He Xiangyu part of "River Separates Water" exhibition at Wood Street Galleries, July 6 through August 26.

Chinese artist He Xiangyu will be one of three artists whose work comprises a "River Separates Water" exhibition at the Wood Street Galleries downtown from July 6 through August 26. He's 2017 film The Swim documents his attempt to swim across the Yalu River from China to North Korea. From a February Elephant profile:

What gave him the idea for The Swim? “I married my wife in 2012,” he says, “and we moved from Beijing to Pittsburgh. When I revisited my hometown (Kuandian) for the first time in two years, I asked my parents what was going on, what the people were doing, and I got a very strange, distant feeling like I didn’t know it anymore. I had been creating a series of drawings called the Palate Project in America and I was interested in the feeling of being in a foreign place and also more general feelings of the body. After I got that strange feeling at home I wanted to explore what was going on here in a very personal, physical way, in touch with the elements of the town: the water. That river is very familiar to me from childhood. Though as a child I wasn’t quite aware of the North Koreans, my parents are doctors and know the local people, as well as some of the defectors. Most of them weren’t happy to talk about their experience because they are trying to remain hidden. But my parents helped me get in touch.”

The gallery is open four days a week at 601 Wood Street downtown (map).

"Let's Learn Chinese," July 5 (and every Thursday) at Carnegie Library in Oakland.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's main branch in Oakland hosts "Let's Learn Chinese" each Thursday evening.

Experience Chinese language and culture through books, storytelling, songs, games and more!

It runs from 6:30 to 7:30 pm each Thursday in the Children's Department. The library is located at 4400 Forbes Ave. in Oakland (map) and is accessible by buses 28X, 54, 61C, 61D, 67, 69, 71A, 71B, 71C, 71D, and 93.

Attack on Titan Season 2 the Movie: The Roar of Awakening (進撃の巨人 ～覚醒の咆哮~) in Pittsburgh, July 10 and 11.

The 2018 movie Attack on Titan Season 2 the Movie: The Roar of Awakening (進撃の巨人 ～覚醒の咆哮~) will play at the Southside Works Cinema on July 10 and 11.

Masaaki Yuasa's The Night is Short, Walk On Girl (夜は短し歩けよ乙女) in Pittsburgh, August 21 and 22.

Tickets recently went on sale for Masaaki Yuasa's The Night is Short, Walk On Girl (夜は短し歩けよ乙女) in the Pittsburgh area on August 21 and 22. A summary from the distributor:

Acclaimed anime director Masaaki Yuasa, took a decade off directing feature animation only to return with two remarkable features in the same year – both selections in the festival, alongside his midnight classic Mind Game.

Night is Short, Walk on Girl takes place over the course of one strange night as a nameless young woman, known only as “the girl with black hair,” walks the streets of Kyoto and experiences a series of surreal encounters and odd characters, drinking middle-aged salarymen under the table, exploring an all-night used bookstore with a bird goblin, helping a guerilla theater company express their feelings… all the while unaware of the romantic longings of Senpai, a fellow student who has been creating increasingly fantastic and contrived reasons to run into her, in an effort to win her heart. The perfect “I guess it’s romantic?” comedy for the modern age, Night is Short is a celebration of the unconventional, confusing routes that love and life can take.

The movie will play at the Cinemark theaters in Monroeville and Pittsburgh Mills, and tickets are now available online. The movie will play in Japanese with English subtitles.

Another local Asian buffet closes: "Sushi Bomb" to replace York Buffet / Sushi Cho in Robinson.

A number of Asian buffets in the Pittsburgh region have closed recently, among them Old Town Buffet (formerly Misaki) on Route 51 and TJ Buffet (formerly Tokyo Sushi Buffet) on McKnight Road. A permit recently went up at 6302 Robinson Centre Drive (map) for "Sushi Bomb," to replace what was formerly (and briefly) Cho Buffet and, before that, York Buffet.

HCL America has new job openings for bilingual Thai-English, Vietnamese-English, and Japanese-English positions onsite at Google.

HCL America has posted three new openings for Bilingual Thai Product Classification Analyst, Bilingual Vietnamese Product Classification Analyst, and Bilingual Japanese Product Analyst positions onsite at Google in Larimer. A summary of the Bilingual Product Classification Analyst positions:

This position enhances users’ online shopping experience by performing in-depth research, determining product taxonomy expansion, and improving machine learning classification using highly technical internal tools and processes. It is part of a fast-paced environment, partnering closely with operations and engineering teams.

And a summary of the Bilingual Japanese Product Analyst:

This position requires entrepreneurial drive to contribute to the long-term growth of online shopping by performing in-depth research, analyzing product specification data, using highly technical internal tools and processes to manage and enhance a large repository of knowledge about products. It is part of a fast-paced environment, partnering closely with operations and engineering teams.

Japanese-American film Oh Lucy! in Pittsburgh for one more week.

The 2017 Japanese-American film Oh Lucy!, which opened here on June 15, will will play in Pittsburgh for one more week through July 5. A Variety review summarizes the film, starring Shinobu Terajima and Josh Hartnett.

Set in some of the least picturesque corners of Tokyo, “Oh Lucy!” is a character study about a character rarely seen on film: a quietly miserable, single, middle-aged Japanese wage-slave. Setsuko (Shinobu Terajima) is a woman with few obvious qualities, and even fewer opportunities, friends, lovers, or interests. A withdrawn, chain-smoking loner in an office culture built on forced displays of camaraderie, her workday begins when she witnesses a suicide on the subway, and continues as she watches an aging employee on the verge of retirement soak up the condescending affection of her coworkers, all of whom are quick to make fun of her once she leaves the room. The subway jumper, the lonely old pensioner – it’s clear that Setsuko sees these as her two most likely options.

Tanabata (Japanese star festival) at Carnegie Museum of Art, July 7.

"Sendai Tanabata," by Vanessa Smith (Creative Commons).

The Carnegie Museum of Art will host a Tanabata on July 7.

Celebrate the ones you love! Tanabata is a traditional Japanese day of celebration based on folklore surrounding the meeting of two lovers kept apart all but once per year. The day is a colorful and festive affair with fun for all!

The entire family can visit our Japanese print exhibition Hiroshige’s Tōkaidō Road, make a print to take home, add wishes to the Wish Trees, participate in a decoration contest, enjoy traditional music, create origami cranes, and sample Japanese cuisine in our courtyard.

It runs concurrent to the Hiroshige’s Tōkaidō Road exhibit, on display through July 22. The event is free with admission ($19.95 for adults, $11.95 for students with valid ID and children 3 to 18). The museum is located at 4400 Forbes Ave. in Oakland (map), accessible by buses 28X, 58, 61A, 61B, 61C, 61D, 67, 69, 71B, 71D, 75, and P3.

2015's Tokyo Tribe (トウキョウ トライブ トゥー) at Row House Cinema, August 11, for midnight screening.

The 2015 film Tokyo Tribe (トウキョウ トライブ トゥー) will play at the Row House Cinema at midnight on August 11, the theater announced today. An A.V. Club review of the "demented rap musical" offers a final take:

With its over-the-top violence, cast of bizarre bit characters (a beat-boxing henchwoman, a DJ granny, etc.), and a compulsion to interject phallic imagery that borders on coprographia, Tokyo Tribe throws so much at the viewer that it’s easy to get swept up in its deranged energy and overlook the fact that the movie doesn’t have a flicker of a brain cell, being not much more than a celebration of aggressive stupidity. Sometimes, that’s fine.

Tickets for this 11:59 pm "Midnight Edition" showing are coming soon. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).

BTS's "DNA" at this week's K-pop Class, June 30.

The weekly K-pop Class at Yanlai Dance Academy will do BTS's "DNA" on June 30th. The class is held each Saturday from 4:00 to 5:00 pm, and the cost is $18 for a drop-in session. Yanlai Dance Academy is located at 2260 Babcock Blvd. in the North Hills (map).