struggle.

Enters Control Cabinet

The panda was chained in the plane's baggage compartment when Tommy Tomlinson, chief test pilot for TWA, attempted to step through. The animal nipped at his trousers and chased him back into the cabin.

Encouraged by the pilot's retreat, the beast boldly ambled into the control cabin and approached Capt. Don Terry. Cassing then took over the controls while Capt. Terry struggled with the panda.

Eluding Capt. Terry, the animal managed to bite Cassing as the first officer brought the plane to a landing.

Bound from China to the Bronx Zoo in New York, the animal was in charge of Dr. A.E. Best of West China University, a passenger in the plane, Dr. Best did not know of the panda's rampage until the ship was landed.

"Does anybody have any fresh bamboo," he asked. "That will pacify him."

There was no fresh bamboo available.

The panda made it to the Bronx Zoo later in the day, but "Pan" died about a year later.