2019 Pittsburgh Chinese Culture Festival, September 14 at Mellon Park.

via @pghccc

The annual Pittsburgh Chinese Culture Festival will be held this year on September 14 at Mellon Park.

The Pittsburgh Chinese Cultural Festival celebrates the rich culture of China, past and present, through entertainment, music, art, food and exhibits.

This fun filled day includes: local performances, renowned UNESCO Masters of Arts & Crafts from Wuhan, China, food from Pittsburgh’s BEST Chinese Restaurants and exhibits of handcrafted items, information and much more!

It runs from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm at Mellon Park in Shadyside (map) and is free and open to the public.

(G)I-dle's "Senorita" at next (and final) K-pop Dance Class, August 10.

The weekly K-pop Dance Class at Yanlai Dance Academy will do (G)I-dle's "Senorita" for its tenth and final meeting on August 10. 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).

GlobalPittsburgh Happy Hour with visiting Yasuda Women's University students, September 5.

Interior of Pitt's Cathedral of Learning, from the 2019 Yasuda Women's University promotional catalog.

GlobalPittsburgh's next First Thursdays Happy Hour on September 5 will welcome students from Yasuda Women's University (安田女子大学) in Hiroshima.

In September, we will have special guests from Japan. The 43 students from Yasuda University will be study abroad students at the English Language Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. Their host families are also invited to celebrate!

Meet globally-minded people from Pittsburgh and all over the world to make new friends and learn more about different cultures at our GlobalPittsburgh First Thursdays monthly happy hour. Bring your friends, family, and colleagues or come alone - we are a very friendly group!

A cohort of undergraduates has studied each fall at the University of Pittsburgh's English Language Institute since 2016.
The event runs from 5:30 to 8:00 pm at Roland's Seafood Grill in the Strip District (map), and tickets are available online.

Chengdu Gourmet, Sichuan Gourmet, Umami, and Bae-Bae's Kitchen, NIcky's Thai Kitchen voted "Best" by readers of Pittsburgh City-Paper.

via ChengduGourmet.net

Some variety in this year's Pittsburgh City-Paper Best Of readers' poll.

• This year's Pittsburgh City-Paper Best Of poll featured a Best Asian Food category, with Squirrel Hill's Chengdu Gourmet taking first place, Banh Mi & Tea second, and Thai Gourmet third.
• Sichuan Gourmet was voted Best Chinese, upsetting perennial winners Sesame Inn.
• Umami was voted tops in both Best Japanese and Best Sushi over Nakama, which had received some notoriety for its annual victories.
• Bae-Bae's Kitchen was voted Best Korean, a new category for this year.
• Nicky's Thai Kitchen was voted Best Thai.

New Chinese movie The Bravest (烈火·英雄) in Pittsburgh, from August 9.

The new Chinese movie The Bravest (烈火·英雄) will play in Pittsburgh from August 9.

When the oil pipeline in the city harbor explodes due to a calculation error, a disgraced firefighter captain must put aside his grievances and team up with his former subordinate in order to save the city.

The Bravest was the second-highest grossing movie at the Chinese box office last week. It will play at the AMC Loews Waterfront theater in Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles, and tickets are available online. The AMC Loews Waterfront 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.

Back when Hyomin came to Pittsburgh.

via 뉴스엔.

A flashback to when T-ara's Hyomin was in Pittsburgh to throw out the first pitch at PNC Park on September 13, 2015. Jung-ho Kang, her catcher for the pitch, was officially released from the Pirates this week, ending the city's brief flirtation with Korean celebrity.


via 일간스포츠.

Artist Talk with Asian Pacific Islander American Artists in Pittsburgh, September 13.

The Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council will host an Artist Talk as part of its ongoing "We Are Here: Asian Pacific Islander American Artists in Pittsburgh" exhibition on September 13.

Join curator Karen Lue in conversation with the artists of "We Are Here: Asian Pacific Island American Artists in Pittsburgh" on their work, identity, and the significance of this exhibition. A Q+A session will follow and refreshments will be provided. This is a great opportunity to learn more about the artists as well as APIA culture and its context in Pittsburgh.

The event runs from 5:30 to 7:00 pm on the 13th in the GPAC Big Room on the 7th floor of 810 Penn Ave. (map), and tickets are available online.

Franck's "Unkillable Human" on the North Shore.

On the Northshore Heritage Trail is a 2003 sculpture by Dutch artist Frederick Franck titled "Unkillable Human," commemorating those lost in the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is located basically across the street from Warhola Recycling on Chesboro St. (map). A marker there reads:

At Hiroshima Franck was confronted with the shadow of a human being burned into a concrete wall by the atomic bomb.

The indestructible spirit rises from the ashes.

The sculpture---though Franck preferred the word "sign"---was originally to find a home at a proposed Peace Park at Point State Park, but was eventually relocated to the North Shore when those plans fell through.

Documentary on rescuing Asian elephants in Thailand, Love & Bananas, in East Liberty, August 12.

The 2018 documentary Love & Bananas will play at the Carnegie Library in East Liberty on August 12. A synopsis, from the film's official site:

Elephant rescues in Thailand are rare, unpredictable and often life threatening. After waiting 2.5 years, actor/director Ashley Bell and a team of elephant rescuers led by world renowned Asian elephant conservationist and TIME Magazine's Hero of Asia, Lek Chailert, embark on a daring mission 480 miles across Thailand to rescue Noi Na, a 70-year old partially blind trekking elephant and bring her to freedom.

African elephants are slaughtered for their ivory, but sadly the plight of the Asian Elephant has been completely overlooked even though they are the elephant we are most familiar with in zoos, circuses and elephant rides. L&B exposes the cruel secret that every Asian elephant has had to endure to become a service animal; a process knows as Pajan, aka The Crush Box. LOVE & BANANAS aims to ignite a new way of thinking about this species and shows what can be done to prevent the extinction of Asian elephants.

The movie runs from 6:00 to 7:30 pm on the the 12th, in tandem with World Elephant Day. It is free and open to the public, but not recommended for children 12 and under. The library is located at 130 S. Whitfield St. (map).

BTS's Bring the Soul: The Movie at Carnegie Science Center Rangos Giant Cinema, August 7 through 11.

The latest BTS concert film, Bring the Soul: The Movie, will play at Carnegie Science Center's The Rangos Giant Cinema from August 7 through 11.

Following their landmark “Love Yourself” tour, boy band sensation BTS is headed to Pittsburgh’s largest screen in Bring The Soul: The Movie.

Shining brighter than any light on the stage, now the group invite us behind the spotlight. The Rangos Giant Cinema will transport you to the final concert of their Europe tour, on a rooftop in Paris, where BTS tells their very own stories from experiencing new cities to performing in front of thousands of ARMY across the globe.

A glimpse into BTS’ world away from the stage, featuring intimate group discussions alongside spectacular concert performances from the tour, this is a cinema event not to be missed.

Tickets and showtime information is available online. The movie will also play locally at the Cinemark Theaters in Monroeville and Robinson and the AMC Loews Waterfront.