2023 Celine Song film Past Lives remains in Pittsburgh through February 7.

The 2023 Celine Song film Past Lives, which re-opened in Pittsburgh on January 26, will play here through (at least) February 7. From the distributor:

Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life, in this heartrending modern romance.

The movie opened here in June 2023 and had multiple runs throughout the last half of the year, and it is scheduled to play at the Row House Lawrenceville in February. Past Lives plays locally at the AMC Loews Waterfront, and tickets are available online.

No parade this year, but Squirrel Hill Lunar New Year event planned for February 24.

The Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition will be hosting a Lunar New Year event on February 24, featuring a Lion Dance at 2:30 pm at the Post Office parklet.

Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition and Uncover Squirrel Hill will be celebrating the Year of the Dragon, year 4721, at the Post Office Parklet! After the Dragon Enters the Gate at 2:30, the lion will visit local businesses to exchange Hong Bao (red envelope). It will be an afternoon of prosperity and good fortune! We hope to see you there.

There will be no parade up Murray Ave. this year, but organizers hope for a return in 2025.

In the Mood for Love (花樣年華), Past Lives at Row House Lawrenceville, February 9 through 15.

The 2000 Wong Kar-wai film In the Mood for Love (花樣年華) and the 2023 Celine Song movie Past Lives will play at the Row House Lawrenceville from February 9 through 15, part of the Love Languages film series.

A summary of the former:

Wong Kar-wai’s vibrant romantic drama starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-wai explores the limits of morality, the passing of time, and courage as it follows neighbors drawn together by their spouses’ extramarital affairs in overcrowded 1960s Hong Kong.

And the latter:

Subtle and moving, Greta Lee stars in Celine Song’s deeply human story of two childhood friends who are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life.

Tickets are available online. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).

Harmony in Tradition: The 27th Greater Pittsburgh Lunar New Year Fair and Show, February 4 at Carnegie Museum of Art.

"Harmony in Tradition: The 27th Greater Pittsburgh Lunar New Year Fair and Show" will take place on February 4 at the Carnegie Museum of Art.

Join us for a mesmerizing Lunar New Year celebration where ancient Chinese traditions meet Pittsburgh’s vibrant performing arts landscape creating a world where cultural diversity shines! Spend the afternoon immersed in an experience that brings together ancient traditions and contemporary aesthetics, fostering the collective and collaborative spirit in our community. The event is divided into two segments: the Fair and the Show, each presenting an exciting array of movement, music, and tradition.

The 27th Greater Pittsburgh Lunar New Year Celebration is presented by the Chinese Association of Science and Technology Pittsburgh Chapter with collaboration and support by Carnegie Museum of Art, a partnership that reinforces both organizations’ commitment to cultural exchange and mutual understanding.

Tickets are available online, with discounted prices for museum members. The event runs from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm at the Carnegie Museum of Art, located at 4400 Forbes Ave. in Oakkland (map) and accessible by a number of city buses.

"Robo-Sexism: Designing and Programming Gender in Robots and AI with Perspectives from Japan" at Carnegie Mellon University, February 16.

The Department of Modern Languages at Carnegie Mellon University will host Dr. Jennifer Robertson and her talk "Robo-Sexism: Designing and Programming Gender in Robots and AI with Perspectives from Japan" on February 16.

Roboticists are designing gendered robots based on simplified sex and gender stereotypes of human female and male bodies. Some of these gendered robots are programmed with algorithms – or A.I. (“artificial intelligence”) – similarly based on their presumption of inherent human female and male behavioral differences. For this talk, guest lecturer Jennifer Robertson, Ph.D., will focus primarily on what she and others find problematic and even troubling about the construction of gender in robot design and A.I. algorithms. Robertson acknowledges that sex-gender bias exists not just among hardware and software designers, who take for granted the binary division of sex and gender. She notes that this bias is also prevalent among users and consumers, which, Robertson argues, is an underlying problem in the emerging field of kansei kōgaku, or “affective engineering,” based on applying user preferences in industrial design. In this talk, she will also consider the concept and possibilities of “queering” robots and A.I.

The Japanese Studies program is pleased to welcome Jennifer Robertson to campus for this talk. Robertson is a Professor Emerita of Anthropology and on the faculty of the Robotics Institute at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

The talk runs from 12:00 to 2:00 pm in Posner Hall room 340 (map).

The Peking Acrobats performing at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, February 27.

The Peking Acrobats will perform at IUP, roughly 60 miles east of Pittsburgh, on February 27.

For the last thirty two years, The Peking Acrobats® have redefined audience perceptions of Chinese acrobatics. They perform daring maneuvers atop a precarious pagoda of chairs and display their technical prowess at such arts as trick-cycling, precision tumbling, juggling, somersaulting, and gymnastics. They push the limits of human ability, defying gravity with amazing displays of contortion, flexibility, and control.

The show takes place in the Fisher Auditorium (map) and tickets ranging from $10 to $20 are available online.

Lunar New Year Celebration, February 10 at Cooper-Siegel Community Library in Fox Chapel.

The Cooper-Siegel Community Library will host a Lunar New Year Celebration on February 10.

Celebrate and learn about the Lunar New Year! This annual celebration with a wide variety of different festival activities is organized by the Asian community of the Fox Chapel area. Enjoy traditional Chinese music performed by Dorseyville Middle School students, taekwondo performed by the Young Brothers Taekwondo School students, a dragon parade, storytelling, crafts, as well as treats and gifts.

All ages are welcome.

The event runs from 2:00 to 3:30 pm. Registration is required and can be completed online. The Cooper-Siegel Community Library is located at 403 Fox Chapel Rd. (map).

"Characters across Asia: Using "Kanji" to write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese," February 1 at University of Pittsburgh.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures will host Dr. Zev Handel and his talk "Characters across Asia: Using "Kanji" to write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese" on February 1.

Chinese characters originated in China over 3,000 years ago. Prior to their creation, East Asia was completely devoid of writing. By the time of the Han Dynasty (202 BCE - 220 CE), China already had a long literary tradition, a flourishing culture, and a sophisticated government bureaucracy. In this talk, Professor Handel will explain how the building blocks of the Chinese script were adapted to represent the words and sounds of Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean - and why today, only Japanese still use kanji in their writing.

Zev Handel is a professor of Chinese and chair of the Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington, Seattle.

The talk runs from 11:00 to 12:00 in 4127 Sennott Square (map).

Mochi donuts hit the menu at Bubble Bee Shadyside.

Bubble Bee Shadyside, which opened on Centre Ave. in the fall, announced on social media last week that it has added mochi donuts to the menu.

🎉 Welcome to Bubble Bee @ Shadyside! 🎉

We are thrilled to invite you to join our vibrant community of bubble tea enthusiasts right here on Facebook! 🥤

🌟 What sets us apart? 🌟

🍩 Exciting News! Introducing our NEW Mochi Donuts 🍩
Indulge in the delightful fusion of chewy mochi and delectable donuts. These sweet treats are the perfect match for our signature bubble teas.

Ecology, Society, and Imagination in Oyamada Hiroki's The Factory and the Hole, February 14 at Pitt. [Rescheduled]

University of Pittsburgh Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures Master's student Hayley Gerlach will present Ecology, Society, and Imagination in Oyamada Hiroki's The Factory and the Hole on February 14.

Two of Oyamada Hiroko's best-known works are her proletariat debut novella The Factory and her Akutagawa-prize winning novella The Hole. Scholars are only beginning ot shift their focus to Oyamada, and as of yet, litte scholarsly work has been dedicated to analyzing the animals that are characteristic of her writing. In my thesis, I examine the liminal space between human and nonhuman wolrds in Oyamada's speculative fiction and what these spaces say about societal and environmental responsibility. First, I examine The Factory from an ecocritical perspective. I discuss how Oyamada's factory functions as a capitalsist 'ecosystem,' and how the animals on its periphery contribute to and disrupt this ecosystem. I argue that the animals illuminate the human and nonhuman costs of capitalism, while also offering opportunities for resistance. Next, I discuss animals in The Hole. Reminiscent of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the protagonist falls into a hole before encountering a cast of strange characters that lead her to question her own existence. I argue that the wild animals and insects in the rural ecosystem present a fluid and chaotic form of existence that offer an alternative to Asahi's static domestic life and the rigid expectations of womanhood.

The talk runs from 12:00 to 1:00 pm in 1219 Cathedral of Learning.