Lunar New Year Parade, March 4 in Squirrel Hill.

Pittsburgh will host its 3rd annual Lunar New Year Parade on March 4 as the Year of the Earth Dog parade heads through Squirrel Hill. The event begins at 11:00 am at the intersection of Murray and Phillips Ave. (map) and ends five blocks north at Forbes Ave.

More than 30 organizations and groups dressed in full regalia and cultural splendor will begin their march at Murray Avenue and Phillips. The route will continue up Murray Avenue and conclude at Forbes and Murray. Joining them will be the City-award winning Allderdice High School Marching Band, Silk Elephant Thai Fire Breather, Pittsburgh Paddlefish, Minadeo K-5 Dragon, and much more!

The Grand Marshall is Karen Fung Yee, a past-president of Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA) Pittsburgh, current chairperson of the Chinese Nationality Room Committee, and an active participant in (and organizer of) numerous community groups.

Japanese electronic music artist Cornelius (コーネリアス) to play in Pittsburgh, March 10.

Japanese musician Keigo Oyamada, also known as Cornelius (コーネリアス) and whose newest music can be roughly categorized as downbeat, will play at Carnegie Lecture Hall in Oakland on March 10, as part of this year's tour of US and Mexico. The Andy Warhol Museum summarizes:

We welcome Cornelius (aka Japanese multi-instrumentalist Keigo Oyamada) to the Carnegie Lecture Hall. Beginning with his 1997 release Fantasma on Matador Records, Cornelius (the name is an homage to the Planet of the Apes) gained much critical praise as the “modern day Brian Wilson” for his lush orchestral/pop arrangements and quickly became an in-demand producer working with artists such as Beck, Bloc Party, and MGMT. Oyamada’s forays into scoring films include Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and the anime mega-film Ghost in the Shell Arise, as well as being a key performer in Yoko Ono’s reformed Plastic Ono Band.

Tickets for this Sound Series event are currently available online for $25 for adults or $20 for students and museum members.

AEON (株式会社イーオン) in-person interviews in Pittsburgh for teaching positions in Japan, March 24; application deadline March 12.

AEON (株式会社イーオン), a large chain of English schools in Japan, is holding in-person interviews for prospective teachers throughout the United States this spring, and will be interviewing in Pittsburgh on March 24. Those interested should submit applications online by March 12.

Pittsburgh AAPI Town Hall, "United Asian Voices for Regional Economic Empowerment," March 4 in Squirrel Hill.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf's Advisory Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs will hold its next Pittsburgh AAPI Town Hall on March 4 on the theme of "United Asian Voices for Regional Economic Empowerment."

Matsuri 2018, April 10 at Carnegie Mellon University.

The Carnegie Mellon University Japanese Student Association will present its 8th annual Matsuri, "a celebration of Japanese culture and diversity," on April 10.

Enjoy a variety of foods from our food booths, and performances by student groups and members of the Pittsburgh community, while immersed in traditional Japanese decorations and festival games! Matsuri is the biggest event hosted by JSA. Last year, more than 600 people showed up to the celebration.

The event runs from 3:30 to 8:00 pm in Wiegand Gym of the Cohon University Center (map), and is free and open to the public.

Top two movies in China, Operation Red Sea (红海行动) and Detective Chinatown 2 (唐人街·探案2) , continue in Pittsburgh through March 7 (at least).

The top two movies currently playing in China, Operation Red Sea (红海行动) and Detective Chinatown 2 (唐人街·探案2), will continue in Pittsburgh through March 7.

Tickets now available for Shaw Brothers Kung Fu Cinema series at Row House Cinema, March 9 - 15.

Four classic kung fu movies will play at the Row House Cinema in March, part of its Shaw Brothers Kung Fu Cinema series that highlights the legendary Hong Kong production company. The lineup includes 1966's Come Drink With Me (大醉俠), 1978's Five Deadly Venoms (五毒), 1982's Legendary Weapons of China (十八般武艺), and 1978's The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (少林三十六房). The series runs from March 9 to 15.

Intersections of Colonialism and Medicine in East Asia, March 10 and 11 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host the Intersections of Colonialism and Medicine in East Asia conference on March 10 and 11.

King Hu's Legend of the Mountain (山中传奇) at Regent Square Theater, Sundays in March.

Pittsburgh Filmmakers and the Silk Screen Asian Arts & Cultural Organization are showing a different classic Asian film each month in 2018, with King Hu's 1979 movie Legend of the Mountain (山中传奇) featured in March. A February 1 New York Times review provides an introduction:

A magical mystery marathon, King Hu’s “Legend of the Mountain” takes place (maybe, as the narrator waggishly says) in the 11th century during the Song dynasty. It tells of a cheerful, underemployed scholar, Ho Yunqing (Shih Chun), who makes a meager living as a copyist. Soon after the movie opens, he is entrusted to copy a Buddhist sutra (a dialogue or sermon) that can liberate souls stuck in limbo. Ho isn’t a believer, but he needs the money and so enthusiastically heads out on a seemingly simple mission, one that eventually leads to an isolated outpost where curious and curiouser things occur.

Filled with lovely natural landscapes that have been meticulously framed and photographed, “Legend of the Mountain” is often a visual ravishment. (It was shot in the South Korean countryside.) There’s a mesmerizing appeal to many of its panoramas, with their variegated colors, dense vegetation and drifting, swirling white mist. And while King Hu certainly likes to move the camera — it sweeps, swoops and sometime breaks into a near-run — he also likes to linger on images as if encouraging you to admire their compositional harmony. You can get lost in these pictorial reveries as you trace the rays of light piercing the trees, brightening the dark waters and the reality-softening haze.

All shows start at 6:00 pm at the Regent Square Theater (map), and tickets are only available for purchase at the door.

2017 documentary The Departure, on punk-turned-priest Ittetsu Nemoto, at CMU International Film Festival, March 30.

The Carnegie Mellon University International Film Festival recently announced its full lineup for this spring's Faces of Inequality iteration, and it includes the 2017 documentary The Departure. Its subject is Ittestsu Nemoto,

a former punk-turned-Buddhist-priest in Japan, has made a career out of helping suicidal people find reasons to live. But this work has come increasingly at the cost of his own family and health, as he refuses to draw lines between his patients and himself. The Departure captures Nemoto at a crossroads, when his growing self-destructive tendencies lead him to confront the same question his patients ask him: what makes life worth living?

Tickets for the March 30 screening of The Departure are now available online. It will play at McConomy Auditorium (map) from 7:00 pm, and the evening also includes a discussion panel.