"I want to repay the love I received"; local adoptee pays it forward in Korea.

On March 27, Yonhap--the South Korean wire service--ran a profile on Sarah Lynch, a local woman and Korean-American adoptee who recently visited Korea and volunteered with a Seoul orphanage. The Eastern Social Welfare Society (동방사회복지회) has the story in English; an excerpt:

On May 21, a truck which was full of diapers came out at Eastern Social Welfare Society.

The person who appeared with the truck was one of ESWS adoptees, Sara Lynch(24). She was adopted to a family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when 6 months, and she has been working as a tennis coach for two years, under the influence of her father who once a tennis player.

Sara Lynch visited ESWS to present diapers to the babies waiting for a loving home. She organized this drive to pay it forward and show appreciation for the love given to her from ESWS, by putting her story on the online fundraising site and asking people join in it on Facebook.

She put on it on online fundraising site(www.gofundme.com) on January 1 for a guide of 2,000USD, however, it passed the initial goal and she finally received 5,710USD within 4 months to her surprise.
With 5,700USD, she purchased rice cereals, body lotions, toys, blankets and ointments of the worth of 1,600USD in person in the U.S.A. And she purchased 85 boxes of diapers after a discussion with Eastern Social Welfare Society with the rest of fund.

Loads of photos and stories from her visit in April and May are on her trip's Facebook page.

Carnegie Library Oakland Comics Decoded Book Club does Sunny by Taiyō Matsumoto, June 16.

Sunny, Vol. 1 cover, via Amazon.

The Comics Decoded Book Club, which meets at the Carnegie Library Oakland (map) once a month, will look at Taiyō Matsumoto's Sunny next.

"Chicken bites and bubble tea" place almost here.

Signage went up yesterday at 117 Oakland Ave. (map) in Oakland for Chick'n Bubbly, a restaurant serving "Chicken bites and bubble tea". Work started late last year on the former nail salon, and it will become the sixth Asian place on that block of Oakland Avenue between Fifth and Forbes.

Chinatown bus stop still running in Oakland.

There's a sign on the door of a papered-up Oakland storefront that reads:

Retail opportunity on the ground floor of one of
Pittsburgh's hottest technology co-working spaces
116 Meyran Avenue is available for lease

116 Meyran Avenue (map) has for years been the home of a Chinatown Bus station. In spite of the sign on the door, the bus station is still up and running, a phone call to a local ticket salesman confirmed. The daily bus to New York's Chinatown leaves at 12:20 am and costs $45 each way ($65 at the door, though $45 if you mention "George", says George).

Chinatown buses enjoyed their highest popularity here before Megabus and other alternatives to Greyhound emerged. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette did a short profile on some of the lines servicing Pittsburgh in 2006, and their popularity among non-Asians given the lack of affordable intercity public transportation.

Kin Yeung of McCandless said that when he took a Fung Wah bus from New York's Chinatown to Boston, more than half of the passengers were non-Asian.

Nonetheless, "a lot of people in the Chinese community in Pittsburgh are using these bus services because they're so cheap," he said.

The Chinatown bus lines followed a business model similar to the discount lines today:

[Greyhound spokeswoman Anna] Folmnsbee said Greyhound's generally higher bus prices, for the most part, subsidized buildings and staff.

"We put a lot of money into our facilities, to make sure our passengers have a safe, comfortable, warm place to wait and customer service agents who tell you where to go to line up," she said. "Plus our passengers know we offer more schedules, a dozen to New York per day as opposed to maybe a handful."

While Ms. Folmnsbee declined to discuss how Greyhound regards the advent of low-cost Chinatown bus services, the company did sue Fung Wah in 2004 for lacking proper permits.

Google will help you learn why they aren't as popular anymore.

AppalAsia at Three Rivers Arts Fest, June 6.

AppalAsia, a Pittsburgh group that "combines the influences of Appalachian and Asian music traditions with original composition and inspired improvisation to create their unique musical voice", will perform at the Three Rivers Arts Fest on Friday, June 6, at 7:00 pm. (The festival website says 5:00, but the band says 7:00). The performance will take place at the Second Stage at Gateway Center and, like all others at the festival, will be free. The festival runs from the 6th through the 15th at several downtown locations.


A performance of "Wild Horse" in 2012, uploaded by erhu player Mimi Jong.

"The Asians Among Us".

The local papers have been running articles on immigrants recently, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's "Pittsburgh's economy has gained from high-skilled immigrants" on May 18 to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's "New Pittsburgh initiative attempts to bring more immigrants to city" on the 28th. Both articles feature Asian immigrants prominently, and both comment sections are ugly and xenophobic.

Historically, the local papers have, on occasion, taken interest in local Asian immigrants and communities; one such article, a four-pager called "The Asians Among Us", ran in the Pittsburgh Press on April 26, 1981. It profiles some of the earliest local community leaders from Korea, China, and Japan, though some of the stereotypes--"who said Asians are inscrutable?" and the overtly othering headline--are uncomfortable a couple generations later.

Local bonsai cultivator profiled in Post-Gazette ahead of annual show.

Ahead of the Bonsai Show next weekend, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week profiled a local bonsai cultivator, Daniel Yobp of Plum. An excerpt:

Having a Japanese roommate gave him the opportunity to visit Japan, which only fueled the flame. After graduation, he returned to Japan to live. He taught English and art while trying to learn everything he could about bonsai.

“I loved it. I started going to bonsai nurseries,” he says. “I quit my job and worked at Yoshoen bonsai nursery in Osaka. I got better and better.”

Eventually, he became skilled enough to teach bonsai classes there. Now back in the States with his Japanese wife, Mari, he’s an active member of the Pittsburgh Bonsai Society, and also one of the younger members at age 32.

At 11 a.m. June 7, Mr. Yobp will be offering a tree styling demonstration at the Bonsai Society’s annual show at the Phipps Garden Center in Shadyside.

Sukhothai Bistro opens in Squirrel Hill.

Sukhothai Bistro opened in Squirrel Hill on the 24th, in the spot formerly occupied by Cool Ice Taipei. It becomes the fifth Thai place in the neighborhood, joining Bangkok Balcony, Silk Elephant, Sun Penang, and Curry on Murray.

Cutie and the Boxer at Harris Theater, June 6, 9, and 12.

The 2013 documentary Cutie and the Boxer will play at the Harris Theater on June 6, 9, and 12 as part of the Three Rivers Arts Festival's "Art on Film 2014" series. A synopsis of the Oscar-nominated film, from the distributor's website:

A reflection on love, sacrifice, and the creative spirit, this candid New York documentary explores the chaotic 40-year marriage of renowned “boxing” painter Ushio Shinohara and his artist wife Noriko. As a rowdy, confrontational young artist in Tokyo, Ushio seemed destined for fame, but he is met with little commercial success after he moves to New York City in 1969, seeking international recognition. When 19-year-old Noriko moved to New York to study art, she fell in love with Ushio—abandoning her education to become the unruly artist’s wife and assistant. Over the course of their marriage, their roles shifted. Now 80, Ushio still struggles to establish his artistic legacy, while Noriko is at last being recognized for her own art—a series of drawings entitled “Cutie,” depicting her challenging past with Ushio. Spanning four decades, the film is a moving portrait of a couple wrestling with the eternal themes of sacrifice, disappointment and aging, against a background of lives dedicated to art.

Cutie and the Boxer, as well as the other films in the series, is free and open to the public. The Harris Theater is located downtown at 809 Liberty Ave. in the Cultural District (map).

"It's cleaner than San Francisco." When Park Chung-hee got the key to the city.

Visiting J&L Steel; photo by 이현표 but found via this article.

In May 1965, South Korean president Park Chung-hee (father of current South Korean president Park Geun-hye) visited Pittsburgh as part of a tour of the US that included stops in Washington D.C., New York, West Point, Los Angeles, and Cape Kennedy. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote, on May 22, 1965, two articles on the occasion: one, a summary of the visit and the pleasantries exchanged between Park and Pittsburghers; another, a profile on the Korean First Lady. From the former:

The president of South Korea, Gen. Chung Hee Park, got the official view of Pittsburgh yesterday---a few minutes at the Mt. Washington overlook, and a half-hour motorcade through Oakland.

"I didn't expect to see so much green," he told Mayor Joseph M. Barr during the ride, "it's cleaner than San Francisco."

And from the latter:

On the approach to the Golden Triangle, Korea's First Lady went into a happy peal of laughter, letting out a quick spate of Korean. (She's so pleased with herself that she could talk so much about the rivers and the bridges in English, her secretary-interpreter Mrs. Margaret Cho explained.

For her arrival in Pittsburgh, Madame Park wore an entrancing lavendor silk Chogory Chima, with panels from teh shoulders, floating in the wind as she walked . . . showing the white silk lining. (The chogory stands for "short jacket," the chima for "down to the floor.").

She was greeted in her native language by a bevy of beautiful young Korean women and some Korean men.

Sarku Japan, katakana, South Hills Village.

Nakama voted best Japanese restaurant again by Pittsburgh Magazine readers.

Pittsburgh Magazine announced the winners of Best Restaurants 2014 readers' poll today, and Nakama was voted the best in the Japanese / Sushi category. The Southside's Little Tokyo Bistro and Shadyside's Umi finished second and third, respectively. Umi was also included on the list of best restaurants, as decided by the magazine's editors. Nakama was also voted the best Japanese restaurant by readers of the Pittsburgh City-Paper in 2013 (and in 2008, 2009, and 2011).

These three are in highly visible locations, and Nakama routinely places first in these sorts of polls (most recently in 2012 and 2013). Restaurants most liked by local Japanese and by fans of authentic Japanese cuisine---restaurants like Chaya, Kiku, and Kyoto Teppanyaki---rarely earn spots on readers' "best of" polls.

Sesame Inn was voted first in the Best Chinese category and Everyday Noodles, which opened in February 2013 in Squirrel Hill, was also named to the magazine's Best Restaurants 2014 list. Nicky's Thai Kitchen was voted Best Thai place, and made the editors' list as well.

University of Pittsburgh alumnus named director of Korea Astronomy & Space Science Institute.

Inwoo Han (한인우) was named director of the Korea Astronomy & Space Science Institute on Thursday, May 22. Han, a graduate of Seoul National University, earned his Ph.D. in Physics from Pitt in 1989, and titled his dissertation "The Study of the Multichannel Astrometric Photometer". He will assume the position from the 24th and hold it for three years, writes Asia Gyeongje.

More sweets at Sumi's.

Recent sign outside Sumi's Cakery, a Korean bakery in Squirrel Hill (map), advertising two new ice cream flavors. Stay tuned for patbingsu, too. Sumi's Cakery was recently named the Best Bakery by Carnegie Mellon University's C-Book, and it announced last week that it will soon offer Bubble Tea.

Where Asians live in Allegheny County.

Over the weekend the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette posted a map online, "Where Immigrants Live in the City", that shows approximately where immigrants have settled locally. The highest concentration of dark-orange dots---representing East Asians---is, predictably, in Oakland, Shadyside, and East Liberty. The P-G map also shows a high concentration in Blawnox, though the area is closer to Fox Chapel in real life. The source is the American Community Survey 2012, compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.

An article, "Pittsburgh's economy has gained from high-skilled immigrants", accompanied the map, and looked at Pittsburgh's "new immigrants" in general and at one bicultural Asian family in particular. It covered local Asian population trends, too:

Despite our somewhat one-sided immigration, the statistics show some interesting trends.

In 1980, Asians made up about 10 percent of the Pittsburgh region's foreign-born population. By 2010, they constituted 45 percent of them.

In Allegheny County, the two biggest Asian groups, as in many other parts of the U.S., are the Indians and the Chinese. As of 2010, the county had nearly 5,600 Chinese residents, which was 14 times greater than in 1980.

That's up from 270 Chinese in 1900.

In 2012, the New York Times mapped the 2010 census, and showed a similar distribution. Census Tract 4, in North Oakland around the intersection of North Craig St. and Fifth Ave., had a population comprised of 31% Asian. Asians were the second-largest group in most of Oakland, Squirrel Hill North, and Shadyside.

Return of the Street Fighter (殺人拳２) at Hollywood Theater, May 28.

The 1974 Japanese martial arts film Return of the Street Fighter (殺人拳２) will play at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont on May 28. A review on Love HK Film calls it an

[a]musing follow-up to the previous year's Street Fighter. Thin on plot, but long on sick comic action, Return of the Street Fighter is a definite guilty pleasure.

Of the first film in the trilogy, Wikipedia tells us it was "the first film to receive an X-rating in the United States solely for violence"

The movie starts at 7:30 pm and tickets are $5. The theater is located at 1449 Potomac Ave., one block south of Potomac Station.

Squirrel Hill's Cool Ice Taipei closes, to be replaced by Thai restaurant.

Old news from last week, but Squirrel Hill's Cool Ice Taipei has recently closed at 5813 Forbes Ave., and will be replaced by Sukhothai Bistro, a Thai restaurant. It may be a familiar name to Pittsburghers: there used to be one in Oakland on Semple St., and ages ago there was a Sukhothai downtown.

Sukhothai Bistro will join Bangkok Balcony, Silk Elephant, Sun Penang, and Curry on Murray as the neighborhood's fifth Thai restaurant.

Free Japanese class at Carnegie Library East Liberty begins May 21.

The Carnegie Library branch in East Liberty periodically offers free Japanese classes, and the latest session will begin on May 21.

Learn Japanese in a fun and friendly environment. All ages and levels are welcome.

The class runs from 6:30 to 7:30 pm, and the library is located at 130 S. Whitfield Street, about four blocks northwest of Whole Foods.

The Oakland branch still offers several free Japanese classes: Japanese For Beginners on the second and fourth Mondays of each month (next is June 9); Japanese II for high-beginners and intermediate learners on the second and fourth Tuesdays; and a Japanese conversation club for intermediate and advanced learners, also on the second and fourth Tuesday. Visit the library's event page and search "Japanese" (or Korean, or Chinese) for more information.

Pittsburgh Bonsai Society 33rd annual Bonsai Show, June 7 and 8.

The 33rd annual Bonsai Show will be held at Phipps Garden Center in Shadyside (map) on June 7 and 8. It's presented by the Pittsburgh Bonsai Society and is free and open to the public from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm on Saturday the 7th, and from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on the 8th.

Pink Box, an "Asian-European fusion bakery", coming to Squirrel Hill.

Signage went up today for "Pink Box," what the owners call an Asian-European fusion bakery at 2104 Murray Ave. in Squirrel Hill (map). Situated next to Crazy Mocha in the old Chaya location that's been empty for years, it's across the street from a Korean bakery (Sumi's Cakery), up the hill from a Taiwanese bakery (Bubble Pi), and down the street from two others.


The facade on Tuesday (left), and the facade on Thursday with the new signage.

Demonstration for Sewol victims, May 18 at Schenley Plaza.

A demonstration is scheduled for May 18 at 2:00 pm in Schenley Plaza for the victims of the Sewol ferry tragedy. Pittsburgh's event coincides with simultaneous nationwide demonstrations here in all 50 states. Attendees are asked to wear black and bring white chrysanthemums.

The Sewol was a ferry boat that sunk off the coast of South Korea on April 16 while carrying passengers and cargo between Incheon and Jeju. The majority of the passengers were students from Danwol High School on a school trip; of the 281 deceased, 250 were from Danwol High School. Since then, protests against perceived government incompetence and obfuscation have erupted in Korea and among Korean expatriate communities abroad.