2016 Japanese animated movie A Silent Voice (聲の形) at CMU, September 20.

The Japanese Student Association at Carnegie Mellon University will screen the 2016 Japanese animated movie A Silent Voice (聲の形) on Friday, September 20. A synopsis of the film from the distributor:

The story begins with a deaf elementary school girl named Shoko Nishimiya, who transfers to a new school and meets a boy named Shoya Ishida. Shoya, who is not deaf, leads the school in bullying Shoko over her disability. The bullying escalates, and so Shoko transfers to another school. Immediately, the class and even Shoya's closest friends, bully him for having bullied Shoko. Shoya loses contact with Shoko, and for years he suffers the consequences of his guilt. Upon entering high school, Shoya finally decides he must find Shoko, determined to make amends for what he did in elementary school and to become Shoko's friend. Along the way, he meets new and old faces, and struggles with many complicated relationships and feelings.

It runs from 6:30 to 9:00 pm in 1211 Doherty Hall (map) and is open to the university community.

English-Chinese Language Social Hour, October 4 at Pitt.

via Pietro Motta (Creative Commons)

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center and English Language Institute will collaborate on an English-Chinese Language Social Hour on October 4.

Join us for an evening of language and cultural exchange between Pitt students and international students

The event is free and open to the Pitt community, and will be held in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) from 4:30 to 5:30 pm.

Big plans for the KBox site.

The online exhibition of the 2019 Design Pittsburgh Awards has an interesting building in its "unbuilt" section: a new five-story cooperative-living project on the current site of KBox at 214 S. Craig St. in Oakland. From AIA Pittsburgh:

We addressed the problem of displacement due to gentrification by designing an affordable Pittsburgh alternative to owning your own home: This project features a cooperative living arrangement in which potential residents purchase ownership shares in an organization that owns the entire property. Our renderings demonstrate that both the light filled residential units and the common areas have been carefully designed according to the WELL standard of “improving comfort, driving better choices, and generally enhancing, not compromising, health and wellness.” Our design makes an impact because we have designed just what Pittsburgh needs today: an affordable high density, multifunctional environment that is physically attractive.

The client is Mike Wu of the Ramen Bar, Pink Box, and Rose Tea Cafe ownership, and the architect is Fisher ARCHitecture.

Years ago the plan for the site included a new, larger Pink Box in Oakland at 4527 Winthrop St., directly behind KBox, though eventually the Oakland address was removed from the logo.

English-Korean Language Social Hour, October 11 at Pitt.

via travel oriented (Creative Commons)

The University of Pittsburgh's English Language Institute and Asian Studies Center will present its next English-Korean Language Social Hour on October 11.

Join us for an evening of language and cultural exchange between Pitt students and international students.

It runs from 4:30 to 5:30 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map).

"Twilight World of Screens? Really? Women, Art, and Agency in Late Heian Japan" at Pitt, September 26.

The University of Pittsburgh's History of Art & Architecture will host Yale University's Dr. Mimi Yiengpruksawan and her talk "Twilight World of Screens? Really? Women, Art, and Agency in Late Heian Japan" on September 26.

For decades it has been a commonplace that the Buddhist art practices of the Kyoto elite in the 11th and 12th centuries were for the most part the preserve of a man’s world of statesmanship, faith, and patronage. Among the most influential of such patrons were Fujiwara no Michinaga, his son Yorimichi, and their circle of gentlemen friends. A close look at primary records of the period, such as the diaries of Michinaga and his associates, tells a different story and allows another picture of their world to come into view. We see that, in that world, women of the Fujiwara and Minamoto houses—Fujiwara no Senshi (Akiko), Fujiwara no Shōshi (Akiko), Fujiwara no Kanshi (Hiroko), and Minamoto no Rinshi (Tomoko) in particular—were the equals of these men if not their superiors in Buddhist arts patronage of their day. In this lecture Professor Yiengpruksawan provides evidence for this claim and then considers the role of modern analysis and interpretation of the Tale of Genji—a haunting story of love and loss written by Murasaki Shikibu during her years in service to Michinaga’s daughter Shōshi—as having skewed and even obscured our picture of women at the Heian court. Her hope is that, by drawing attention to the primary textual and visual records, and stepping away from generalizations about the lives of Heian women based on modern and often gendered commentary, we can break free of assertions that, compliant and servile, the Heian woman lived in what Ivan Morris once called “a twilight world of screens.” That Heian woman, it must be said, is not to be found in the actual historical and visual record, which delivers instead a woman of great vision and agency in the emergence of traditional Japanese culture, holding her own in a complex world of politics, and flourishing there.

It starts at 4:00 pm in room 202 of the Frick Fine Arts Building (map) and is free and open to the public.

New Chinese movie The Last Wish (伟大的愿望) in Pittsburgh, from September 20.

The new Chinese movie The Last Wish (伟大的愿望) will play in Pittsburgh from September 20.

A high school student suffering from muscular dystrophy is told that he does not have much time left. He is determined to complete a wish before dying: becoming a real man. When his two good friends, Xu Hao and Zhang Zheng Yang hear of this news, they spare no effort for their good friend's last dying wish.

It will play locally at the AMC Loews Waterfront 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.

1989 Japanese film Tetsuo: The Iron Man (鉄男 Tetsuo) at Row House Cinema, October 13 - 17.

The 1989 Japanese film Tetsuo: The Iron Man (鉄男 Tetsuo) will play at the Row House Cinema from October 13 - 17. A 1992 New York Times review shares the story:

Early in Shinya Tsukamoto's film "Tetsuo: The Iron Man," a character identified only as a metals fetishist (Mr. Tsukamoto) scours a junkyard, slices open his thigh and sticks a piece of scrap metal into the wound. Gasping in ecstatic agony, he lurches into the street where he is nearly run over by a car driven by a white-collar worker called the Salaryman (Tomoroh Taguchi).

While shaving the next morning, the Salaryman notices a metal spike growing in one cheek. It is the first sign of his gradual transformation from a human being into a walking metal scrapheap of rusty metal plates, dangling cables and a rotating metal drill that extends from his groin.

. . .

"Iron Man" makes little sense as a story, but it is driven by a perverse sense of humor. As the Salaryman's transformation proceeds, it becomes increasingly hard for him to differentiate between his waking state and nightmares in which he is attacked by machinery.

Tickets and showtime information is not yet available. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).

Poetry Reading : Takako Arai, September 18 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host a poetry reading with Takako Arai on September 18.

Please join us for a poetry reading by Takako Arai at the Humanities Center (Cathedral of Learning Rm 602) on September 18 at 4pm. Ms. Arai will read a selection of her poems in Japanese and with English translation. She is in the U.S. as part of The University of Iowa’s prestigious creative writing residency, the International Writers Program. Arai is known for writing socially engaged poetry. She writes in particular about the lives of working women as they are affected by such forces as globalization, economic decline, and the 2011 triple disaster in northeastern Japan.

Takako Arai was born in 1966 in Kiryu City, Gunma Prefecture to a family engaged in textile manufacturing, a traditional industry in Kiryu.

The event starts at 4:00 pm in 602 Cathedral of Learning (map) and is free and open to the public.

Pittsburgh Dragon Boat Festival (匹茲堡龍舟節), October 5 at North Park.

The annual Pittsburgh Dragon Boat Festival (匹茲堡龍舟節) will take place on October 5 at North Park.

The Pittsburgh Dragon Boat Festival is not only a fun day at beautiful North Park Lake, it's an amazing opportunity for friends, family, and co-workers to form community teams for friendly competition in genuine dragon boats! The 40 ft canoes are a sight to behold on their own, let alone when they're being paddled in sync by 20 people! The races are an excellent team bonding experience! And it's all for a great cause! Pittsburgh Hearts of Steel a Dragon Boat Racing Team for BCS (Breast Cancer Survivors) uses all proceeds to promote awareness and the benefits of the sport of dragon boating racing for breast cancer survivors. If you, or someone you love, has been affected by the disease, this is an awesome way to "do something about it"! There are also cultural demonstrations, food and marketplace activities that are free to the public! Join us to race, or join us to watch, it's a great day! More information on how to sign up a team can be found at:
www.pghdragonboatfestival.org

The event starts at 8:30 am and runs until 3:00 pm, with cultural demonstrations running from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. It will be held at and around the Boathouse at North Park Lake in the North Hills (map) and is free and open to the public.

Science on the Screen: Akira at Row House Cinema, September 19.

Row House Cinema will host CMU's Molly Wright Steenson to accompany the September 19th screening of Akira (アキラ).

Akira’s future has finally become present day! The 1988 film predicts life in Tokyo in 2019. Join us for a discussion with Professor Molly Wright Steenson from Carnegie Mellon University, who will be exploring the potential of Akira’s science fictions becoming reality. Sit back and enjoy watching the film with all that you’ve learned in mind!

The evening begins at 9:15 pm and tickets are available online. Akira is one of four movies playing from September 13 through 19 as part of Row House Cinema's Anime Film Series. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).