“The Chinese Exclusion Act in American and World History, 1882-1965”, part of February 11 Teach-In at Pitt.

Visiting Assistant Professor in the University of Pittsburgh's Department of History David Luesink will speak on “The Chinese Exclusion Act in American and World History, 1882-1965” as part of Pitt's Teach-In on New Immigration & Trade Policies on February 11.

The Teach-In is an opportunity to explore and learn more about the historical context and implications of America’s new trade and immigration policies.

The sessions run from 1:00 to 5:00 pm---and a full schedule is available here---and Dr. Luesink's talk runs from 4:00 to 4:50 in the the Yugoslav Room (#142) in the Cathedral of Learning (map).

Year of the Rooster parade, February 12 in Squirrel Hill.

via @OCA Pittsburgh.

The second annual Lunar New Year parade through Squirrel Hill will take place on Sunday, February 12 from 11:00 am.

[T]he festivities will culminate with the second annual Lunar New Year parade. At 11am on Sunday, February 12, more than 30 groups will begin their march at Murray Avenue and Phillips. The route will continue up Murray Avenue and conclude at Forbes and Murray.

Chinese movie Duckweed (乘风破浪) in Pittsburgh, from February 10.

The 2017 Chinese movie Duckweed (乘风破浪) will play at the AMC Loews Waterfront theater from February 10. A Variety review summarizes:

The protagonist, Lang (Deng Chao), is a car racer living in 2022 Shanghai. Upon winning a national rally, he publicly and sarcastically “thanks” his dad, Zheng (Eddie Peng), for his rough upbringing and lack of encouragement. He offers Zheng a ride to show off his driving, but crashes the vehicle.

While hovering between life and death, Lang time-slips to 1998, and lands in an alley where he witnesses a young Zheng’s righteous but foolhardy actions. Together with dimwit Liu Yi (race-car driver Zack Gao) and computer nerd Little Ma (Dong Zijian, “Mountains May Depart”) they pose like younger selves of the aged vigilantes in Guan Hu’s “Mr Six,” upholding honor codes borrowed from ’80s Hong Kong gangster films.

The movie opened in China on January 28. Tickets and showtimes are available via Fandango. The theater is located at 300 West Waterfront Dr. in the Waterfront shopping complex in Homestead (map), across the Monongahela River from Greenfield, Squirrel Hill, and the rest of Pittsburgh.

Also at the Waterfront, the Stephen Chow-produced movie Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons 2 (西遊伏妖篇) continues.

When the former mayor of Pittsburgh was the US ambassador to Japan.

Photograph from Library of Congress.

George W. Guthrie, mayor of Pittsburgh from 1906 to 1909, served as the United States Ambassador to Japan from 1913 until his death in 1917.

Yanlai Dance Academy presents Red Fan, March 4.

Yanlai Dance Academy, based in the North Hills, will present Red Fan on March 4.

Enjoy the dazzling spectacle of traditional Chinese dance. Watch dances that range from graceful fluidity to rambunctious athleticism. Learn about the many ethnic groups and traditions that make up Chinese culture. Be dazzled by the exquisite costumes, exotic music, and gifted dancers. Yanlai Dance Academy's Red Fan is a family-friendly experience guaranteed to entertain.

Tickets begin at $15 for general admission. The event will be held from 6:00 pm at Carson Middle School, located off McKnight Road in the North Hills (map).

InStyle Hair Studio, a new Asian hair salon, coming to Squirrel Hill.

Renovations are underway at 5815 Forbes Ave. in Squirrel Hill (map), where InStyle Hair Salon will open in what was most recently a Kidz & Company children's clothing store. It will be the second Asian hair salon in the neighborhood, and the most recent in a line of Asian businesses to recently open in Squirrel Hill following Hair Lin's (名髮廊), two express mail services, an Asian clothing boutique, a Taiwanese restaurant, and Hi Sound KTV.

"Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club" talk with author Dr. Akiko Takeyama, February 10 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of Anthropology will host Dr. Akiko Takeyama and her talk on her 2016 book Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club on February 10.

In Tokyo host clubs, ambitious young men seek their fortunes by selling love, romance, companionship, and sometimes sex to female consumers for exorbitant sums of money. Takeyama reveals a world where all intimacies and feigned feelings are fair game and theorizes the aspirational mode: seducing one another out of the present and into a hopeful future, in Japan’s service-centered economy.

The talk begins at 3:00 pm in 3106 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

1995's Ghost in the Shell (攻殻機動隊) at Southside Works, February 7 and 8.

The 1995 Japanese animated movie Ghost in the Shell (攻殻機動隊) will play in Pittsburgh on February 7 and 8. The distributor provides a summary:

In the year 2029, cybernetic government agent, Major Motoko Kusanagi and the Internal Bureau of Investigations are hot on the trail of “The Puppet Master”—a mysterious and threatening computer virus is capable of infiltrating human hosts. Working closely with her fellow agents from Section 9, the Major embarks on a high-tech race against time to capture the omnipresent entity.

Don’t miss the movie the Examiner called “…one of the pioneering films of anime history.”

Tickets are currently available online. Southside Works Cinema is located at 425 Cinema Drive in the Southside, one block from the Hot Metal Bridge (map).

Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons 2 (西遊伏妖篇) in Pittsburgh, from February 2.

The new Stephen Chow-produced movie Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons 2 (西遊伏妖篇) will open in Pittsburgh with a 7:00 pm show on February 2. A January 30 South China Morning Post review provides a summary:

In the 2013 film the Tang dynasty Buddhist monk Xuan Zang conquered the three demons that would subsequently become his famed disciples (the Monkey King, pig demon “Pigsy” and fish demon “Sandy”); the coolly, if confusingly, titled The Demons Strike Back follows the quartet in the early stages of their journey to the west, as Monkey King and co. repeatedly try to protect Xuan Zang from demons – including the well-known spider and skeleton types – presumably eager to feast on the monk’s flesh.

The movie premiered in China on January 28 and set a record there for the highest-grossing opening day of a domestic film. Tickets and showtimes are available via Fandango. The theater is located at 300 West Waterfront Dr. in the Waterfront shopping complex in Homestead (map), across the Monongahela River from Greenfield, Squirrel Hill, and the rest of Pittsburgh.

Chinese-Indian co-production Kung Fu Yoga (功夫瑜伽), starring Jackie Chan and Lay Zhang, in Pittsburgh from February 3.

The 2017 movie Kung Fu Yoga (功夫瑜伽) will play at the AMC Loews Waterfront from February 3. A January 2017 one-star review summarizes:

Chan plays Jack, a well-respected university professor who specializes in Chinese/Indian history. Like Indiana Jones before him, Jack insists that everything valuable belongs to the world/a museum. So, after enlisting the help of his teaching assistants Zhu (Yixing Zhang) and Nuomin (Miya Muqi), Jack inevitably embarks on a quest to dig up buried treasure that takes him from Tibet's frozen tundras to Dubai's urban sprawl. Along the way, Jack's group gets attacked by Randall (Sonu Snood), a descendant of the treasure trove's owners. But conflict only ensues 40 minutes later, after Jack bores us to tears with a multi-part history lesson about the treasure's past. Chan wants to make history come alive(!) so he lectures us multiple times(!!) after an equally boring "300"-style battle sequence that pits ferocious Indian soldiers riding elephants against ingenious killing machine Chinese soldiers. A scuffle ensues, then a really dull auction for more treasure, then he drives a car with a computer-generated lion in it, and then the rest of the movie keeps right on happening.

Tickets and showtimes are available via Fandango. The theater is located at 300 West Waterfront Dr. in the Waterfront shopping complex in Homestead (map), across the Monongahela River from Greenfield, Squirrel Hill, and the rest of Pittsburgh.