"Malaysian Horror Series: Virtual Lecture with Dr. Rosalind Galt," April 8 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will present "Malaysian Horror Series: Virtual Lecture with Dr. Rosalind Galt" on April 8. The online event starts at 12:00 pm.

"Cookie Activism: Using Sugar as a Platform for Social Justice with Jasmine Cho," April 21 (online) at Pittsburgh Humanities Festival.

The Pittsburgh Humanities Festival will present an online conversation with Jasmine Cho, "Cookie Activism: Using Sugar as a Platform for Social Justice with Jasmine Cho," on April 21.

Jasmine Cho will discuss her work as a baker based in Pittsburgh and how she uses the art of cookie making and decorating as a therapy and to promote Asian American representation. She creates intricate, hand-drawn cookie portraits of Asian American figures as a way to increase representation and raise awareness of Asian American history and identity. Her work has been featured internationally on various media outlets and she is currently working toward developing a research-based bake therapy program rooted in the field of art therapy.

Jasmine will be interviewed by Sarah Tang. She was originally scheduled to participate in last year's festival that was ultimately cancelled due to COVID-19. This year's event starts at 7:00 pm, and the talks will be streamed on the Cultural Trust's Facebook and Youtube pages.

2006 Jet Li movie Fearless (霍元甲) at Carrie Carpool Cinema, May 22.

Carrie Carpool Cinema, an outdoor drive-in movie series at Carrie Furnaces, will present the 2006 Jet Li movie Fearless (霍元甲) on May 22. Wikipedia provides a synopsis:

It is loosely based on the life of Huo Yuanjia, a Chinese martial artist who challenged foreign fighters in highly publicized events, restoring pride and nationalism to China at a time when Western imperialism and Japanese manipulation were eroding the country in the final years of the Qing Dynasty before the birth of the Republic of China.

Doors open at 7:45 and the movie starts at 9:15 pm; tickets are available online. Carrie Blast Furnaces is a designated National Historic Landmark in Rankin (map).

2020 Korean-American film Minari remains in Pittsburgh through (at least) April 7.

The 2020 Korean-American film Minari, which opened in Pittsburgh on February 11, will remain here through at least April 7. A synopsis, from the distributor:

A tender and sweeping story about what roots us, Minari follows a Korean-American family that moves to an Arkansas farm in search of their own American Dream. The family home changes completely with the arrival of their sly, foul-mouthed, but incredibly loving grandmother. Amidst the instability and challenges of this new life in the rugged Ozarks, Minari shows the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home.

It will continue at several local theaters, including (on certain days) the AMC Loews Waterfront and AMC Mt. Lebanon. Tickets are available online.

Pitt hiring program assistant for Japan Studies program.

The University of Pittsburgh is hiring a program assistant for its Japan Studies program.

The Program Assistant will be primarily responsible for providing administrative and programmatic support for developing community engagement programming in the field of Japan Studies. The Program Assistant will promote Japan Studies across a broad range of disciplines and languages, in engagement activities coordinated with the Asian Studies Center, other units of the University, K-16 teachers and students, local internationally engaged organizations, other major universities, community colleges and Title III/Title V- eligible institutions. The Program Assistant will work with faculty, staff, students, K-16 educators, pre-service and in-service teachers to develop outreach materials about Japan Studies. Primary duties include: 1) Cultivate connections with local community groups 2) Develop and conduct virtual Japan-related outreach programs designed for regional populations of Southwestern Pennsylvania. 3) Support Japan Studies Faculty activities 4) Organize and implement online seminars and workshops that support dialog and networking to foster a deeper understanding of Japan 5) Assist with all aspects of virtual programming including registration, video conferencing, technical troubleshooting and recording of online events. The Program Assistant will manage the scheduling, logistics, publicity, and information for a range of Japan Studies activities. The Program Assistant may also be asked to assist the Asian Studies Center with other events and programs as needed.

One year of relevant program experience Interest and some knowledge of East Asia desired and background in Japan Studies required. Proficiency in written and oral Japanese. The University of Pittsburgh is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and values equality of opportunity, human dignity and diversity. EOE, including disability/vets

The position is categorized as Staff Administrator I.

Eddie Huang film Boogie continues in Pittsburgh, through (at least) April 8.

The Eddie Huang film Boogie, which opened in Pittsburgh on March 5, will continue here through at least April 8. From the distributor:

From acclaimed writer, producer and restaurateur Eddie Huang comes his directorial debut Boogie, the coming-of-age story of Alfred “Boogie” Chin, a basketball phenom living in Queens, New York, who dreams of one day playing in the NBA. While his parents pressure him to focus on earning a scholarship to an elite college, Boogie must find a way to navigate a new girlfriend, high school, on-court rivals and the burden of expectation.

It will continue locally at Waterworks Cinema, and tickets are available online.

"Hatsune Miku, DTM, and Niconico: Exploring Media Ecosystems in Contemporary Japan and Beyond," March 31 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Dr. Keisuke Yamada and "Hatsune Miku, DTM, and Niconico: Exploring Media Ecosystems in Contemporary Japan and Beyond" on March 31.

In the virtual presentation, Dr. Yamada discusses the Vocaloid and DTM (desktop music) phenomena through the lenses of media and fan studies, looking at online social media platforms, the new technology for composing, and fans of the Vocaloid character. He provides a sense of how interactive new media and an empowered fan base combine to engage in the creation processes and enhance the circulation of Vocaloid works. The question of how today’s DTM culture expands in scale hinges upon such lively collaborations and interconnections, not just between individuals, but also among individuals, technologies, and distribution infrastructures.

The talk starts at 6:30 pm and is free and open to the public, though registration is required.

Fairmont Pittsburgh hiring Mandarin-speaking Food and Beverage Manager (餐饮部经理).

The Fairmont Pittsburgh hotel is hiring a Mandarin-speaking Food and Beverage Manager (餐饮部经理).

您是一个拥有大胆想法且热情的美食家吗？若您是，我们有份合适的工作正等着您！作为餐饮部经理，您将有策略性地带领团队将客户满意度提升到新的水平。

2019 Singaporean film Revenge of the Pontianak online at Pitt, April 7.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will present the 2019 film Revenge of the Pontianak on April 7 as the next installment in its Malaysian Horror Series. A synopsis, from Netflix:

A wedding in a Malaysian village leaves out one guest: a scorned vampire ghost bent on settling a secret score with the groom and anyone in her way.

The onilne presentation starts at 7:00 pm.

"Finding Home: Elizabeth Miki Brina & Nadia Owusu Live," April 5 with City of Asylum.

City of Asylum presents "Finding Home: Elizabeth Miki Brina & Nadia Owusu Live" on April 5.

Tonight two debut novelists read and discuss their newest memoirs: Elizabeth Miki Brina’s debut novel Speak, Okinawa beautifully combs a lifetime of memory, love, loss, the connections that bind us to one another, and is one of the most anticipated memoirs of 2021. A searing, deeply candid story about a young woman’s journey to understand her complicated parents and her own, fraught cultural heritage. Aftershocks is a deeply felt memoir from Whiting Award–winner Nadia Owusu about the push and pull of belonging, the seismic emotional toll of family secrets, and the heart it takes to pull through. Both novelists will discuss their works exploring their common themes of migrations, identity, and feeling out of place, in a live discussion and audience Q&A.

Elizabeth Miki Brina grew up with the trappings of a typical American childhood and adolescence. Yet even though she felt almost no connection to her mother’s distant home, she also felt out of place among her peers. Elizabeth comes to recognize the shame and self-loathing that haunt both her and her mother, and attempts a form of reconciliation, not only to come to terms with the embattled dynamics of her family but also to reckon with the injustices that reverberate throughout the history of Okinawa and its people. Clear-eyed and profoundly humane, Speak, Okinawa is a startling accomplishment–a heartfelt exploration of identity, inheritance, forgiveness, and what it means to be an American. Elizabeth Miki Brina is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Bread Loaf Scholarship and a New York State Summer Writers Institute Scholarship. She currently lives and teaches in New Orleans.

The event begins at 7:00 pm and registration is required.

2020 Japanese film Violet Evergarden: The Movie (劇場版 ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデ) in Pittsburgh, from March 30.

The 2020 Japanese film Violet Evergarden: The Movie (劇場版 ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデ) will play in Pittsburgh on, so far, March 30, March 31, April 3, and April 4. A synopsis, from the distributor:

While writing other people’s emotions, she may have neglected her own. Violet Evergarden, the child soldier turned Auto Memory Doll, writes letters that evoke the words her clients can’t. But when a terminally ill boy requests her services for his family, her own feelings about love and loss resurface. Now she must confront her past and the death of the Major.

At this point it is scheduled to play at the AMC Loews Waterfront and the Cinemark theaters in North Hills and Robinson, and tickets are available online.

"Stop Anti-Asian Violence, Stop China-Bashing!," March 27 in Squirrel Hill.

The Answer Coalition is organizing a "Stop Anti-Asian Violence, Stop China-Bashing!" rally in Squirrel Hill on Saturday, March 27, to coincide with a National Day of Action.

The ANSWER Coalition stands in solidarity with the Asian community in the midst of the horrific, racist and misogynist massacre that took place in Atlanta on March 16th. Six Asian women were among the eight shot to death at point blank range.
The alarming rise in hate crimes over the past year correlates to an increasingly hostile U.S. foreign policy towards China. The opportunistic scapegoating of China during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the intensity by which China is deemed the enemy and adversary of the United States, has driven a widespread Sinophobic sentiment nationally. The Asian American community suffers the brunt of the hatred fomented as a weapon of war. To date, there have been 3,800 self-reported hate crimes against Asian Americans.
The mainstream media’s failure to label the Atlanta shooting as a hate crime demonstrates the gross disregard and injustice that our communities are facing. Racism is a sick symptom of a system that profits from war and violence. And to put insult to injury, the cop handling the case was found to be promoting anti-China paraphernalia.
Join us on March 27th for a national day of action demanding an end to anti-Asian racist violence, an end to violence against women and and end to white supremacy now!

It begins at 2:00 pm at the intersection of Forbes and Murray Avenues (map).

"Let the CAT out of the bag" with Pitt's Department of East Asian Languages & Litetaratures, March 26.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of East Asian Langauges & Literatures will present Chinese instructor Yiting Cheng and her colloquium "Let the CAT out of the bag" on March 26.

Dr. Cheng, a Chinese language instructor at UPitt and a NYS certified court interpreter, will introduce you to a translation tool that is required by most language service providers. This took is non-language specific so long as you are interested in translation. You are invited to see how this tool works.

The event starts at 2:00 pm on Zoom.

Pitt's ASA, Crisis Relief Club, and SASA present "Discussion on East / Southeast Asian Violence" on March 25.

The Asian Student Association, Crisis Relief Club, and South Asian Student Association invite students to a Discussion on East / Southeast Asian Violence" on March 25.

ASA x CRC X SASA present a virtual healing space for students to come and discuss the prevalent and ongoing anti-Asian hate crime and violence in the United States. We will be having a round table discussion and will also provide a resource toolkit on how to support the Asian American community and be an ally.

The event runs from 9:00 to 10:00 pm on Zoom (977 7619 2019) and is open to the student community.

"Japanese Culture through Video Games," March 31 with Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania.

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania will host Dr. Rachael Hutchinson and her talk "Japanese Culture through Video Games" on March 31, a talk that was scheduled last April at Pitt but ultimately postponed.

Japanese video games have had a significant impact on the medium worldwide. Dr. Rachael Hutchinson considers how ‘Japan’ has been packaged for domestic and overseas consumers, and how Japanese designers have used the medium to express ideas about home and nation, nuclear energy, war and historical memory, social breakdown and bioethics. She explores how ideology and critique are conveyed through game narrative and character design as well as user interface, cabinet art, and peripherals. Ultimately, she argues that Japanese artists have expressed similar ideas in the video game medium as in older narrative forms such as literature and film.

The online talk is free though seating is limited and registration is required.

PublicSource shares perspective on anti-Asianism in Pittsburgh and "how media, government and academia fail Asian women."

photo by Jay Manning for Public Source.

Alexis Lai in PublicSource shares perspectives on anti-Asianism in Pittsburgh: "As a Han Chinese woman in Pittsburgh, I see the Atlanta massacre exposing how media, government and academia fail Asian women."

The massacre has been infuriating on many levels, but not at all surprising to anyone who has been genuinely listening to Asians in America. In fact, a year ago, when the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Pittsburgh, I wrote that it wasn’t paranoid to wonder if there would be another Vincent Chin. An American of Chinese ancestry, he was beaten brain dead in Detroit in 1982 by two white men furious about the growing Japanese dominance of the auto industry. His murder, for which his attackers were merely fined $3,000, galvanized the Asian American civil rights movement.

What is perhaps even more outrageous than the Atlanta attack itself is the tepid overall response from the federal government, local law enforcement, the mainstream news media and the general public – all who still refuse to acknowledge the violence for what it is. Asian Americans are having to continually justify why the killing spree was unambiguously a hate crime against working-class Asian women – enraging, exhausting emotional labor that only compounds the indignity and injustice they are facing in a time of exquisite crisis.

As a Han Chinese woman of Hong Kong ancestry, as a journalist with a decade of professional experience, as an international graduate student in America, and as a journalism and creative nonfiction instructor at the University of Pittsburgh, I have been numb with fury by the culture of complicit complacence toward anti-Asianism.

More at PublicSource.org.

2020 Korean-American film Minari remains in Pittsburgh through (at least) March 30.

The 2020 Korean-American film Minari, which opened in Pittsburgh on February 11, will remain here through at least March 30. A synopsis, from the distributor:

A tender and sweeping story about what roots us, Minari follows a Korean-American family that moves to an Arkansas farm in search of their own American Dream. The family home changes completely with the arrival of their sly, foul-mouthed, but incredibly loving grandmother. Amidst the instability and challenges of this new life in the rugged Ozarks, Minari shows the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home.

It will continue at numerous local theaters, including (on certain days) the AMC Loews Waterfront, AMC Mt. Lebanon, Waterworks Cinemas, Cranberry Cinemas, and the Cinemark in Monroeville. Tickets are available online.

Eddie Huang film Boogie continues in Pittsburgh, through March 30.

The Eddie Huang film Boogie, which opened in Pittsburgh on March 5, will continue here through at least March 25. From the distributor:

From acclaimed writer, producer and restaurateur Eddie Huang comes his directorial debut Boogie, the coming-of-age story of Alfred “Boogie” Chin, a basketball phenom living in Queens, New York, who dreams of one day playing in the NBA. While his parents pressure him to focus on earning a scholarship to an elite college, Boogie must find a way to navigate a new girlfriend, high school, on-court rivals and the burden of expectation.

It plays locally at many theaters, including (on certain days) the AMC Loews Waterfront, AMC South Hills, Waterworks Cinema, and Cinemark Monroeville. Tickets are available online.

"Hatsune Miku, DTM, and Niconico: Exploring Media Ecosystems in Contemporary Japan and Beyond," March 31 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Dr. Keisuke Yamada and "Hatsune Miku, DTM, and Niconico: Exploring Media Ecosystems in Contemporary Japan and Beyond" on March 31.

In the virtual presentation, Dr. Yamada discusses the Vocaloid and DTM (desktop music) phenomena through the lenses of media and fan studies, looking at online social media platforms, the new technology for composing, and fans of the Vocaloid character. He provides a sense of how interactive new media and an empowered fan base combine to engage in the creation processes and enhance the circulation of Vocaloid works. The question of how today’s DTM culture expands in scale hinges upon such lively collaborations and interconnections, not just between individuals, but also among individuals, technologies, and distribution infrastructures.

The talk starts at 6:30 pm and is free and open to the public, though registration is required.

"Salon Conversation with Cathy Park Hong," March 24 at Carnegie Mellon University.

Carnegie Mellon University's Miller Institute for Creative Art will present "Salon Conversation with Cathy Park Hong" on March 24.

Questions for Cathy Park Hong can be emailed in advance of the event at miller-ica@andrew.cmu.edu

This conversation between facilitator Dana Bishop-Root and writer Cathy Park Hong, will continue the Miller ICA salon series of conversations with individuals who imagine and actualize possibility on the other side of the pandemic portal.

Cathy Park Hong’s book of creative nonfiction, Minor Feelings, was published in Spring 2020 by One World/Random House (US) and Profile Books (UK). Minor Feelings is a ruthlessly honest, emotionally charged, and utterly original exploration of Asian American consciousness and the struggle to be human. The book has garnered praise from literary legends such as Claudia Rankine who said, “Cathy Park Hong’s brilliant, penetrating and unforgettable Minor Feelings is what was missing on our shelf of classics....To read this book is to become more human.”

Cathy Park Hong is also the author of poetry collections Engine Empire, published in 2012 by W.W. Norton, Dance Dance Revolution, chosen by Adrienne Rich for the Barnard Women Poets Prize, and Translating Mo'um. Hong is the recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Her prose and poetry have been published in the New York Times, New Republic, the Guardian, Paris Review, Poetry, and elsewhere. She is the poetry editor of the New Republic and is a full professor at Rutgers-Newark University.

Dana Bishop-Root lives in gratitude, is guided by relationships, listening deep and expansive possibilities with an ever present commitment to justice. She is the Director of Education and Public Programs at the Carnegie Museum of Art, a founding member of General Sisters, Transformazium and a huge advocate for the Braddock Carnegie Library Association.

The online event runs from 7:30 to 8:30 pm and registration is required.