"Enhancing Chinese EFL Learners’ Awareness of Lexical Style" colloquium at Pitt, October 2.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of Linguistics will host Dr. Guangwei Chen and his talk "Enhancing Chinese EFL Learners’ Awareness of Lexical Style" on October 2. The talk is free and open to the public in room G-13 of the Cathedral of Learning (map) from 3:00 pm.

New Hong Kong movies Saving Mr. Wu (解救吾先生), Lost in Hong Kong (港囧) at AMC Loews Waterfront, from October 2.

Two new Hong Kong movies---Saving Mr. Wu (解救吾先生) and Lost in Hong Kong (港囧)---will play at AMC Loews Waterfront from October 2.

The Hollywood Reporter provides a synopsis of the former, starring Andy Lau and Liu Ye and based on the 2004 kidnapping of actor Wu Ruofu:

On a Lunar New Year holiday evening in Beijing, Hong Kong actor referred to only as Mr. Wu (Andy Lau) is rousted by police outside a Chaoyang district restaurant. He’s just finished celebrating a deal for his next movie when an unidentified squad tells him his car has been connected to a hit and run, and would he please come to the station. Unconvinced of their legitimacy Wu "resists" arrest, gets hustled into a car and whisked away. He’s been kidnapped. His captors, led by the sometimes cackling, probably unstable Zhang Hua (Wang Qingyuan, The Crossing) and who have a second hostage, anonymous and — worse for him, working class — Xiao Dou (Cai Lu), are collecting ransoms in order to fund a much larger, more ambitious robbery. While awaiting their 3 million yuan (about $450,000 U.S.) payout, Zhang slips up when he goes to see his girlfriend Chenchen (Li Meng, The Golden Era, the only woman with a speaking part) and promptly gets scooped up by the cops investigating the abduction, Xing Feng (Ding regular Liu Ye, The Last Supper) and Cao Gang (Wu Ruofu, the real victim from 2004). Cue the cat and mouse word games between Xing and Zhang as the police scour the city looking for Wu.

And a September 24 Los Angeles Times review on the latter, which opened in China on September 25 and became the highest-grossing Chinese movie of all time there.:

"Lost in Hong Kong" follows 2010's "Lost on Journey" and 2012's "Lost in Thailand," one of the all-time top-grossing blockbusters in its native China. Connected to its predecessors only thematically, the new film has director-star Xu Zheng embarking on yet another action-packed misadventure. Only this time, Xu's character must babysit an exasperating man-child — a Looney Tunes character personified —played by Bao Bei'er instead of Wang Baoqiang from the previous installments.

Xu plays Xu Lai, a henpecked brassiere designer who's barely putting up with the overbearing clan of wife Cai Bo (Vicki Zhao) on family vacation in Hong Kong. His ulterior motive is to reunite with the one that got away: college sweetheart Yang Yi (Du Juan), an accomplished artist who is set to open a solo show in Hong Kong. Problem is, Xu's aspiring documentarian brother-in-law, Cai Lala (Bao), insists on tagging along everywhere he goes to record his every move.

Tickets and showtimes are available at the AMC Loews Waterfront website. 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.

Tora-san Meets the Songstress Again (a.k.a., Tora-san's Rise and Fall, 男はつらいよ 寅次郎相合い傘) at Maridon Museum, October 1.

The Maridon Museum wll show the 1975 comedy Tora-san Meets the Songstress Again (a.k.a., Tora-san's Rise and Fall, 男はつらいよ 寅次郎相合い傘) as the second installment in this fall's Japanese film series.

Hong Kong, Miyazaki films coming to Row House Cinema in December.

The Row House Cinema in Lawrenceville has announced two film series in December: "France vs Hong Kong New Wave" from the 4th through 10th, and "Hayao Miyazaki" from the 11th through 17th. The former will include The Killer (喋血雙雄) and Fallen Angels (墮落天使), in addition to two French films. The latter, four Miyazaki films: My Neighbor Totoro (となりのトトロ), Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind< (風の谷のナウシカ), Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫), and Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し). Showtimes and ticket information will come later.

The theater is located at 4115 Butler Street (map).

"Voyage to Vietnam: Celebrating the Tet Festival" at Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, October 17.

The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh will host "Celebrating the Tet Festival" on Sunday, October 17, as the opening day in its Voyage to Vietnam exhibit.

Discover the beauty, sights, and sounds of Vietnam through the lens of Tet, the most important celebration of the year, in this interactive exhibition. Dress up in customaryAo Daiand pose for an interactive family photo. Try on a giant lion head and make and launch a fireworks display to signal the culmination of the celebration. Visitors will gain appreciation for the traditions, values, and daily experiences of people who live in Vietnam, and discover similarities and differences among the lives of children in the U.S. and in Vietnam

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The touring exhibit, currently in San Jose, will be in Pittsburgh from October 17 through January 17, 2016. The Freeman Foundation Asian Culture Exhibit Series website provides an overview:

Through the interactive experiences and programming of Voyage to Vietnam, children soak up the essence of Tết—its sights, sounds, stories, textures and experiences. Providing multiple entry points for visitors of all ages to engage personally in authentic Vietnamese culture, Voyage to Vietnam will be scalable from 924 sq.ft. to1,500 sq.ft. to accommodate venues with varying capacity. The exhibit will incorporate Vietnamese-inspired materials, color palette, and an immersive marketplace experience with elements such as bamboo, fabric, umbrellas, plank bed and scripts and fonts that evoke modern Vietnamese calligraphy. Fabrication strategies include using banners rather than painted walls; video backdrops as set-pieces, digital narratives demonstrating cultural practices, and collapsible steel “carts” for shipping the exhibit, reducing the crate storage for the exhibit’s square footage.

"Celebrating the Tet Festival" runs from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh is located at 10 Children's Way on the North Side (map). Admission is $14 for adults and $13 for seniors and for children aged 2 to 18.

Documentary The Look of Silence free at Parkway Theater, October 2 and 3.

Citing poor attendance at August showings of the film, the Parkway Theater in McKees Rocks will show the 2014 documentary The Look of Silence for free on October 2 and 3. A synopsis of the documentary on the Indonesian killings of 1965 and 1966, via the film's website:

Through [director Joshua] Oppenheimer's footage of the perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors discovers how their son was murdered, as well as the identities of the killers. The documentary focuses on the youngest son, an optometrist named Adi, who decides to break the suffocating spell of submission and terror by doing something unimaginable in a society where the murderers remain in power: he confronts the men who killed his brother and, while testing their eyesight, asks them to accept responsibility for their actions. This unprecedented film initiates and bears witness to the collapse of fifty years of silence.

On September 3, the theater posted on Facebook that a total of 11 people saw the film during the initial eight screenings there.

The Friday, October 2 showing will be at 7:00 pm, and the October 3rd showing at 5:45 pm. The theater is located at 644 Broadway Ave. in McKees Rocks (map), a few miles west of the North Side.

"China Town Hall: Local Collections, National Reflections" at Pitt on Chinese investments in US and in American education, October 5.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host the next "China Town Hall: Local Collections, National Reflections" on October 5. It consists of a national webcast at 7:00 pm and an in-person talk titled "An Educated Investment: How Chinese Families are Spending Big on American Education and How It Could Change Both Countries" at 8:00:

Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin is leading an expert panel for a live "town hall" meeting on what China's investments in the US mean for American workers, communities, and the economy.

Afterwards at 8 there will be a talk by Senior Writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Karin Fischer on Chinese families investment in their children's US education.

The session will begin at 6:45 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map), and is free and open to the public.

From 匹茲堡大學 Facebook page.

University of Pittsburgh officials are currently touring China. Photographed above in the Forbidden Palace in Beijing are: Asian Studies Center Director James Cook, Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, University Center for International Studies Director Ariel Armony, Confucius Institute Director Michele Heryford, and Pitt China representative Tina Zhang. The University of Pittsburgh Asian Studies Center writes:

In Beijing they held meetings with Renmin University and Beijing Normal University as well as the Ministries of Health and Education.
Currently they are heading to Chengdu to attend the inaugural matriculation ceremony for the Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute.

Yaeji at VIA 2015, October 3.

via Yaeji k r a e j i's Facebook page.

One of the headliners of the VIA 2015 festival is Yaeji: artist, DJ, and recent CMU graduate. From the VIA website:

Yaeji (k r a e j i) is a NY born and Seoul raised DJ/Producer/Vocalist. She started her DJ career at the WRCT88.3 station and has performed at various venues in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Seoul, and New York. Her production and vocals hold influences from R&B, jazz, dream pop, and house. Outside of her musical life, she enjoys visual art and graphic design.

She'll perform at the October 3 Main Event is at Spirit at 242 51st Street (map). Tickets are available online, and more information is on the Facebook event page.

VIA is a Pittsburgh festival in its sixth year that's received acclaim locally and nationally as

A focused and thoughtfully curated series, the VIA Festival is dedicated to presenting artists who are pushing the boundaries of their fields and introduces emerging talent to Pittsburgh while also honoring already beloved and internationally renowned acts.

Bunjinga painting program, demonstration on September 25 and 26.

The Japan-American Society of Pennsylvania shares news of two Bunjinga painting programs in the Pittsburgh area with guest artist Fujyo Kato on Friday and Saturday. On September 25, Kato and Hiromi Katayama will be at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh from 12:00 to 3:00 pm.

Join Handa City Culture program, the Japan-America Society of Pittsburgh and the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh in welcoming guest artist, Fujyo Kato from Aichi, Japan.

Mr. Kato performed his painting at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh back in 1995 and is returning to perform his unique painting style on a large piece of paper again! Learn the art of Bunjinga painting by putting strokes of sumi ink on the paper as Mr. Kato incorporates them into one large inspirational spontaneous painting.

Also joining us is past F.I.N.E. Art Resident, Hiromi Katayama, whom you can paint alongside with and learn traditional Japanese painting techniques!

The museum is located at 10 Children's Way on the North Side (map). Admission is $14 for adults and $13 for seniors and for children aged 2 to 18.

On the 26th, Kato will hold a "hands-on workshop" at the Pittsburgh Zen Center in Sewickley:

Mr. Kato will do a brief demonstration of the history of bunjinga, show examples of his artwork, and review basic techniques.

Guests will also be able to partake in sencha tea ceremony while they watch the demonstration.

The cost is $10 for Pittsburgh Zen Center members and $20 for the general public. Registration is required and can be completed online. The Pittsburgh Zen Center is located at 124 Willow Ridge Rd. in Sewickley (map).