Vanity license plate seen in Highland Park.

Bunkasai festival with Pitt's Japanese Student Association, October 26.

The University of Pittsburgh's Japanese Student Association will hold its annual Bunkasai cultural festival on October 26.

JSA will be hosting our biggest event of the year, the Culture Festival, on Saturday October 26th in WPU Assembly Room ✨🎊

Stop by with your friends to enjoy free food* 😋, performances by fellow students 💃, and more❣️

Attractions that open at 11AM: Super Smash bros, kendama, henna, Japanese language practice, fortune telling, and more!

Performances start at 1PM: First Class Bhangra and Pitt FRESA will be performing there along with some other fellow students, so be sure to come out and support them! 🤗

Hope to see you all there 🥳

*You can get access to free food once you visit our various booths with the attractions mentioned above!

Pittsburgh Magazine: "The Fight to Recognize Pittsburgh’s Lost Chinatown."

The November 2019 issue of Pittsburgh Magazine takes a look at the fight to recognize Pittsburgh's former Chinatown as a historically-significant neighborhood.

“Unlike any other immigrant group that came through Pittsburgh, with the Chinese, you can’t find anything — unless you go digging for it — to show that they really were here,” says Marian Mei-Ling Lien, president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA), one of the oldest Asian-American and Pacific Islander advocacy groups.

Lien wants people to know something about Pittsburgh’s Chinatown and early Chinese population. The Pittsburgh chapter is applying — for the fourth time — to earn a state historical marker for Pittsburgh’s Chinatown from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Read more online or in the November 2019 issue.

2019 Japanese film We are Little Zombies (ウィーアーリトルゾンビーズ) in Pittsburgh, November 13 and 17.

The 2019 Japanese film We are Little Zombies (ウィーアーリトルゾンビーズ) will play in Pittsburgh on November 13 and 17 as part of the 2019 Three Rivers Film Festival. A Variety review writes of it:

No pulsating, psychedelic, pop-punk phantasmagoria ought to be as moving and smart as “We Are Little Zombies.” But Makoto Nagahisa’s explosively ingenious and energetic debut (imagine it as the spiritual offspring of Richard Lester and a Harajuku Girl) holds the high score for visual and narrative invention, as well as boasting [insert gigantic-beating-heart GIF] and braaaains, too. The gonzo adventures of four poker-faced Japanese 13-year-olds who bond over their mutual lack of emotion following sudden orphanhood, it reimagines the old “stages of grief” thing as a progression through 13 erratic levels of a video game, complete with mini-games and side quests. And if its manic, 8-bit aesthetic seems hyperactively inappropriate for such a somber scenario — like it does grief wrong — that too, can be interpreted as a generous insight into the mourning process: Who among us, upon being bereaved, has ever believed they’re doing grief right?

It will play at the Regent Square Theater on November 13 and 17, though tickets are not yet available.

2018 Korean film House of Hummingbird (벌새) at resurrected Three Rivers Film Festival, November 9 and 12.

The 2018 Korean film House of Hummingbird (벌새) will play in Pittsburgh on November 9 and 12 as part of the Three Rivers Film Festival. The Tribeca Film Festival writes:

Set in 1994 in Seoul, House Of Hummingbird is a touching coming-of-age drama centered around the quiet, unexceptional eighth-grader Eunhee (Ji-hu Park). Struggling to make passing grades and subject to non-stop screaming at home, she spends her time finding meaning in the love and friendships of her peers, in shoplifting, and in karaoke bars. It’s in her cram school professor (Sae-byeok Kim), however, that Eunheen finds the answers that she seeks, as the two form an unlikely friendship.

In her feature debut, Bora Kim puts Korean culture and mores on display, gently criticizing the reduced role where women are pressured to exist. The film’s measured pace allows it to examine the many moments between despair, contrasting the joy of adolescence with its miseries. Bora Kim presents an honest and poignant take on youth, filled with warm cinematography from Gook-hyun and introduces a powerhouse performance from the young Ji-hu Park. An assured debut, House of Hummingbird cements Kim’s place as an upcoming auteur to follow.

It will play at the Harris Theater at 8:30 pm on November 9 and at 6:00 pm on the 12th, though tickets are not yet available.

2019 movie One Piece: Stampede (ワンピーススタンピード) in Pittsburgh from October 24.

Tickets for the 2019 movie One Piece: Stampede (ワンピーススタンピード) went on sale today; it will play in Pittsburgh, and across the US, from October 24. From the distributor:

The world’s boldest buccaneers set sail for the great Pirate Festival, where the Straw Hats join a mad-dash race to find Gol D. Roger’s treasure. There’s just one little problem. An old member of Roger’s crew has a sinister score to settle. All bets are off when the most iconic pirates of One Piece history band together for a swashbuckling showdown, the likes of which have never been seen!

It will play at the AMC Loews Waterfront and the Cinemark in Monroeville, and tickets are available online. The screenings on October 24, 29, and 31 are in Japanese with English subtitles, and the October 26 and 30 screenings are dubbed in English.

2019 film Promare (プロメア) returns to Pittsburgh for redux, December 8.

The 2019 Japanese animated film Promare (プロメア) will return to Pittsburgh on December 8. The distributor summarizes:

The first feature-length film from the acclaimed studio TRIGGER, creators of the hit series KILL la KILL and Little Witch Academia, and director Hiroyuki Imaishi (GURREN LAGANN, KILL la KILL), Promare uses a bold cel-shaded visual style to tell a blistering action-adventure story, and is the spiritual successor to many of director Imaishi’s former works.

Thirty years has passed since the appearance of Burnish, a race of flame-wielding mutant beings, who destroyed half of the world with fire. When a new group of aggressive mutants calling themselves “Mad Burnish” appears, the epic battle between Galo Thymos, a new member of the anti-Burnish rescue team “Burning Rescue,” and Lio Fotia, the leader of “Mad Burnish” begins.

It will play locally at the Southside Works Cinema---tickets are now available online---though tickets for other locations are to be announced on November 1.

Susan Lieu and "140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother" at Pitt, November 12.

The University of Pittsburgh's Vietnamese Student Association will host playwright Susan Lieu and her "140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother" on November 12.

The Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) at the University of Pittsburgh works to promote diversity, awareness, and visibility of Vietnamese culture to people of all backgrounds within the campus community. We believe that bringing Susan Lieu, a Vietnamese-American playwright, would be an amazing opportunity to provide both an educational and emotional experience regarding the Vietnamese refugee experience. Lieu sheds light on the unimaginable ideals of Vietnamese feminine beauty and addresses body insecurity, grief, and trauma through her solo theatrical performance “140LBS: HOW BEAUTY KILLED MY MOTHER," which achieved sold-out openings in Seattle and San Francisco. She now has a national tour with stops in New York, Los Angeles, and other cities. "140 LBS" is a true story of how Susan’s mother died from medical malpractice, her search for the man responsible, and the painful uncovering of her mother’s life. We are collaborating with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, English Department, Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Department, Outside the Classroom Curriculum (OCC), and Department of Theatre Arts. The expression of advocacy through the storytelling form of a solo show should not be missed during the Year of Creativity here at the University of Pittsburgh. We hope to reach a wide range of people from the Asian-American community, Asian Studies Center, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, English Department, Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Department, Outside the Classroom Curriculum (OCC), and the Department of Theatre Arts through this event. We are both excited and grateful to collaborate with these university departments to bring Lieu to Pittsburgh as her performance resonates with our shared experiences growing up as Vietnamese-Americans.

Refreshments will be provided. This event is free to all Pitt students and faculty, $10 for Carnegie Mellon students, and $15 for the general public. Proceeds and donations will be donated to Asylum Access, an organization that aids refugees in human rights and advocates for policy reform.

It will be held from 7:00 pm at the Charity Randall Theatre at 4301 Forbes Ave. in Oakland (map).

"Why BTS? Why K-pop? Global Success and UK Reception," October 24 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center presents Dr. Haekyung Um and her talk "Why BTS? Why K-pop? Global Success and UK Reception" on October 24.

The international breakthrough of BTS is marked by their success in the USA and their albums, Love Yourself: Tear and Love Yourself: Answer, in May and September respectively. Their EP Mal of the Soul: Persona, released in April 2019, also topped both the UK Official Chart and teh US Billboard 200 Chart. The global, US, and UK reception of BTS in the past few years, has shed a light on how K-op has been evolving and how Asian pop music genres have been received by both the mainstream music industry and consumers in the west. This process has been taking place in the context of a fast-changing ecology of the creative industries, shaped by digital technology and social media, which in turn mobilize and above all, empower the fandom and audiences engaged in this music form.

The talk starts at 5:00 pm in 232 Cathedral of Learning (map) and is free and open to the public.

2019 Japanese animated film Human Lost (人間失格) in Pittsburgh, October 22 and 23.

The 2019 Japanese animated film Human Lost (人間失格) will play in Pittsburgh on October 22 and 23. From the distributor:

From the chief director of PSYCHO-PASS, director of Afro Samurai, and the studio that brought you Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters.

The year is 2036. A revolution in medical treatment has conquered death by means of internal nanomachines and the “Shell System”, yet only the richest can afford to partake.

Yozo Oba isn’t the richest. Troubled by strange dreams, he flippantly joins his friend’s biker gang on an ill-fated incursion to “The Inside”, where society’s elite lives. This instigates a journey of terrifying discovery that will change Yozo’s life forever.

It will play at the Southside Works Cinema and tickets are available online. The 22nd's screening will be in Japanese while the 23rd's will be dubbed in English.