2024 Chinese film YOLO (热辣滚烫) returns to Pittsburgh, from April 12.

The 2024 Chinese film YOLO (热辣滚烫), which opened in Pittsburgh on March 7 and ran through March 27, will return for a showing the afternoon of starting April 12.

Le Ying (played by Jia Ling) has been staying at home for many years, doing nothing in particular. After graduating from college and working for a while, Le Ying chooses to withdraw from society, closing herself off from social circles, which she believes is the best way to "reconcile" with herself. One day, after several twists of fate, she decides to live life in a different way. In cautiously venturing into the outside world, Le Ying meets boxing coach Hao Kun (played by Lei Jia-Yin). Just when she thinks life is about to take a positive turn, the challenges that follow far exceed her imagination, and her vibrant life is just beginning..

Yolo is the highest-grossing film of 2024 in China and is the 16th all time in that country, so far. It plays locally at the AMC Loews Waterfront and tickets are available online.

University of Pittsburgh’s Asian Studies Center presents Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong’s Rendezvous with American History Book Discussion, May 2 and 15 at two Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh branches.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh will host University of Pittsburgh’s Asian Studies Center presents Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong’s Rendezvous with American History Book Discussion on May 2 and 15 at the Oakland and Squirrel Hill branches, respecdtively.

Join The Asian Studies Center team from the University of Pittsburgh for a discussion of Yunte Huang’s biography Daughter of the Dragon about Anna May Wong and her struggles for stardom in Hollywood and her fight against the Asian American stereotypes. [. . .] Recommended for adults. Contact the location to get free giveaway copies of the biography while copies last.

This is a public version of the Pitt-only book club running through the Asian Studies Center this spring. The May 2 event runs from 5:30 to 7:00 pm at the CLP Main Branch in Oakland, the May 15 event runs 6:00 to 7:00 pm in the CLP Squirrel Hill.

Korean pop rock band Lucy (루시) in Pittsburgh, May 30.

The Korean pop rock band Lucy (루시) will play in Pittsburgh on May 30. Tickets for the show at Thunderbird Music Hall will go on sale April 19.

Screening of 1929 silent film Piccadilly, starring Anna May Wong, April 16 at Pitt.

Silent Asia, part of the Screenshot: Asia programming organization at the University of Pittsburgh, will present a screening of the 1929 silent film Piccadilly, accompanied by musicians AppalAsia and Tom Roberts performing the original soundtrack.

A screening of E.A. Dupont's 1929 silent film Piccadilly, starring Asian American icon Anna May Wong. The screening will be musically accompanied by local musicians, Appalasia and Tom Roberts. Come immerse yourself in their original score and experience one of early Hollywood's finest stars at her finest.

The event starts at 6:30 pm in 125 Frick Fine Arts (map).

Korean singer BoyWithUke performing in Pittsburgh, April 27.

Korean singer BoyWithUke will perform in Pittsburgh on April 27 as part of his Lucid Dreams Tour. Ones To Watch summarized his sound in 2021:

While BoyWithUke’s music may drift toward popular indie and lo-fi sounds, incorporating his ukelele sets him apart from other artists heading down the same sonic path. In addition, his instrumental talent adds a fresh layer of artistry, blurring the line between acoustic and electronic beat sounds, often making you forget that one or the other is even there.

He will play at Stage AE and tickets for the 7:00 pm show are available online.

近江八景 Eight Views of Oomi, Japanese chamber music recital, April 20 at Pitt.

Local musicians devon osamu tipp, Kanoko Kamata, Trē Seguritan Abalos, and Satoshi Itoh will collaborate on a Japanese chamber music concert on April 20.The show is free from 5:00 pm in 205 Bellefield Hall in Oakland (map).

Filipino restaurant, from Rafael Vencio of Amboy Urban Farm, coming soon to Pittsburgh's North Side.

via @amboy_urbanfarm_pittsburgh 

Chef Rafael Vencio recently announced on social media that he is working on opening a Filipino restaurant on Pittsburgh's North Side. It will be located at 400 East Ohio St. (map), in what used to be a Subway but has been vacant for many years. Rumors of a possible Filipino spot here first turned up online last fall.

Vencio operates Amboy Urban Farm and has been visible in running various iterations of Filipino food pop-ups.

Kick Rocks at Carnegie Museum of Art, featuring screenings of Virtually Asian and Everything Everywhere All At Once, April 27.

Kick Rocks, featuring screenings of Virtually Asian and Everything Everywhere All At Once, will be part of this year's Annual Film Series at Carnegie Museum of Art on April 27.

This program explores the worlds of science fiction and fantasy, and how these genres can serve as tools to question and understand the world around us. Astria Suparak, curator, artist, and programmer of the 2024 Carnegie Museum of Art Film Series, will introduce the films.

Kick Rocks runs from 2:00 to 5:00 pm and tickets are available online.

Screening of Lost Soulz and panel discussion with director Katherine Propper, among others, April 5 at CMU.

On April 5 the Carnegie Mellon University International Film Festival will host a screening of Lost Soulz and a panel discussion with its Asian-American director Katherine Propper and actor Sauve Sidle, moderated by Jordan Montgomery, the CEO of Driving While Black Records.

Lost Soulz spins the poetic tale of rising rap sensation Sol, who abandons everything and everyone he knows to drift across the country in a once-in-a-lifetime road trip with some friends and mutual artists. Spurred on by producing original music and the constant thrill of seeking something more, Sol learns to make himself at home in strange places, and how to garner fame through epic (and oft-unconventional) means. But the truth remains that Sol is running from something, and the slow-burn pangs of a guilty conscience seem to chase his van down across the breadth of the Texas desert, even into California and the L.A. promised land.

The events start at 6:30 pm at the McConomy Auditorium in the Jared L. Cohen Center on the CMU campus (map), and tickets are available online.

Asia Pop Lecture Series: Xin Wang and Asian Futurism, April 10 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Xin Wang as the April 10 instsallment of the Asia Pop Lecture Series.

Xin Wang is a curator and art historian based in New York. A PhD candidate in Art History at New York University, writing a dissertation on Soviet Hauntology, she held curatorial and educational positions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, and received the Warhol Foundation's Arts Writers Grant in 2021. Publications such as "Asian Futurism and the Non-Other" have been widely translated and taught in university curriculums. She has served on jury panels for The Shed, the Creative Capital Grant, and Anonymous Was a Woman, as well as a regular visiting critic at Yale University's MFA program in Photography. She served as the Chief curator of the 4th art and technology-themed biennial program - titled "To Your Eternity" - at Beijing's Today Art Museum in Fall 2023.

The talk starts at 6:00 pm in 202 Frick Fine Arts (map).