Governor’s Advisory Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs Town Hall in Pittsburgh, March 25.

The PA Governor's Advisory Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs will host a Town Hall meeting at the University of Pittsburgh on Saturday, March 25.

Please join the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs for an interactive dialogue. GACAPAA is responsible for serving as the advocate agency in the Commonwealth for our diverse AAPI communities. The Commission wants to hear about the challenges facing the AAPI communities in Greater Pittsburgh and how we can leverage our strengths to effectively advocate, promote resources and best serve our AAPI communities. Space is limited and your participation is critical. Please plan to attend. If you have specific questions or issues you want addressed please e-mail them ahead of time to tlawson at pa.gov.

The event runs from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm in room 2700 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public. The required registration can be completed online.

"Animal Socialities: Healing and Affect in a Japanese Animal Café" at Pitt, April 4.

Via Pitt Magazine.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of Anthropology will present a talk by PhD candidate Amanda Robinson, "Animal Socialities: Healing and Affect in a Japanese Animal Café", on April 4.

This presentation examines how young people in Japan use “animal cafés” to meet their need for sociality. In animal cafés, owners, employees and customers are all involved in constructing a refuge from the social consequences of Japan’s labor market deregulation. I propose that the sociality of the animal café is tied to relaxation and the performance of non-productivity, where visitors can feel connected to others in a public space without having to “work” at interacting. As a business that allows visitors to experience a sense of iyashi (healing) that emerge from non-discursive, relaxing connections with animals, I conceptualize animal cafés as part of the affect economy that is increasingly important as Japanese people turn to the market to meet their emotional needs.

The presentation starts at 1:00 pm in 3106 Posvar Hall (map).

"The Impact of Local Changes and Global Trends: The US, Japan, and the Rise and Fall of the TPP" at Pitt, March 23.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Kay Shimizu of the Department of Political Science and Patricia Maclahlan of the University of Texas and Austin on March 23 for "The Impact of Local Changes and Global Trends: The US, Japan, and the Rise and Fall of the TPP".

The joint lecture will discuss how and why policymakers in both the US and Japan that have reacted to the rise and fall of negotiations over the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The talk starts at 12:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

The Way Home (집으로) at Maridon Museum, March 24.

The Maridon Museum will show the 2002 Korean movie The Way Home (집으로) as the first installment of this spring's Korean Film Series on March 24. A 2002 San Francisco Chronicle review provides a summary:

Dumped by his mother at the rural home of his ancient grandmother, a 7-year- old boy turns surly and depressed. His Game Boy batteries die, Grandma's food tastes strange, and the countryside lacks the vivid distractions of urban life.
Gradually, the spoiled brat (Seung-Ho Yoo) and the deaf, exquisitely patient grandmother (Eul-Boon Kim) grow to love and understand each other. By the time his mother returns to claim him, the boy has learned more from the old woman's gestures of kindness than his mother ever taught him.

The Maridon Museum is an Asian art museum at 322 N. McKean St. in downtown Butler (map) that runs film series periodically throughout the year, in addition to art classes, book club meetings, and its regular exhibits.

"MEPPI Japan Lecture Series – The Basics of Bonsai", March 23.

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania will present "MEPPI Japan Lecture Series – The Basics of Bonsai" on March 23.

The pots may be shallow, but bonsai is a deep art form. With origins in Chinese penjing, bonsai has developed in Japan for a thousand years. Past-president of the Pittsburgh Bonsai Society Daniel Yobp will give attendees the history, species and design principles of bonsai, followed by a demonstration with a shrub.

It will be held from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at the Doubletree by Hilton in Cranberry (map). Space is limited and registration is required

Tsunami Punx: The Tōhoku Live House Movement at Row House Cinema, April 9.

Part of the Row House Cinema's 2nd annual Pittsburgh Japanese Film Festival is Tsunami Punx: The Tōhoku Live House Movement, a documentary by Pittsburgh native and 2011 Tohoku earthquake survivor Matthew Ketchum on the tsunami and Japan's underground punk rock scene.

The Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 resulted in one of the most devastating tsunami’s the world has seen. In the aftermath, punk musicians and DIY organizers hailing from three Northern seaside towns formed a collective with the goal of erecting Live Houses amidst the ruin, creating an oasis for communities in defiance of the slow, tedious work of reconstruction.

Thus, the Tohoku Live House Movement was begun. Soon enough, word reached Tokyo of their work, and a group of young filmmakers from Waseda University arrived to document the unlikely but colossal impact of the punk community on the lives of others. Even now, the Movement continues, sharing music & art wherever it is welcome and needed.

Ketchum runs the site Kaala.jp and has a weekly radio show on Sunday afternoons on WRCT 88.3 FM.

The show starts at 4:30 pm and the tickets are now on sale for $6.50. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).

2015 Korean movie Veteran (베테랑) at Pitt, March 17.

The 2015 Korean movie Veteran (베테랑) will play at the University of Pittsburgh on March 17 as part of the Department of East Asian Language & Literatures' Korean Film Festival. A September 2015 New York Times review provides a summary:

Hwang Jung-min is cool and capable as the longtime detective whose investigation of a friend’s suicide attempt pits him against the conglomerate’s lawyers, thugs and paid-off policemen; he’s a quieter version of the Eddie Murphy or Mel Gibson cop who plays the fool but is good in a fight. The Korean heartthrob Yoo Ah-in plays the preening adversary, whose response to being shown up is to humiliate the nearest woman or assault the nearest pet.

The movie will play from 5:00 to 8:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

Japanese Tea Ceremony, March 25 in Oakland.

The Carnegie Library Main Branch will present a Japanese Tea Ceremony with Yuko Eguchi Wright on March 25.

Tea Ceremony of Chado (The Way of the Tea), is a traditional Japanese art involving ritualistic preparation of tea. Influenced by Zen Buddhism philosophy, the core teaching of chado is to attain a spiritual state of selflessness and peacefulness through making and sharing one bowl of tea. Lean the history and philosophy of the Japanese Tea Ceremony while tasting Japanese tea and sweets.
This program is part of the celebration of the NEA Big Read project locally hosted by Gumberg Library at Duquesne University. An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book. This year’s Big Read is When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka – This story, told from five different points of view, chronicles the experiences of Japanese Americans caught up in the nightmare of the World War II internment camps.

The event runs from 2:30 to 4:30 in the International Poetry Room and is free and open to the public. The library is located at 4400 Forbes Ave. in Oakland (map).

Comparative Religions: Buddhism and Shinto, March 18 at Carnegie Library West End.

The third talk in a three-part series on Comparative Religions of East Asia at the Carnegie Library West End will be held on March 18 on the topic of "Comparative Religions: Buddhism and Shinto":

During the third and final comparative religion lecture at CLP-West End, we will focus on Japan to examine the island nation’s differences with it’s mainland neighbors. How Buddhism evolved there and how Shinto worship came to be, and what it symbolizes, will be the focus of our religious inquiry..

The event runs from 1:00 to 2:00 pm and are free and open to the public. The West End branch is located at 47 Wabash Street (map).

Veteran (베테랑), Train to Busan (부산행) comprise Korean Film Festival at Pitt, March 17 and 31.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures announced the lineup for its annual Korean Film Festival today, consisting of Veteran (베테랑) on March 17 and Train to Busan (부산행) on March 31.

A New York Times review summarizes 2015's Veteran:

Hwang Jung-min is cool and capable as the longtime detective whose investigation of a friend’s suicide attempt pits him against the conglomerate’s lawyers, thugs and paid-off policemen; he’s a quieter version of the Eddie Murphy or Mel Gibson cop who plays the fool but is good in a fight. The Korean heartthrob Yoo Ah-in plays the preening adversary, whose response to being shown up is to humiliate the nearest woman or assault the nearest pet.

A July 2016 New York Times review summarizes Train to Busan, the 2016 hit zombie movie:

The setup is lean and clean. A flattened deer, mowed down in a quarantine zone in Seoul where some kind of chemical spill has occurred (echoes of Bong Joon-ho’s 2007 enviro-horror film, “The Host”), springs back to life. Then, in just a few swiftly efficient scenes, we meet a harried hedge-fund manager and his small, sad daughter (Gong Yoo and an amazing Kim Su-ahn), see them settled on the titular locomotive and watch in dismay as a vividly unwell last-minute passenger lurches onboard. And we’re off!

Sprinting right out of the gate, the director, Yeon Sang-ho, dives gleefully into a sandbox of spilled brains and smug entitlement. (“In the old days, they’d be re-educated,” one biddy remarks upon spying an undesirable fellow traveler.) As zombies chomp and multiply, an assortment of regular folks face them down while furthering an extended critique of corporate callousness. The politics are sweet, but it’s the creatures that divert. Eyes like Ping-Pong balls and spines like rubber — I’d wager more than a few chiropractors were required on the set — they attack in seizures of spastic energy. They’re like break-dancing corpses.

Both movies will play in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and are free and open to the public.