Pennsylvania and Asia come together in Pittsburgh

What do chicken bites, bubble tea and green tea cake have in common? 

All of these Asian-American foods can be found in Pittsburgh and appear on the home page of PennsylvAsia, a website that highlights the relationship of Asian culture in Pennsylvania with a focus on Pittsburgh.

Brian Deutsch, a staff member in Pitt’s linguistics department, founded PennsylvAsia in 2011 and this month used the  website to promote Chick’n Bubbly, a new Korean-style restaurant opening soon at 117 Oakland Ave., and green tea cake from Sumi’s Cakery, a Korean bakery on Murray Avenue. 

A couple of years ago, he began to notice “intersections” between Pittsburgh and Asia, including “Korean food fairs at churches, University lectures, an anime movie screening [and even] Hines Ward,” a former Pittsburgh Steelers player whose mother is from South Korea, and he wanted to share them with the Internet.

PennsylvAsia primarily focuses on the Pittsburgh area because Deutsch said the state was too large of a region to cover, but he liked the name. 

His site averages about 100 views every day and provides information related to Asian-Americans in Pittsburgh. For example, on June 22, Deutsch posted about the Invention and New Product Exposition where Taiwanese inventors took home 76 medals for their inventions. A post from June 20 lists the Chinese and Korean short films that were present at the Pittsburgh Independant Film Festival. Deutsch updates his site almost daily — any time news happens in the community.

There is also a “learn” page where users can access links to Chinese, Japanese and Korean language programs and other educational content. 

While there are many opportunities to learn about Asian culture in the area, Deutsch said he is constantly searching for new information to share on his blog.

“I frequently check foreign-language news sites for news and information related to Pittsburgh from a different side, such as Chancellor Nordenberg’s visit to Korea,” Deutsch said. 

He said that Asia as a place has a different definition to different people and that he believes American news does not accurately represent Asian culture. PennsylvAsia does have a comments feature but Deutsch said his goal is primarily to spread news and information.

“In addition to the prejudices that reduce Japanese [people] to perverts and Chinese [people] to conformist drones in our outlets, coverage is biased and attitudes are informed by old stereotypes that still show today,” Deutsch said.

Other Pitt and Oakland community members work to raise awareness about Asian culture.

The Carnegie Library in Oakland offers weekly language lessons in Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Pitt’s Asian Student Alliance meets during the academic year to promote Asian culture by hosting speakers and advertising cultural events on campus. 

ASA guests usually speak about their respective positions and careers as Asian-Americans. In the past they have discussed political issues including education, identity and political action. Past speakers include Norman Mineta, the secretary of transportation under President George W. Bush, and Curtis Chin, an award-winning author and Asian-American activist.

Ja-Way Wang, an ASA member, said speakers can often educate Pitt students on issues they wouldn’t hear about in class. Wang, a sophomore majoring in biology, said ASA typically invites prominent figures in the UnitedStates’ Asian community, such as politicians, journalists, authors, activists and celebrities.

Wang said select members from ASA attend the East Coast Asian American Student Union, a yearly conference where students from the Asian community congregate. This year’s conference took place at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in February.

Wang said attending the conference gives ASA members more tools to bring the traditions and ideas of the Asian community to Pitt. Though Wang had not heard about PennsylvAsia in the past, he said he would look into using it in the future for news updates. 

Deutsch also said he thinks it’s important to demonstrate the interesting connections found in Pittsburgh.

“One thing that maybe makes them seem interesting is how unexpected [the connections] may be in a city that’s traditionally got its immigrants from Europe,” Deutsch said. “But with a few Asian bakeries, a bunch of free language classes, a large Asian film festival and a big and growing Asian population at the universities, we do pretty well for a mid-sized mid-Atlantic city.”

In 2012, Vibrant Pittsburgh, an organization that promotes diversity in the city, conducted a survey on immigrants. According to the survey, Pittsburgh’s immigrants are most often from Europe, Asia (India, China, Korea), Mexico, South America and Canada and are “geographically dispersed across the region” but tend to live in Monroeville/Penn Hills, Sewickley, Upper St. Clair and Oakland.

Katie Jones is the operations and events director of the Silk Screen Arts Organization — a nonprofit located on Smallman Street that works to advance education and end stereotypes about Asian Americans. 

“We were at the Three Rivers Arts Festival and we had a music group there. Next month we are going to be at Open Street and they requested a Thai yoga instructor,” Jones said.

Though Jones had not heard of Deutsch’s website either, she said that the Silk Screen Arts Organization’s mission could closely mirror that of PennsylvAsia. 

“I would definitely say in western Pennsylvania it represents the diversity of the population in Pittsburgh because we do work with Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Indian people,” Jones said.

Deutsch often promotes or discusses events by the Silk Screen Arts Organization on PennsylvAsia. He said he wants the website to grow so people can learn about the cultures but wants to keep it small and manageable to avoid compromising the quality.

“I hope the website is a useful place to stay on top of things in local Asian and Asian-American communities, to read about items of local interest happening overseas and to learn about the Asian past and present in Pittsburgh,” he said.