Book launch for Zouping Revisited, March 29 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center and Graduate School of Public and International Affairs will present a book launch for the forthcoming Zouping Revisited: Adaptive Governance in a Chinese County on March 29.

Mongolia's HAYA making US debut at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, April 5.

The Mongolian music group Haya (Хаяа), will make its US debut on April 5 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. A profile of the "Migrations" concert, from its management company:

“Migration” is about searching for one’s own spiritual home, experiencing the beauty of life itself, and returning to a simplistic, survivalist lifestyle. HAYA Band’s “Migration” Concert employs innovative musical language alongside classic traditional songs, fusing a variety of musical elements such as chants, the Mongolian horsehead fiddle, plucked string instruments, throat singing, and shaman drums. Their music is refined and captivating. Their shows have a distinct “ceremonious” feel. Migration provides us with a path for escape from this fast-paced modern world, a contemporary migration to another realm, one surrounded by the wonders of nature and life.

Tickets for the 8:00 pm show are available for $16 to $30 online. IUP is located roughly 60 miles east of Pittsburgh, and the concert will be held in the Fisher Auditorium of the IUP Performing Arts Center (map).

2016 film Violent Prosecutor (검사외전) at Pitt for annual Korean Film Festival, March 30.

The second half of Pitt's 15th annual Korean Film Festival is the 2016 crime drama Violent Prosecutor (검사외전) on March 30. Han Cinema summarizes film:

An investigator (Hwang Jung-min) who was framed and put in prison, holds hands with a fraud (Gang Dong-won) and attempts to clear his name.

The movie starts at 5:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

MEPPI Japan Lecture Series - A City of Consumption: The Woodblock Print Industry in Edo Japan, March 29 at Carnegie Museum of Art.

Nihonbashi (日本橋)

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania will present its next event in the MEPPI Japan Lecture Series on March 29 to kick-off a new exhibition of Utagawa Hiroshige prints at the Carnegie Museum of Art. Dr. Brenda Jordan's talk, "A City of Consumption: The Woodblock Print Industry in Edo Japan," offers a preview of the theme and the collection:

The city of Edo (Tokyo) was the largest city in the world by 1800, and a city of commercial and artistic life. In this talk, Dr. Jordan will highlight one of the defining arts of this period in Japan—the industry of the colored woodblock print. Designed and produced by a collaborative process, and sold to people from all walks of life, nineteenth century Japanese prints provide a window into Edo urban culture—what people thought was important, what they liked to do, and where their interests lay. After the lecture, the Hiroshige exhibit will be open to the attendees. This event will serve as a kickoff event for the Hiroshige exhibit, which will be open from March 31 to July 8, 2018.

1988 film Akira (アキラ), free at Pitt on March 25.

The Pitt Anime Club will hold a screening of the 1988 classic anime film Akira (アキラ) on March 25.

2017 Chinese animated film Have a Nice Day (大世界) just announced for Pittsburgh, April 6 - 19.

The 2017 Chinese animated film Have a Nice Day (大世界) will play in Pittsburgh from April 6 through April 19. The distributor offers a summary:

A hard rain is about to fall on a small town in Southern China.

In a desperate attempt to find money to save his fiancée’s failed plastic surgery, Xiao Zhang, a mere driver, steals a bag containing 1 million from his boss.

News of the robbery spreads fast within the town and, over the course of one night, everyone starts looking for Xiao Zhang and his money…

Liu Jian delivers a whirlwind neo-noir, cementing his place as a pioneering force in independent Chinese animation.

Japanese-language-only screenings of Yojimbo (用心棒) and Your Name (君の名は) at Pittsburgh Japanese Film Festival.

There will be Japanese-language-only screenings of Yojimbo (用心棒) and Your Name (君の名は) at the Pittsburgh Japanese Film Festival, which starts next month at the Row House Cinema. The no-subs-no-dubs screening of Kurosawa's Yojimbo runs from 10:00 to 11:30 am on April 8, and the Japanese-language-only screening of Your Name runs from 10:00 to 11:45 am on the 15th.

Tickets for these, and all other events, are available online via the festival's website. The Pittsburgh Japanese Film Festival, now in its third year, runs from April 6 through 19 and features 10 Japanese movies across genres and decades, and will play at the single-screen theater in Lawrenceville (map).

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

The 2017 documentary The Departure will play at the Carnegie Mellon University International Film Festival on Friday, March 30. 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 screening are available online. It will play at McConomy Auditorium (map) from 7:00 pm, and the evening also includes a discussion panel.

Screening of documentary Barefoot Doctor Sun Lizhe, with Q&A with doctor, at Pitt on March 27.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center presents a screening of the documentary Barefoot Doctor Sun Lizhe, followed by a question-and-answer session the doctor, on March 27.

King Hu's Legend of the Mountain (山中传奇) in Pittsburgh one more day, March 25.

Pittsburgh Filmmakers and the Silk Screen Asian Arts & Cultural Organization are showing a different classic Asian film each month, with King Hu's 1979 movie Legend of the Mountain (山中传奇) set to play once more in March.