2016 Japanese animated movie A Silent Voice (聲の形) in Pittsburgh, October 22.

The 2016 Japanese animated movie A Silent Voice (聲の形) will play at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont on October 22. A synopsis of the film, opening in the US on October 20, from the distributor:

A deaf elementary school girl, Shoko Nishimiya, upon transferring, meets a boy named Shoya Ishida in her new class. Shoya, who is not deaf, leads the class in bullying Shoko, because she is deaf. As the bullying continues, the class starts to bully Shoya for bullying Shoko. After graduating from elementary school, Shoko and Shoya do not speak to each other… until later, when Shoya, tormented over his past, decides he must see Shoko once more. Shoya wants to make amends for what he did in elementary school and be Shoko’s friend.

The movie will play at 2:00 pm and tickets are available online for $15. The theater is located at 1449 Potomac Ave. in Dormont (map), and is accessible by Pittsburgh's subway/LRT at a block south of Potomac Station.

Umami named Best Japanese Restaurant in 2017 Pittsburgh City-Paper Readers' Poll.

via @UmamiPgh.

Umami was voted Best Japanese Restaurant in the 2017 Pittsburgh City-Paper Readers' Poll, which announced its results this morning. Umami, which opened in Lawrenceville in April 2016,

offers contemporary Japanese fare that is as pleasing to the eye as it is to the tastebuds. Menu categories include robatayaki — skewered foods grilled over charcoal — and yatai, which encompasses items served at street-food stands.

Nakama was voted Best Sushi, and had been a perennial winner of Best Japanese, garnering the most votes in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2015, and 2016.

Other relevant winners to this site are Sesame Inn again being named Best Chinese Restaurant, Nicky's Thai Kitchen voted Best Thai, and Pusadee's Garden Thai voted Best Outdoor Dining.

Ariba hiring bilingual Chinese-English Procurement Operations Specialist for overnight position.

Pittsburgh-based Ariba is again hiring a bilingual Chinese-English Procurement Operations Specialist for an 8:00 pm to 5:00 am shift. An excerpt from the job posting:

The Customer Support Specialist is the face and voice of Ariba to our customers, building relationships in each interaction. Specialists help our customers maximize the benefits of Ariba solutions to facilitate a global exchange of goods and services in the world’s largest business to business trading community. They use their expertise and collaborate with team members and customers across the globe to provide detailed solutions that exceed expectations.

HCL Technologies hiring Bilingual Korean Query Analyst for position onsite at Google.

HCL Technologies is hiring a Bilingual Korean Query Analyst for a position working onsite at Google in Larimer. The posting, via Monster.com:

Bilingual Korean Query Analyst is a full time position through HCL America, Inc. onsite at Google Pittsburgh. You will work to enhance users’ online shopping experience by analyzing the user query stream, and improving Google user search results using highly technical internal tools and processes. It is part of a fast-paced environment, partnering closely with operations and engineering teams.

Japanese horror film Ring (リング) at Row House Cinema, October 21.

The classic Japanese horror film Ring (リング) will play at the Row House Cinema at midnight on October 21.

When her niece is found dead along with three friends after viewing a supposedly cursed videotape, reporter Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima) sets out to investigate.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for Row House Film Club members, and are available online. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).

Japanese Career Information Session at the University of Pittsburgh, October 18.

Activ8 Recruitment & Solutions is holding a Japanese Career Information Session on October 18 in the Department of East Asian Languages at the University of Pittsburgh. The session runs from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm in 2712 Cathedral of Learning.

Activ8 Recruitment & Solutions has been visiting universities located across the United States every spring and fall and arranging Career Information Sessions for students and new graduates. We welcome any who speaks Japanese and/or are those studying Japanese language and culture. We meet and talk with each student to introduce our services and provide useful job market information for Japanese-English bilingual students or those who wish to work for Japanese businesses. There is no fee for applicants from the beginning to the end.

Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し) free at Pitt on October 20, Howl's Moving Castle (ハウルの動く城) on October 21.

The Pitt Program Council will present Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し) and Howl's Moving Castle (ハウルの動く城) in an Anime Movie Marathon on October 20 and 21.

Korean Music Festival 2017, November 4 at University of Pittsburgh.

The Korean Association of Greater Pittsburgh and the Korean Heritage Room will present Korean Music Festival 2017 on November 4 at the University of Pittsburgh.

Celebrating Korean Music and musicians who love Korean culture

Featuring
Pittsburgh Korean Children’s Festival Chorus
Pittsburgh Korean Women’s Chorale
Voice and instrumental music
Chamber Music
Pittsburgh Korean Chamber Orchestra
A Korean songs sing-along

Moderated by Dr. Nick Bum Soo Kim & Lynnea E. Lombardi

Reception to follow

The event starts at 7:00 pm at the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium in Oakland (map). Tickets are free for children and students, and $10 for general admission.

2016 Hong Kong movie Sisterhood (骨妹) at ReelQ Pittsburgh LGBT Film Festival, October 19.

The 2016 Hong Kong movie Sisterhood (骨妹) will play in Pittsburgh at the 32nd annual ReelQ Pittsburgh LGBT Film Festival on October 19. A South China Morning Post review summarizes the film:

Fifteen years after she moved to Taiwan to marry a hostel owner, Macau-raised orphan Sei (Gigi Leung Wing-kei) remains haunted by her abrupt breakup with best friend Ling around the turn of the millennium. When news of Ling’s death arrives, Sei, now a chronic alcoholic, finally decides to travel back to her hometown and piece together their intimate past together in the late 1990s.

The movie will play at 7:30 pm at the Harris Theater in the downtown Cultural District (map). Tickets are available online at $9 for adults and $6 for students.

"Storytime: Japanese and English" at Carnegie Library in East Liberty, October 17.

The next installment of the monthly program "Storytime: Japanese and English" will take place on October 17 at the Carnegie Library in East Liberty.

Celebrate our city’s diverse culture as we explore new words through songs, action rhymes and stories in both English and Japanese for children and their parents or caregivers. For children age birth-5 and their caregivers.

It runs from 11:00 to 11:30 am and is free and open to the public. The library is located at 130 S. Whitfield St. (map).

CMU K-Pop Dance Club K-BBQ Social, October 19.

Carnegie Mellon University's K-Pop Dance Club will host a Korean BBQ Social on October 19.

Come join us for a Korean pork belly (samgyupsal) party at 5:30 PM Oct. 19 (Thursday) to celebrate the mid-semester break!
Rice and ssamjang (Korean sauce) will be provided. You don't have to be a KPDC member for this. Just come enjoy food and music with us!
************************************************************
IT'S ALL YOU CAN EAT FOR $10 IF YOU RSVP (please fill out the form: https://goo.gl/forms/4tqnEwUFCkVJgLG32).
It will be $12 if you pay at the door.

It will start at 5:30 pm at Donner Ditch, the outdoor grilling area next to Donner House off of Margaret Morrison St. (map).

Rapper G Yamazawa at Pitt, October 21.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Student Alliance will bring rapper and spoken word poet G Yamazawa to Pitt on October 21.

Born in Durham, NC and raised by Japanese immigrants, "G" is widely considered one of the top young spoken word rapper and poets in the country. His art challenges American perspectives of race and culture.

⭐"G" is a National Poetry Slam Champion, Individual World Poetry Slam Finalist, and has toured 200 universities. He was also nominated for Best New Hip Hop Artist by the 2016 Carolina Music Awards.
⭐He's performed at the Sundance Film Festival and the Pentagon
⭐He co-founded Sacrificial Poets, a youth poetry organization that advocates for youth empowerment through political poetry

The event runs from 5:00 to 7:30 pm in Nordy's, in the ground floor of the William Pitt Union (map).

KANTO KanKitchen Filipino-style pig roast in Lawrenceville, October 30.

Spirit in Lawrenceville will host the next KANTO KanKitchen event, a Filipino-style pig roast on October 30. Kanto, explains the official website, is a noun meaning

corner; place where two streets meet;
to reference a location of an event or venue;

"KANTO," in Pittsburgh, are gatherings at different
locations curated by Chef Rafael Vencio with a
seasonally driven menu for each occasion.

Chuseok Korean Fall Festival at Pitt, October 15.

The Daehwa Korean Conversaion Club, the Asian Studies Center, and the Korean Student Association will present a Chuseok festival on Sunday, October 15.

Join us in celebrating Chuseok, Korea's Fall Festival. There will be food, games, and music!

The festival runs from 5:00 to 8:00 pm in the William Pitt Union Ballroom (map) and is free and open to the public.

"Hope Without Future: Hong Kong Young People And Stories Of Present Livability" at Pitt, October 16.

The University of Pittsburgh will host Dr. Kevin Ming of Project Share Hong Kong and his talk "Hope Without Future: Hong Kong Young People And Stories Of Present Livability" on October 16.

Yuen Long, New Territories, Hong Kong is a part of the ecologically vital, heavily populated, and hyper-urbanizing Pearl River delta region. As in many parts of the world, the people there, and the environment in which they live, are caught up in a mix of rapid development projects, cumulative environmental disasters, fraught population movements, and diverse forms of social-ecological dis-placement. Drawing from a number of years of ethnographic research in the region, this talk will trace some of the uneven impacts this entails through a discussion of how young people in Yuen Long are experiencing, navigating, and surviving these changing conditions, and how in turn they are responding. While these responses include nativism and democracy activism, as widely reported in local and international media, they also include what I call ordinary-fantastic stories of present livability. Articulating diverse imaginations of community and mutualistic belonging, these stories are both situated within the specific muddle of realities in the New Territories and are entangled in broader questions of accelerating dis-placements and diminishing life ecologies. I conclude with a discussion of what these stories have to tell us about emergent livabilities for young people in Hong Kong, or the worldings of ordinary imaginings that are fantastic and unlikely urges towards flourishing life.

The talk runs from 2:00 to 4:00 pm in 4217 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public. It is part of International Education Week.

Chinese Language Teachers Association of Western Pennsylvania 2017 Autumn Symposium (西賓州中文教師學會2017 年秋季研討會), October 15 at CMU.

The agenda for the Chinese Language Teachers Association of Western Pennsylvania 2017 Autumn Symposium (西賓州中文教師學會2017 年秋季研討會), scheduled for October 15 at Carnegie Mellon University, was just released.



The mission of the CLTA-WPA is described thus:

The mission of the Chinese Language Teachers Association of Western Pennsylvania (CLTA-WPA) is to:

1. Promote the teaching and learning of Chinese language and culture in the western Pennsylvania area
2. Help improve and strengthen Chinese language and culture instruction
3. Establish a forum for exchanging information, expertise, ideas, experiences, and materials about Chinese education
4. Serve the community in promoting quality Chinese education

Registration is required, and can be completed online. The event registration fee is $20, though this is waived for CLTA-WPA members. The event runs from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm at room 100 of Porter Hall (map).

Live-action Tokyo Ghoul (東京喰種) movie in Pittsburgh, from October 16.

The new live-action movie Tokyo Ghoul (東京喰種) will play at the Southside Works Cinema from October 16 through 19. A synopsis, from the distributor:

Riddled with gripping fight scenes and tasteful gore, this adaptation of Tokyo Ghoul brings the popular manga series to life like never before.

Buried in books and a quiet life, Ken Kaneki is all but dead to the world in an age where flesh-eating ghouls live among us. But when his only chance for survival is an organ donation that turns him into a ghoul-human hybrid, he finds sanctuary at Anteiku—a café run by the people he once considered monsters. Targeted by anti-ghoul forces, this safe house is up against a hunger more sickening than their own. When their most innocent members are threatened by humanity’s taste for vengeance, Kaneki will risk life and limb to protect the very world that changed his own.

The movie was released on July 29 in Japan.

Tickets and showtime information is available online via the theater's website. Southside Works Cinema is located at 425 Cinema Drive in the Southside, one block from the Hot Metal Bridge (map).

George Takei to speak at Pitt, October 17; musical film Allegiance on October 15.

Via @georgehtakei

The University of Pittsburgh will host activist, actor, and author George Takei on October 17 as the keynote speaker of this year's International Education Week.

With a career spanning five decades, George Takei is known around the world for his founding role in the acclaimed television series Star Trek, in which he played Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the Starship Enterprise. But George Takei's story goes where few stories have gone before. From a childhood spent with his family wrongfully imprisoned in a Japanese American Internment Camp during WWII, to becoming one of the country's leading figures in the fight for social justice, LGBTQ rights, and marriage equality—George Takei remains a powerful voice on issues ranging from politics to pop culture.

On Sunday, October 15th, the film adaptation of the musical Allegiance will play at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum. A symopsis of the film, from the musical's website:

Allegiance illuminates one of American history’s lesser known chapters as it tells the story of Sam Kimura (Takei), transported back nearly six decades to when his younger self (Telly Leung, Godspell, “Glee”) and his sister Kei (Tony Award®-winner Lea Salonga, Miss Saigon, Mulan) fought to stay connected to their heritage, their family and themselves after Japanese Americans were wrongfully imprisoned during World War II. An important story told with great resonance and intimacy, Allegiance explores the ties that bind us, the struggle to persevere and the overwhelming power of forgiveness and, most especially, love.

Both events will begin at 7:00 pm, and tickets are available via the International Week website.

Handa City Nihon Buyo workshop at Pitt, October 14.

"Eiko Hayashi, Nihon Buyô – danse du Kabuki (Musée Guimet)" by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra [Creative Commons].

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center and the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania will host a Handa City Nihon Buyo workshop on October 14.

Join the Asian Studies Center and the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania on Saturday, October 14 from 9:30-11:30 am for a Japanese dance workshop on Nihon Buyo (日本舞踊). Nihon Buyo is a form of dance that grew out of Kabuki theater movements. A presentation, followed by a short performance of Nihon Buyo will be given by dance master Shinojo Nishikawa and her troupe. At the end of the performance, participants will learn a Nihon Buyo based dance-fitness routine (please wear comfortable clothing if you would like to participate).

This workshop is free and open to the public.

(light refreshments will be served at 9:30 and the presentation will begin at 10:00)

The event will be held at the O'Hara Student Center in Oakland (map). Reservations are required by October 11 and those interested should email Patrick Hughes at hughespw at pitt.edu.

Pitt hiring bilingual Mandarin-English temporary liaison.

The University of Pittsburgh's Katz Graduate School of Business Center for Executive Education is hiring a bilingual Mandarin-English liaison for a temporary position.

The candidate will work closely with the Director of Operations to provide logistical support for the Shougang Executive Education program. The candidate will attend all academic sessions, all site visits and all meetings with the Shougang and WholeRen team. Where necessary, the candidate will provide verbal and written translation services.

Job Requirements
Fluent in Mandarin and English (spoken and written). Experience in business. MBA and work in educational programs a plus. Must be able to attend all academic sessions and site visits. Must be able to work independently.

The job pays $17 per hour and is 30 hours per week. Those interested should apply via PittSource.

Jackie Chan's The Foreigner in Pittsburgh, from October 12.

Jackie Chan's forthcoming movie The Foreigner will open in Pittsburgh, and throughout the US, on October 12. A plot summary, from the official site:

The film tells the story of humble London businessman Quan (Chan), whose long-buried past erupts in a revenge-fueled vendetta when the only person left for him to love -- his teenage daughter -- is taken from him in a senseless act of politically-motivated terrorism.

In his relentless search for the identity of the terrorists, Quan is forced into a cat- and-mouse conflict with a British government official (Brosnan), whose own past may hold clues to the identities of the elusive killers

The movie will play at the AMC Loews Waterfront theater, Southside Works Cinema, Phoenix Theaters Chartiers Valley in Bridgeville, and at several other locations in the area, with ticket and showtime information available online.