Japan Association of Greater Pittsburgh fall picnic, September 7.

The Japan Association of Greater Pittsburgh (ピッツバーグ日本協会) will hold its annual fall picnic on September 7 in O'Hara Township. Details and registration information are available on the JAGP's website.

"Shakespeare in Tokyo" at Pittsburgh Reel Abilities Film Festival, September 4.

The Australian short film "Shakespeare in Tokyo" will play at the Reel Abilities Film Festival on September 4..

An Australian Shakespeare fan with Down Syndrome, sets off on a solo adventure to discover Tokyo in order to get away from his over-bearing older brother.

The 21-minute film is part of the opening night of the Reel Abilities Film Festival. The night starts at 7:00 pm at the Southside Works Cinema and tickets are available online. Southside Works Cinema is located at 425 Cinema Drive in the Southside, one block from the Hot Metal Bridge (map).

Mike Chen at Pitt, September 3.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Student Alliance will bring YouTuber Mike Chen to Pitt on September 3.

Mike Chen is a Chinese American YouTuber who runs several different channels on the platform. His fame stems from the channel, Beyond Science, and out of all of his beloved channels, he is now best known for one of his food channels, Strictly Dumpling where he expresses his love for food from all over the world.

Tickets are free for Pitt students and $6 for everyone else. Doors open at 7 and the event starts at 7:30 in the William Pitt Union's Assembly Room (map).

"Celebrating The Relationship Between Pittsburgh And Japan Through Garden Design," September 9 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center and Humanities Center will present "Celebrating The Relationship Between Pittsburgh And Japan Through Garden Design" with Shunsaku Miyagi on September 9.

Prof. Shunsaku Miyagi (University of Tokyo) is one of Japan's most eminent landscape architects. He is also the representative director of the Byodoin Temple, a temple in Kyoto that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and so important in Japan that an image of it is on the back of every 10-yen coin. Trained and educated in the US and Japan, his guiding philosophy is "Life is Design Itself." He will discuss Japanese gardens and connecting Pittsburgh and Japan through landscape design.

It starts at 4:30 pm in room 602 of the Cathedral of Learning (map) and is free and open to the public.

New 3D-animated Chinese movie Ne Zha (哪吒之魔童降世) in Pittsburgh, from August 29.

The new 3D animated Chinese film Ne Zha (哪吒之魔童降世) will play in Pittsburgh from August 29. From the distributor:

A young boy, Nezha, is birthed from a heavenly pearl by the Primeval Lord of Heaven. Born with unique powers, Nezha finds himself as an outcast who is hated and feared. Destined by prophecy to bring destruction to the world, the young boy must choose between good and evil in order to break the shackles of fate and become the hero.

It is the highest-grossing Chinese animated film of all time. It will play locally at the AMC Loews Waterfront theater and tickets are available online. The 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.

Night Market Gourmet coming soon to Oakland.

Even more signage is up for Night Market Gourmet, which will replace Top Shabu Shabu at 114 Atwood St. in Oakland (map). Its new sign, like the sign before it, resembles the pizza shape leftover from Pizza Sola, which had the space until 2014.

K-pop lecture at Pitt, September 5.

The University of Pittsburgh Asian Studies Center will host Dr. Suk-Young Kim and her keynote speech on K-pop on September 5 to kick off the start of its Asia Pop course this term.

The Asian Studies Center is pleased to present our new Asia Pop Series where we explore a different facet of Asian popular culture. In this first year, we will focus on the global legacy of Asian popular music including K-pop, Idol Pop, Canto and Mando Pop.

The talk starts at 5:30 pm in 125 Frick Fine Arts Auditorium.

Pitt suspends its Confucius Institute.

The University of Pittsburgh has suspended its Confucius Institute.

The University of Pittsburgh has joined a growing list of American universities that have shuttered a Chinese language and culture program sponsored by the Chinese government.

Ariel Armony, Pitt’s vice provost for global affairs and director of the University Center for International Studies, said the university closed its Confucius Institute after the U.S. State Department issued “unwelcome and unexpected” guidance regarding the visas of 15 Chinese scholars who were scheduled to travel to Pittsburgh this fall to operate the program.

A Pitt spokesman said the university was informed it was out of compliance with J-1 visa regulations regarding interns at the Confucius Institute and was not able to make modifications in time for the fall semester.

"Building Asia," September 4 at Pitt.

via tokyoform.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Dr. Maohong Bao and his talk "Building Asia" on September 4.

The steel industry has historically held a central place in the development of all modern industrial economies. Supporting the rise of East Asia in the postwar world, the rise of resource import-dependent steel industries in Japan, Korea and China has emerged alongside export-oriented mining industries in Australia, Brazil, Canada, India and South Africa, etc., and steel products exported to the rest of world. These processes formed the global production network of East Asia’s iron and steel industry. This talk will address its global environmental history from four aspects: The development of iron and steel industry in postwar East Asia; East Asia’s iron ore and coal import and the environmental impacts of resource extraction in the producing areas; environmental consequences of iron processing in East Asia; East Asia’s Steel product export and its recycling in the consuming areas.

The talk runs from 12:00 to 1:30 in 4430 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

The Farewell continues in Pittsburgh through August 29, resumes September 6.

The Farewell, which opened in Pittsburgh on August 1, will continue at local theaters through August 29 and will resume at the Row House Cinema from September 6. From the distributor:

In this funny, uplifting tale based on an actual lie, Chinese-born, U.S.-raised Billi (Awkwafina) reluctantly returns to Changchun to find that, although the whole family knows their beloved matriarch, Nai-Nai, has been given mere weeks to live, everyone has decided not to tell Nai Nai herself. To assure her happiness, they gather under the joyful guise of an expedited wedding, uniting family members scattered among new homes abroad. As Billi navigates a minefield of family expectations and proprieties, she finds there’s a lot to celebrate: a chance to rediscover the country she left as a child, her grandmother’s wondrous spirit, and the ties that keep on binding even when so much goes unspoken. With The Farewell, writer/director Lulu Wang has created a heartfelt celebration of both the way we perform family and the way we live it, masterfully interweaving a gently humorous depiction of the good lie in action with a richly moving story of how family can unite and strengthen us, often in spite of ourselves.

It plays at the Waterworks Cinema, the AMC in Mt. Lebanon, the Squirrel Hill Manor, and the Tull Family Theater in Sewickley through Wednesday and remains at the latter two on Thursday. Tickets are available online. It will then play at the Row House Cinema in Lawrenceville from September 6 through 12 as part of the Amazing New Directors series.