"Art, Identity, and Activism with Jasmine Cho: An Interactive Cookie Art Workshop," November 5 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center and Global Hub will host Jasmine Cho and her presentation "Art, Identity, and Activism with Jasmine Cho: An Interactive Cookie Art Workshop" on November 5 as part of International Week.

The Pitt Global Hub and Asian Studies Center present Art, Identity, and Activism with Jasmine Cho: An Interactive Cookie Art Workshop as part of International Week 2020. Join us for an interactive cookie art workshop with Jasmine Cho as she speaks on topics of identity and activism. This event is free and open to the Pitt community – families are encouraged! The first 25 registrants will receive a FREE cookie kit complete with two blank sugar cookies as well as all the tools you’ll need to decorate along with Jasmine. All registrants will receive an ingredient list and recipe ahead of time.

Jasmine Cho is a Pittsburgh-based artist, author, and cookie activist most known for using portrait cookies to elevate representation for Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders. She is also a Food Network Champion (“Christmas Cookie Challenge” Season 3, Episode 8) and the Founder of Yummyholic. Her cookie activism has been featured internationally on various media outlets that include NPR, HuffPost, CBS This Morning, and The Korea Daily. In 2019, Jasmine gave a TEDx talk on her work that immediately went viral and has since reached over 47K views. Jasmine has received numerous accolades including CREATOR of the Year by the Pittsburgh Technology Council, the Small Business Community Champion Award by Citizens Bank, and was also awarded a Mayor’s Proclamation declaring Jan. 28th, 2020 as “Jasmine Cho Day” by the City of Pittsburgh. Expanding to traditional fine art while pursuing art therapy studies, Jasmine wrote, illustrated, and published her first children’s book, Role Models Who Look Like Me: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Who Made History. You can see more of her work at jasminemcho.com.

The 6:30 pm event is free but registration is required.

"All Water Has A Perfect Memory: Video Temporalities of Chen Qiulin," November 5 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh Humanities Center will host Ellen Larson and her talk "All Water Has A Perfect Memory: Video Temporalities of Chen Qiulin" on November 5.

Contemporary Chinese artist Chen Qiulin’s (b. 1975) video projects are inspired by her own personal anamnesis, emotions, and autobiographical connection to space and place. Her slow, meandering video landscapes reflect temporalities seeping in nostalgia; lamenting the irrevocable loss of the physical structures and natural environment that have shaped her childhood memories. Chen came of age in the small Sichuan city of Wanxian, near Chongqing. Like millions of others, her homeland was demolished in advancement of the Three Gorges Dam Project (1994-2012). Through a combination of documentary and surrealist dreamlike aesthetics, Chen’s spatially subjective temporalities reveal particular Chinese notions of time, evoking historical legacies of regional traditions and forms of nostalgia which function as a fluid placeholder for memory. Chen engages both post-industrial and natural landscapes to construct her moving image narratives, all which respond to China’s rapid urbanization during the early 2000s within the Yangzi River region.

Discussion will focus on a dissertation chapter to be circulated prior to the colloquium.

The onlinei discussion will run from 12:30 to 2:00 pm and is free and open to the public.

Anime Night at the Drive-In with Lu Over The Wall (夜明け告げるルーのうた) and Promare (プロメア), November 8 at Carrie Furnace.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center and Screenshot Asia will present Anime Night at the Drive-In with two Japanese films, Lu Over The Wall (夜明け告げるルーのうた) and Promare (プロメア), November 8 at Carrie Furnace. Space is limited and advance registration is required. The evening also features a costume and car decorating contest.

Did you miss cosplaying at Tekko this year? Want to show off your spookiest Halloween costume one more time? Celebrate the evening by dressing up as your favorite characters or by decorating your vehicle! Post your photos on social media with the event hashtag (#AnimeNightPGH2020) for a chance to be featured on the big screen and to win some fun prizes! Prizes for costume contest include two badges to Tekko 2021. Prizes for car-decoration contest include a basket of swag from Screenshot:Asia & Tekko, and two badges to Tekko 2021.

The event starts at 5:00 pm and registration is required. The Carrie Blast Furnaces are located in Rankin, a few miles southeast of Pittsburgh (map).

New Alice Gu documentary The Donut King opens online at Tull Family Theater today.

The documentary The Donut King opens online via Sewickley's Tull Family Thater on October 30. From the official site:

Ted’s story is one of fate, love, survival, hard knocks, and redemption. It’s the rags to riches story of a refugee escaping Cambodia, arriving in America in 1975 and building an unlikely multi-million-dollar empire baking America’s favorite pastry, the donut. Ted sponsored hundreds of visas for incoming refugees and helped them get on their feet teaching them the ways of the donut business. By 1979 he was living the American Dream. But, in life, great rise can come with great falls.

Tickets are available purchase online via the Tull Family Theater, with 50% of proceeds going there.

K-Pop/FRESA Virtual Showcase, November 5 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center and Fresh Entertainment by Student Artists (FRESA) will present K-Pop/FRESA Virtual Showcase on November 5, part of the university's International Week. Registration is required.

"Craft Beer Connection: Pennsylvania, Japan and the Business of Beer," November 19.

via @bairdbrewing

The Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia and the Pittsburgh-based Japan America Society of Pennsylvania will present "Craft Beer Connection: Pennsylvania, Japan and the Business of Beer" online on November 19.

Over the past decade, craft brewers in the US have exploded onto the beer market. Japan’s craft boom is just starting, but both have become big business. This event will explore the impact and opportunities created by this exciting industry all while sampling their products. Grab a drink and network virtually with us after the panel discussion! The Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia in partnership with the Japan America Society of Pennsylvania will present this program in both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with support from Pennsylvania Commerce Department and media partner Philadelphia Business Journal.

Tickets are $15 and available online.

"Heroes and Toilers: Work and Life in Postwar North Korea, 1953-1961," November 5 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will present Cheehyung Harrison Kim and his talk "Heroes and Toilers: Work and Life in Postwar North Korea, 1953-1961" on November 5.

DR. CHEEHYUNG HARRISON KIM offers an analysis of postwar North Korea that avoids the pitfalls of exoticism and exceptionalism to offer a new answer to the fundamental question of North Korea’s historical development.
In search of national unity and bureaucratic order in the decade following the Korean War, the North Korean state turned to labor. Even more than coercion or violence, work was crucial to state control. Industrial labor was both mode of production and mode of governance, characterized by repetitive work, mass mobilization, labor heroes, and the insistence on convergence between living and working. At the same time, workers challenged and reconfigured state power to accommodate their circumstances—coming late to work, switching jobs, and fighting with bosses, as well as following approved paths to secure their livelihood, resolve conflict, and find happiness.

The online event starts at 5:00 pm on Zoom and is free and open to the public. Registration is required.

2018 film Shoplifters (万引き家族)) with Pitt's Asian Studies Center, November 4.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will present the 2018 Japanese film Shoplifters (万引き家族)) on November 4 as the final installment of its three-part Hirokazu Koreeda series.

After one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a little girl in the freezing cold.

At first reluctant to shelter the girl, Osamu’s wife agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces.

Although the family is poor, barely making enough money to survive through petty crime, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them..

It will be accompanied by a lecture from Dr. Linda Ehrlich, author of The Films of Koreeda Hirokazu: An Elemental Cinema. Registration for the free 7:00 pm event is required.

Taiwan's Ministry of Education signs Memorandum of Understanding with Pitt's Asian Studies Center to promote Taiwan studies.

Writes Focus Taiwan:

The Ministry of Education (MOE) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the University of Pittsburgh to carry out a research project on modern Taiwanese history, according to a Wednesday press release from the MOE.

Selections from China, Japan, Korea part of 2020 Film Pittsburgh Fall Festival, November 11 through 22.

Selections from China, Japan, and Korea will help compriise the 2020 Film Pittsburgh Fall Festival, which runs online from November 11 through 22.

"Aida," a 10-minute film from the US and Japan.

A young mother is stuck between development and decay.

"Angel's Mirror," a 14-minute Chinese short film.

A group of young boys are fascinated by a girl who spends her days looking out the window.

Beethoven in Beijing, a 2020 documentary.

The often-tense relationship between the U.S. and China is seen through a different lens in Beethoven in Beijing. Targeted for elimination during the Communist Revolution, Western classical music had all but disappeared from China. But in 1973, Chinese interest in classical music was rekindled when President Nixon dispatched the Philadelphia Orchestra to help open the bamboo curtain. Co-directed by Duquesne University alumna and former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter, Jennifer Lin, the film gives a compelling, up-close look at how music can change hearts and minds–and history.

"Beyond Noh," a four-minute short from the US and Japan.

Masks from all over the world take us on a cultural journey through ritual, utility, deviance, and politics.

"Pangu," a six-minute short from the US and China.

A modern tale about parenthood and the differences between generations.

"Son of Memory," a 19-minute film from Japan.

What if you could bring back your loved one for 49 days?

"Tiger and Ox," a nine-minute short from South Korea.

What does divorce mean to women in a patriarchal Korean society?

Tickets are available for purchase for full-length films on their own, or for short films as part of blocks.