The Drop Box at Cinemark North Hills, March 3 - 5.

The Cinemark North Hills theater will show The Drop Box, a 2015 documentary on Korean pastor Lee Jong-rak and his work with Korean orphans. The title refers to the controversial "baby box" (베이비박스) at Lee's church in Seoul where unwanted newborns may be left anonymously. A synopsis of the documentary produced in part by Focus on the Family:

The Drop Box tells the story of South Korean pastor Lee Jong-rak and his heroic efforts to embrace and protect the most vulnerable members of society. It is a heart-wrenching exploration of the physical, emotional and financial toll associated with providing refuge to orphans that would otherwise be abandoned on the streets. But The Drop Box movie is also a story of hope—a reminder that every human life is sacred and worthy of love.

The Drop Box will run at 7:00 pm on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Tickets are available at the Cinemark website. The theater is located at the McCandless Crossing shopping center on McKnight Road (map), roughly 10 miles north of the city.

Look for Pink Box in Oakland later this year.

Last year, word on the street was Squirrel Hill's Pink Box---a Taiwanese "Asian-European fusion bakery"---would open a location in Oakland in late-2014 or early-2015. Ownership now says to look for it much later in the year, as the bakery will not be moving into the converted house behind K-Box but will instead be knocking it down and constructing a new, modern building incorporating shipping containers at 4527 Winthrop St. (map). An October Post-Gazette article says the Oakland spot will be four times the size of the Squirrel Hill location.

Honam University "Speech Pioneers" visit Pittsburgh.

via Honam University

A group of four students from the Speech & Language Pathology department at Honam University (호남대학교) in Gwangju visited the University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University from February 1 through February 16 to view local developments in the speech pathology field.

Ten Minutes (10 분), I Am Here (我就是我) part of CMU International Film Festival.

The lineup for the 2015 Carnegie Mellon University International Film Festival was announced this afternoon, and the South Korean movie Ten Minutes (10 분) and the Chinese I Am Here (我就是我) are among the films that comprise it. 10 Minutes will play on April 8 at 7:00 pm. A summary from the Busan International Film Festival, where the movie premiered in 2013:

A young man preparing for an exam to work for a broadcasting company starts to work as an intern and a junior government employee. He is only there to make some money before finding a real job, but when his boss tells him that he wants to hire him full-time, he is tempted. After going through the interview and getting congratulated from others in the office, he is shocked that the full-time position is in fact given to someone else. An older co-worker tells him that it was a set-up, and the young man decides to fight the decision. The fight for justice is not as easy as his co-worker says. The film cruelly looks on as the man stoops lower and lower, from an intern loved by both co-workers and managers, to a disgruntled employee. He is at a crossroads. Should he stay a good, social employee, or start anew as a straggler?

And the Toronto International Film Festival profiles I Am Here, which plays on March 27 at 7:15 pm:

Every week, millions of viewers tune in to China's most popular singing competition, Super Boy. Tens of thousands of aspiring male singers audition every year for this prestigious talent show, but only ten make it into the months-long competition. Fan Lixin's documentary I Am Here immerses us in the finalists' gruelling, adrenalizing experience, even as it raises provocative questions about the social context of such a phenomenon.

The world of these young performers is a glossy fantasy, all-consuming and almost too good to be true. Overnight they've been elevated to demigod status, and are now recognized everywhere they go by herds of screaming teenagers. This fame comes at the cost of their identity; vocal coaches, dance teachers, and tyrannical producers exploit easily digestible aspects of the young men's personalities and backgrounds, grooming them in the images of archetypes that audiences can root for. But in a scenario where there can be only one winner, the boys band together, attaining a mutual harmony that extends beyond the singing contest.

The festival will run from March 19 through 28, and April 8 through 11. Ticketing information and a complete schedule is available on the festival's website.

Hotteok (호떡) sale at CMU, February 26.

via Happy Today.

The Carnegie Mellon University Asian Students Association will hold a Hotteok Sale tomorrow, February 26. Hotteok (호떡) is a fried Korean dessert with a sweet filling, commonly sold by street food vendors for 30 to 50 cents a piece. The sale runs from 11:30 to 3:00 pm in the University Center Commons Room.

Sunflower Occupation event at Pitt (匹茲堡太陽花一週年), March 28.

A rally commemorating the Sunflower Student Movement in Taiwan will take place at the University of Pittsburgh on March 28. Pittsburgh is one of eleven North American cities holding events on the 28th. According to the event's Facebook page, the event begins at 2:00 pm in room 232 of the Cathedral of Learning. Last year's rally took place at CMU.

Japanese Board Game event at CMU, February 27.

via sbszine.

The Japanese Student Association at Carnegie Mellon University will present Japanese Board Games on Friday, February 27. From the event's Facebook page:

Join Japanese Student Association at CMU for Japanese mahjong, go, and other traditional games!

There will be people who will happily teach you how to play any of the games -- and we'll have information slips on how to play!

The event starts from 4:30 pm in 5415 Wean Hall (campus map).

"'Radical' Thinking about Character Recognition: The structure of the Chinese orthography and its ramifications" at Pitt, February 26.

The Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh will present M.A. candidate Frank Dolce and his talk "'Radical' Thinking about Character Recognition: The structure of the Chinese orthography and its ramifications" on February 26. The abstract:

Previous research has examined cross-linguistic importance of phonological and morphological awareness in Chinese and English word recognition, yet few studies have focused on the earlier, pre-lexical aspects of character recognition and evaluated why orthographic awareness is central to Chinese literacy development. Comparing spread of lexical activation between orthographic, phonologic and semantic stores in English and Chinese reading have helped to specify the lexical pathways underlying character decoding and reading comprehension as part of word recognition. The visual orthographic complexity and coarse form-form mappings of the logographic character system, considered in conjunction with the observations of the Lexical Constituency Model and other reading research, suggests that Chinese pre-lexical processing is exclusively orthographic and threshold-based. Sub-character radicals are decomposed sub-lexical (but not “pre-lexical”) representations and are utilized in unfamiliar reading (based on radical frequency and regularity,
and other factors). Radical parts are only accessed after orthographic lexical representations are already assembled, meaning their access involves top-down morpho-orthographic decomposition. The first study proposal uses two character recognition training tasks to examine the pre-lexical processing pathway that leads to the perceptual assembly of lexical orthographic representations. Beginning with the basic premise that the semantic cues provided by radical parts also contribute to reading of unfamiliar graphic forms, additional studies are proposed comparing the relevance of visual, orthographic and semantic salience of character components in pseudocharacter recall. It is anticipated that graphic and semantic salience of radicals will have independent and additive
effects on recall of unfamiliar forms and both may be able to be incorporated into L2 pedagogies.

The talk is held in room 4217 Posvar Hall (campus map) from 11:00 am and is free and open to the public.

"Law and the Legal Profession in China" at Pitt, February 27 and 28.

The University of Pittsburgh will host the "Law and the Legal Profession in China" conference on February 27 and 28. From the University Center for International Studies:

Over the past two decades the profession of law within China has undergone tremendous change. China’s ascension to the World Trade Organization, massive foreign investment, and an increasingly cosmopolitan middle class have forced both the central government in Beijing and the country’s practicing attorneys to grapple with new clientele, new areas of practice, and an increasingly nuanced popular response to legal issues. This conference will bring together an international panel of multidisciplinary experts to examine the development and current practice of the legal profession in China.

The event is held in the Alcoa Room of the Barco Law Building (map) and is free and open to the public. Registration is required and can be done so by emailing Lynn Kawaratani of the Asian Studies Center at lyk12 at pitt.edu.

Host families still needed for visiting Kobe Gakuin University students next month.

GlobalPittsburgh has sent a reminder that it still needs host families for a cohort of visiting Kobe Gakuin University students in an exchange program at Duquense University next month. An email from Gail Schrott, Director of the International Leaders Program:

GlobalPittsburgh is urgently searching for host families that we need for a program for a group of pharmacy students from Kobe Gakuin University (Japan) who will be participating in an exchange with Duquesne University between March 6 and March 16.

We have a total of 8 female students yet to be placed with host families (out of a total of 18 students). The students, who are between the ages of 18 and 23, will be using bus passes to go to and from their classes and activities. The students will be practicing their English while they are in the city. We are able to provide participating hosts with $150 per student to help offset their expenses for food, etc. Hosts are asked to include the students in their weekend activities, provide breakfasts and dinners on weekdays and also lunches on weekends. The students will be placed in pairs with one student speaking better English than the other so that, collectively, they may communicate more effectively with their hosts. We ask that each student have her own bed; they may share a bedroom or have separate rooms. It is not appropriate to have a student sleeping in a family room or living room on a sofa (where people may walk through). It is okay if the students have to share a bathroom with each other and/or other members of the family. We are able to provide hosts with information about the students' allergies. We have letters to prospective hosts from the students. We ask the hosts to guide their guests to a bus stop location where they may take a bus to the Duquesne campus or to the downtown area where they may then walk to campus.

I look forward to hearing from you and appreciate your consideration of our request. Our colleagues in Japan are extremely eager to learn the names of hosts so that the students may correspond with their homestay hosts in advance of their arrival in Pittsburgh on March 6.

If you are interested in hosting the Japanese medical students please contact me at 412-392-4513 or gshrott@globalpittsburgh.org.

Pittsburgh Taiko Beginners Workshop, February 28.

Performance at the University of Pittsburgh, via Pittsburgh Taiko.

Pittsburgh Taiko will hold its annual Beginners Workshop on February 28 for those interested in learning about Japanese drumming.

Over the course of 2.5 hours, you will learn the basic movements and techniques used to play taiko, as well as learn a starter piece that incorporates these playing techniques.

Drumsticks will be provided, as will earplugs (although you’re welcome to bring your own if you have some).

The event runs from 1:30 to 4:00 pm at Winchester Thurston City Campus Lower School in Shadyside (map), and the cost is $15 for Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania members and students, and $25 for others. Registration is required, and can be done so at the Pittsburgh Taiko website.

Japanese Language Exchange at Kenmawr Apartments, February 22.

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania will hold its second Japanese language exchange at Kenmawr Apartments---and its third event there this year---on Sunday, February 22. The apartment complex at 401 Shady Ave. (map) has a large number of Japanese residents who work and study in the city, and often hosts cultural events for its international residents. Sunday's event runs from 2 to 4 pm.

VSA & CASA Lunar New Year Festival 2015 at Pitt, February 21.

The Vietnamese Student Association [VSA] and the Chinese American Student Association [CASA] at the University of Pittsburgh will present Lunar New Year 2015 Festival tomorrow night, February 21. The Facebook event page lists the performances:

YanLai Dance Academy
CASA performances
VSA performances
Steel Dragon Dance
Fashion Show

and the menu:

VSA: Hunan Bar - General Tso’s Tofu, Orange Chicken, and Scallion Pancake
CASA: Golden Palace Buffet - General Tso's, Green beans, Lo mein, Fried & white rice

The event runs from 5:00 to 8:00 pm in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room (campus map) and is free.

Speaking English is the hardest thing, says Jung-ho Kang.

Speaking English is the hardest thing, Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Jung-ho Kang told Sports Seoul on Wednesday, but it's a problem he says he has to work through.

“영어로 말하는 게 가장 어렵다. 그러나 당연히 내가 극복해야 할 문제다”라고 했다.

The Pittsburgh Pirates website continues:

The language barrier is the most obvious difficulty facing Kang -- [interpreter Jae] Han sat beside him at his locker Wednesday morning -- but his teammates have been doing their best to work around it.

"They're trying to use the easy words, so everything's good," Kang said, laughing. "I can talk with them."

Chinese artist Yun-fei Ji to lecture at CMU, February 24.

Man-eating Animals, 2009

The Carnegie Mellon School of Art will present Chinese artist Yun-fei Ji (季云飞) on February 24 as part of its Spring 2015 Lecture Series. The school profiles Je:

Yun-Fei Ji’s art addresses social change and geological climates using the political forum of the scroll, an ancient art form of ink and mineral pigment on silk and paper. In 2002, he made his first reference to the theme of mass displacement and environmental cataclysm in Three Gorges Dam Migration, a series of woodblock-printed hand scrolls depicting flooding and social upheaval triggered by the creation of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River.

The talk begins at 5:00 pm in Kresge Theater (map), and is free and open to the public.

The Last: Naruto the Movie (ザ・ラスト ‐ナルト・ザ・ムービー) at Hollywood Theater, February 21 and 22.

The Last: Naruto the Movie (ザ・ラスト ‐ナルト・ザ・ムービー) will play at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont on February 21 and 22. A summary by the distributor:

The moon is approaching dangerously close to Earth! Unless something is done, the moon will disintegrate, showering the earth with gigantic meteorites. As the clock ticks towards the end of the world, can Naruto save the earth from this crisis? The final chapter of Naruto's story unfolds!

Naruto has become one of the most popular and recognizable anime and manga series in the United States, with the manga volumes frequently appearing on the New York Times and USA Today Best Sellers List and the Naruto Shippuden anime ranked as one of the top three anime series by the Los Angeles Times. With over 683 chapters and 367 anime episodes and more to come, Naruto continues to be a pillar in the US’s anime and manga culture.

The Last will premiere in the US on February 20. Tickets for the two Pittsburgh shows are now available online. Both screenings are in Japanese with English subtitles, and guests will receive free mini-posters while supplies last.

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.

"MEPPI Japan Lecture Series – The Tokyo-Berlin Axis, 70 Years Later", February 19.

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania presents the next presentation in this year's Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, Inc. Japan Lecture Series, ""MEPPI Japan Lecture Series – The Tokyo-Berlin Axis, 70 Years Later", on February 19. The JASP provides an overview of the talk and the speaker:

The lecture will provide an overview of the origins, formation, development, and fall of the Axis alliance between Japan and Germany before and during World War II. How and why did Japan and Germany, so different, distant, and each espousing nationalistic ideologies, come to embrace each other as comrades in arms? How did the Axis function as a diplomatic and military entity? Did Japan and Germany help each other’s war effort, and could they actually have won World War II? The lecture will explore the answers to these questions by examining the history of Japanese-German rapprochement from the end of World War I in 1918 to the conclusion of World War II in 1945. It will discuss major events such as the Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936, the Tripartite Pact of 1940, and the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Ricky Law is assistant professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University. He first experienced Japan as a participant of the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program in Hokkaido. He returned to Japan as a graduate student to research for his dissertation and received a Ph.D. in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Currently he is completing a book manuscript on the cultural and intellectual backgrounds of the Japanese-German alliance.

The talk runs from 6:00 to 8:00 pm in the Pittsburgh Athletic Association in Oakland (map). Registration is required and can be done online.

"Covering China from the Ground Up – and Turning Reporting into Book" with Michael Meyer, February 20 at Pitt.

The Asian Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh will host author Michael Meyer and his talk "Covering China from the Ground Up – and Turning Reporting into Book" on February 20. An overview of this stop of his book tour, from the latest ASC newsletter:

Since first arriving in the country as a Peace Corps volunteer 20 years ago, Michael Meyer has witnessed China from the village and neighborhood level. His writing combines immersive reporting, memoir and archival research. Meyer’s award-winning first book, The Last Days of Old Beijing, documents daily life in the capital's oldest neighborhood as the city remade itself for the Olympics. His second book, published this month, In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China, depicts life on a family’s rice farm as it becomes a corporate agribusiness. Meyer will show slides from his research, and talk about the challenges of reporting from China and how a freelance writer can fund and produce books that reach a wide audience. Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

The talk begins at 2:00 pm in the O'Hara Student Center Ballroom (campus map) and is free and open to the public.

Shortstop Jung-ho Kang arrives at Spring Training.

Via Newsen (1, 2).

Newly-signed shortstop Jung-ho Kang (강정호) has arrived at Pirates Spring Training, and the Korean media is watching closely.

New Chinese movie Somewhere Only We Know (有一个地方只有我们知道) at Waterfront, from February 13.

The 2015 Chinese romantic comedy Somewhere Only We Know (有一个地方只有我们知道) will play at AMC Loews Waterfront from tomorrow, February 13. A quick synopsis:

The film tells a story of a girl named Jin Tian, who goes to Prague after her boyfriend breaks the engagement. Then a man named Peng Zeyang appears in her life and a love story begins.

Pittsburgh is one of 28 North American cities to get the film on its US debut. Showtimes through February 19 are currently available online; Friday's show will play at 11:05 am, 1:45 pm, 4:25 pm, 7:05 pm, and 9:45 pm. The theater is located at the Waterfront shopping center in Homestead (map).

Korean Lunar New Year Conversation Club Event at Pitt, February 17.

From the latest Asian Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh newsletter:

Daehwa Korean Conversation club’s first event! Come experience the Korean Lunar New Year with other Korean language learners and enjoy games and food! Daehwa’s goal is to help Korean language learners or students interested in Korean to practice their conversational skills while learning about Korean culture in a fun and casual environment. All students and faculty are welcome, whether or not you are learning Korean! Please join us to celebrate the Korean Lunar New Year!

The event runs from 12:30 to 2:30 pm on February 17 in room 4130 Posvar Hall (campus map).

Chinese-language presentation “Assessing the Quality of China’s Rural Health Care” ("中国农村医疗质量评估") at Pitt, February 18.

The University of Pittsburgh will host Dr. Yaojiang Shi of Shaanxi Normal University on February 18 for a talk titled “Assessing the Quality of China’s Rural Health Care". The presentaton begins at 1:00 pm in 3600 Posvar Hall (campus map) and is in Chinese. Those interested in attending are requested to RSVP to asia [at] pitt.edu.

"Pirate Cosmopolitanism: P2P, Fansubbing, and Alternative Cultural Flow in China" at Pitt, February 13.

Dr. Jinying Li, of the University of Pittsburgh's Film Studies program, will present "Pirate Cosmopolitanism: P2P, Fansubbing, and Alternative Cultural Flow in China" on Friday, February 13. The abstract, via the Pitt Asian Studies Center:

In China, where the world's largest population is quickly getting wired, fansubbing—dubbed "zimuzu" in Chinese—has flourished among a burgeoning digital generation who is active in consuming a large amount of foreign media contents, mostly Hollywood movies and TV series, which are widely available on cyberspace in the form of free digital fansubs that are translated and distributed by fellow fans. This alternative, bottom-up cultural flow between Hollywood and China is rapidly gaining momentum in a media market that is subjected to both extensive information control by the state and suppressive IP enforcement by multinational corporations. This talk will address the political meanings of an imagined cosmopolitan community that is created through the self-organized communication platforms of fansubbing and p2p file sharing of media contents, and examine the changing power relations between global Hollywood, the Chinese state, and a new generation of consumers in the digital age.

The talk will begin at 4:00 pm in 4217 Posvar Hall (campus map), and is free and open to the public.

Valentine's Day in Japan Chocolate Making Social in Shadyside, February 13.

Kenmawr Apartments in Shadyside and the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania will host "Valentine's Day in Japan Chocolate Making Social" on Friday, February 13. The apartment complex at 401 Shady Ave. (map) has a large number of Japanese residents who work and study in the city, and often hosts cultural events for its international residents. Friday's event runs from 4 to 6 pm.

New Chinese movie Somewhere Only We Know (有一个地方只有我们知道) at Waterfront, from February 13.

The 2015 Chinese romantic comedy Somewhere Only We Know (有一个地方只有我们知道) will play at AMC Loews Waterfront from February 13, according to the University of Pittsburgh's East Asian Languages and Literatures. A quick synopsis:

The film tells a story of a girl named Jin Tian, who goes to Prague after her boyfriend breaks the engagement. Then a man named Peng Zeyang appears in her life and a love story begins.

Pittsburgh is one of 28 North American cities to get the film on its US debut. Showtimes and further information have not yet been released. The theater is located at the Waterfront shopping center in Homestead (map).

Chinese New Year event for kids at Mt. Lebanon Public Library, February 15.

The Mt. Lebanon Public Library (map) will hold a Chinese New Year event for children ages 3 and up on Sunday, February 15, from 2:00 to 3:00 pm.

Help bring in the Year of the Sheep today with stories, songs, snacks and fun!

Those with questions can contact the Children's Library at childrenslibrary [at] einetwork.net or 412-531-1912.

Documentary Lessons in Dissent (未夠秤) and discussion with director at Pitt, February 11.

The Asian Studies Center newsletter tells us the 2014 documentary Lessons in Dissent (未夠秤) will be shown at the University of Pittsburgh on February 11, and will feature a discussion with director Matthew Torne.

A synopsis, from the film's official website:
Filmed over 18 months, Lessons in Dissent is a kaleidoscopic, visceral portrait of a new generation of Hong Kong democracy activists.

School boy JOSHUA WONG dedicates himself to stopping the introduction of National Education. His campaign begins to snowball when an interview goes viral on YouTube, with the new school year fast approaching, a showdown with the government seems inevitable. Microphone in hand, and still in his school uniform, he leads 120,000 protesters into battle.

Meanwhile, former classmate Ma Jai fights against political oppression on the streets and in the courts. Having dropped out of school and dedicated himself to the social movement, he endures the persecution suffered by those not lucky enough to be protected by the media’s glare.

Lessons in Dissent catapults the viewer on to the streets of Hong Kong and into the heart of the action: confronting the viewer with Hong Kong’s oppressive heat, stifling humidity and air thick with dissent.

The event runs from 6:00 to 9:00 pm in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium (campus map).

"Modern Times in North Korea: Scenes from the Founding Years" at Pitt, February 13.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Dr. Suzy Kim of Rutgers University and her talk "Modern Times in North Korea: Scenes from the Founding Years" at the University of Pittsburgh on February 13, the first in the center's Worlding Korea series. The synopsis:

North Korea is often portrayed in mainstream media as a backward place, a Stalinist relic without a history worth knowing. But during its founding years (1945-1950), North Korea experienced a radical social revolution when everyday life became the primary site of political struggle, including quite deliberately a feminist agenda. With historical comparisons to revolutions in the early 20th century, Suzy Kim introduces her book through rarely seen archival photos, situating the North Korean revolution within the broader history of modernity.

It will be held in 4130 Posvar Hall (campus map) from 3:00, and is free and open to the public.

Setsubun event at Teppanyaki Kyoto, February 3.

Highland Park's Teppanyaki Kyoto restaurant is holding a setsubun event on Tuesday, February 3. Guests can receive a free ehomaki roll on a first-come-first-served basis; the restaurant explains its significance:

One February 3rd, people in Japan celebrate Setsubun, the coming of spring. One of Setsubun dinner is Special Sushi Roll, Ehomaki (Thick uncut sushi roll). The proper way to eat this dinner is to face the auspicious direction for that year, this year it was west-south-west, and eat the entire sushi roll without stopping. Don't speak, just make your wish! This takes longer than you might think, so you have time to wish for a lot!

The restaurant is located at 5808 Bryant St. (map).

In the Mood for Love (花樣年華) at Carnegie Library Oakland, February 1.

The iconic Hong Kong film In the Mood for Love (花樣年華) will be shown for free at the Carnegie Library Oakland branch on February 1. The 2000 movie is February's installment of International Cinema Sunday. From a 2001 Roger Ebert review:

They are in the mood for love, but not in the time and place for it. They look at each other with big damp eyes of yearning and sweetness, and go home to sleep by themselves. Adultery has sullied their lives: his wife and her husband are having an affair. "For us to do the same thing," they agree, "would mean we are no better than they are." The key word there is "agree." The fact is, they do not agree. It is simply that neither one has the courage to disagree, and time is passing. He wants to sleep with her and she wants to sleep with him, but they are both bound by the moral stand that each believes the other has taken.

. . .

His name is Mr. Chow (Tony Leung Chiu-wai). Hers is Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk). In the crowded Hong Kong of 1962, they have rented rooms in apartments next to each other. They are not poor; he's a newspaper reporter, she's an executive assistant, but there is no space in the crowded city and little room for secrets.

The movie runs from 2:00 to 4:00 in Classroom A. The library is located at 4400 Forbes Ave. in Oakland (map).

Colloquium "Visual Orthographic Variation and Learning to Read across Writing System" at Pitt, January 30.

Via the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures.

Li-Yun Chang, a graduate student in the Learning Research and Development Center, will give a talk on "Visual Orthographic Variation and Learning to Read across Writing System" on Friday, January 30, at Pitt. The abstract:

Different writing systems are used across the world – their visual forms vary greatly. How can we classify this visual variation? Across the range of writing systems, how does variability in the visual characteristics of graphemes, the smallest linguistically significant writing units, in different orthographies (e.g., English: letters; Chinese: characters) affect learning to read? Specifically, do individuals with differing writing system backgrounds perceive graphemes differently? This talk focuses on research testing the hypothesis that more complex orthographies impose greater perceptual demands on learners, encouraging development of stronger visual perceptual skills through learning to read. Findings suggest that visual orthographic variation, encompassing both grapheme complexity and size of grapheme inventory, affects learning to read due to resulting differences in visual perceptual processing. Implications of this orthographic variation on Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) pedagogy are discussed. Light refreshments will be served.

The talk begins at 12:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (campus map) and is free and open to the public.

Tibetan-French short film "Butter Lamp" at Regent Square Theater, from January 30.

The Tibetan-French short film "Butter Lamp" will play at the Regent Square Theater from January 30 through February 12 as part of the Oscar Nominated Shorts: Live Action series. A synopsis, from the theater's site:

A young itinerant photographer and his assistant offer to photograph some Tibetan nomads in front of various backgrounds.

Host families needed for visiting Japanese college students.

GlobalPittsburgh, by way of the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania, tells us of a need for host families for a group of Japanese students visiting Duquesne University in March:

GlobalPittsburgh is arranging homestays for a total of 18 pharmacy students from Kobe Gakuin University while they attend programming at Duquesne University. The students are between the ages of 18 and 23. At present, We still have 10 women in the group who need to be placed with host families. We will need hosts whose homes are accessible to public transportation as the students will be using bus passes to go to and from their classes and activities. We are asking that hosts provide private bedrooms for the students or provide one room with separate beds for the students. The students will be practicing their English while they are in the city. There will be some compensation for the host families for this program. Our colleagues in Japan are eager to learn the names of hosts so that the students may begin corresponding with their homestay hosts in advance of their arrival in March. If you are interested in this project, please contact Gail Shrott, Director, International Leaders Program, GlobalPittsburgh [. . .] GlobalPittsburgh will ask all potential hosts for this program to fill out a host family application (link to the application is: http://www.globalpittsburgh.org/node/1099).

The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (かぐや姫の物語) at Regent Square Theater, tomorrow through January 29.

The Regent Square Theater will present The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (かぐや姫の物語) from January 24 through 29. The highly-acclaimed 2013 Studio Ghibli film made its Pittsburgh debut at the Row House Cinema in December, and was announced as an Oscar nominee last week for Best Animated Feature. An A.V. Club review provides a summary:

A humble bamboo cutter named Okina (translation: “old man”) happens upon a glowing stalk in the grove near his house. When he investigates, the shimmering tree blossoms reveal a baby nested inside. Believing this discovery to be a gift from the heavens, Okina brings her home to his wife Ouna (“old woman”), with whom he begins to raise the child as their own. Dubbing her “Princess” Kaguya, Ouna and Okina marvel at how rapidly the girl begins to grow, racing from infancy to pre-adolescence in a matter of days.

While Kaguya busies herself with a normal childhood, making friends with the local kids and bonding with an older boy named Sutemaru, her adopted father becomes distracted by Kaguya’s value to him—the bamboo shoot from which she was born begins producing gold. As Kaguya transforms into a teenager, Okina relocates their family to the capital city, where the girl receives lessons on how to be a proper woman, and is celebrated as a rare beauty. When five aggressive suitors come calling—followed by the emperor himself—Kaguya begins to feel trapped, things falling apart as she imagines a different life for herself.

It goes on to say the film has "some of the most beautifully expressive animation that Ghibli (or anyone else) has ever produced".
Showtimes are available at the Pittsburgh Filmmakers website. The website says tomorrow's and Sunday's screenings will be dubbed in English, while the other shows will be in Japanese with English subtitles.

The Regent Square Theater is located at 1035 S. Braddock Ave. (map).

Pitt News previews "Top Shabu Shabu".

First look at Top Shabu Shabu signage in October; new interior sign installed in January.

Today's Pitt News--the student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh--has a profile of Top Shabu Shabu, the hot pot restaurant moving into the former Pizza Sola location on Atwood Street.

Andrew Khoo, the restaurant’s manager, said although they named the new restaurant after Shabu-shabu, a Japanese style of dining, yet Top Shabu’s hot pot style is traditionally more Chinese.
Customers will order a “hot pot” and whatever meats and vegetables they would like to eat, which servers will bring to the table. Customers will then cook the food using the hot pot, a metal container filled with broth and heated by an electric coil, and eat their food at their table. In hot pots, the food is cooked while the pot simmers. Thinly sliced beef is the traditional choice, Khoo said, but Top Shabu will offer a variety of meat and vegetable options.

“All food is cooked at the table,” Khoo said.

According to Khoo, Top Shabu’s bar will offer Asian-inspired drinks.

“We have a 10 tap system from the previous owner,” Khoo said. “We’ll also have a variety of wine and a large variety of liquor for unique mixed drinks. The mixed drinks will have an Asian influence. For example, melon liqueur is used a lot in China.”

Japanese language exchange at Kenmawr Apartments, January 29.

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania shares news of a Japanese language exchange scheduled for Shadyside's Kenmawr Apartments (map) on January 29. The apartment complex is home to a lot of Japanese families recently arrived in Pittsburgh.

"The Myth of McDonaldization: Globalization and Culture in a Japanese Community, 1961-2014", January 29.

Dr. L. Keith Brown, a professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh, will present "The Myth of McDonaldization: Globalization and Culture in a Japanese Community, 1961-2014" as part of this year's MEPPI Japan Lecture Series. A summary from the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania:

Observe more than half a century of change in Japan through photographs and stories. Dr. Keith Brown has been traveling to Mizusawa, a town in Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan, for 53 years.

Dr. Brown has captured the emergence of car culture and the evolution of agriculture from labor-intensive hand cultivated rice to capital-intensive highly mechanized agriculture. As in America, “Main Street” in the center of town has hollowed out as suburban big box stores have overtaken small shops.

But what does that mean for the lives of the farmers there? Has this Japanese town been “McDonaldized?”

The talk runs from 6:00 to 7:30 pm in the US Steel Building, Conference Room 33C12 (map). The talk is free and open to the public, but registration is required by January 23.

The Last: Naruto the Movie (ザ・ラスト ‐ナルト・ザ・ムービー) at Hollywood Theater, February 21 and 22.

The Last: Naruto the Movie (ザ・ラスト ‐ナルト・ザ・ムービー) will play at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont on February 21 and 22, the theater announced today. A summary by the distributor:

The moon is approaching dangerously close to Earth! Unless something is done, the moon will disintegrate, showering the earth with gigantic meteorites. As the clock ticks towards the end of the world, can Naruto save the earth from this crisis? The final chapter of Naruto's story unfolds!

Naruto has become one of the most popular and recognizable anime and manga series in the United States, with the manga volumes frequently appearing on the New York Times and USA Today Best Sellers List and the Naruto Shippuden anime ranked as one of the top three anime series by the Los Angeles Times. With over 683 chapters and 367 anime episodes and more to come, Naruto continues to be a pillar in the US’s anime and manga culture.

The Last will premiere in the US on February 20. Tickets for the two Pittsburgh shows are now available online. Both screenings are in Japanese with English subtitles, and guests will receive free mini-posters while supplies last.

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.

The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (かぐや姫の物語) at Regent Square Theater, January 24 - 29.

The Regent Square Theater will present The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (かぐや姫の物語) from January 24 through 29. The highly-acclaimed 2013 Studio Ghibli film made its Pittsburgh debut at the Row House Cinema in December, and was announced as an Oscar nominee this week for Best Animated Feature . An A.V. Club review provides a summary:

A humble bamboo cutter named Okina (translation: “old man”) happens upon a glowing stalk in the grove near his house. When he investigates, the shimmering tree blossoms reveal a baby nested inside. Believing this discovery to be a gift from the heavens, Okina brings her home to his wife Ouna (“old woman”), with whom he begins to raise the child as their own. Dubbing her “Princess” Kaguya, Ouna and Okina marvel at how rapidly the girl begins to grow, racing from infancy to pre-adolescence in a matter of days.

While Kaguya busies herself with a normal childhood, making friends with the local kids and bonding with an older boy named Sutemaru, her adopted father becomes distracted by Kaguya’s value to him—the bamboo shoot from which she was born begins producing gold. As Kaguya transforms into a teenager, Okina relocates their family to the capital city, where the girl receives lessons on how to be a proper woman, and is celebrated as a rare beauty. When five aggressive suitors come calling—followed by the emperor himself—Kaguya begins to feel trapped, things falling apart as she imagines a different life for herself.

It goes on to say the film has "some of the most beautifully expressive animation that Ghibli (or anyone else) has ever produced".
Showtimes are available at the Pittsburgh Filmmakers website. The website says the 24th and 25th screenings will be dubbed in English, while the other shows will be in Japanese with English subtitles.

The Regent Square Theater is located at 1035 S. Braddock Ave. (map).

Pittsburgh signs 강정호, is now the biggest story in Korean sports.

via @Pirates.

Pittsburgh is the biggest story in Korean sports today as the Pirates have finalized a contract with shortstop Jung-ho Kang (강정호). The Pirates advertised the deal on Twitter, and included a pronunciation guide; that will come in handy, as far too many Americans pronounced the song "Gayng-num Style" rather than "Gahng-nahm". If Kang appears in a regular-season game, he'll be just the second Korean in Pirates' history to do so, after pitcher Chan-ho Park's brief 2010 stint, during which he became the winningest Asian pitcher in Major League Baseball history.

The signing is currently the fourth-hottest story on Naver, South Korea's largest internet portal:

"China's Next Decade: How Scarcity Will Redefine Business Opportunity in the World's Most Important Growth Market" at Pitt, January 22.

The University of Pittsburgh will host Bill Adams and his talk "China's Next Decade: How Scarcity Will Redefine Business Opportunity in the World's Most Important Growth Market" on January 22. Pitt's Asian Studies Center profiles Adams:

Bill Adams, senior international economist for The PNC Financial Services Group, is responsible for forecasting international economic conditions and exchange rates for PNC, covering emerging Asia, the European Union, Canada and Latin America. Adams serves as PNC's principal spokesperson on global economic issues and frequently presents to its clients on the international economic outlook. He joined PNC in July 2011 after serving as resident economist for The Conference Board China Center from 2009 to 2011. In that position he served as spokesman on the Chinese business cycle and was a designer of The Conference Board Leading Economic Index for China®, a widely-followed, market-moving economic indicator. Bill lived in China for five years and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. He serves as vice president of The Economic Club of Pittsburgh, is a member of the Economics Advisory Council of the Duquesne University Palumbo Donahue School of Business, and is an advisory board member and center associate of the University of Pittsburgh Asian Studies Center. Bill holds a master degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and is a graduate of Harvard College.

The event is free and open to the public and begins at 4:30 in 104 Mervis Hall (campus map).

Kang signing appears imminent.

via Naver / 국민일보.

The Kukmin Ilbo reports, via ESPN, that shortstop Kang Jung-ho and the Pittsburgh Pirates have agreed to a US$16 million contract. The graphics team was hard at work today, though nothing will be official until after Kang's physical on Thursday.

The Pirates won the rights to negotiate with the 27-year-old shortstop in December. If he signs and plays, he will be the second Korean to appear for Pittsburgh in the regular season, after pitcher Chan-ho Park in 2010.

Korean film 10 Minutes (10분) announced as part of 2015 Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival.

The Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival announced today that the 2013 Korean movie 10 Minutes (10분) will be part of its 2015 lineup. A summary from the Busan International Film Festival, where the movie premiered in 2013:

A young man preparing for an exam to work for a broadcasting company starts to work as an intern and a junior government employee. He is only there to make some money before finding a real job, but when his boss tells him that he wants to hire him full-time, he is tempted. After going through the interview and getting congratulated from others in the office, he is shocked that the full-time position is in fact given to someone else. An older co-worker tells him that it was a set-up, and the young man decides to fight the decision. The fight for justice is not as easy as his co-worker says. The film cruelly looks on as the man stoops lower and lower, from an intern loved by both co-workers and managers, to a disgruntled employee. He is at a crossroads. Should he stay a good, social employee, or start anew as a straggler?

The festival will run from March 19 through 28, and April 8 through 11. Showtimes and a complete list of films to follow.

Lectures by Yun-fei Je, Ryoji Ikeda at CMU School of Art this semester.

A 2009 DATA.TRON exhibition, by Liz Hingley.

The Carnegie Mellon University School of Art announced its Spring 2015 Lecture Series today, with Yun-fei Je and Ryoji Ikeda of most relevance to this site. Je is scheduled for February 24, and Ikeda for April 7. The School of Art profiles the former:

Yun-Fei Ji’s art addresses social change and geological climates using the political forum of the scroll, an ancient art form of ink and mineral pigment on silk and paper. In 2002, he made his first reference to the theme of mass displacement and environmental cataclysm in Three Gorges Dam Migration, a series of woodblock-printed hand scrolls depicting flooding and social upheaval triggered by the creation of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River.

And the latter, whose installation "DATA.TRON" was in Pittsburgh from July 12 through September 8, 2013:

Ryoji Ikeda focuses on the essential characteristics of sound itself and that of visuals as light by means of both mathematical precision and mathematical aesthetics. He has gained a reputation as one of the few international artists working convincingly across both visual and sonic media. Ikeda elaborately orchestrates sound, visuals, materials, physical phenomena and mathematical notions into immersive live performances and installations. His albums +/- (1996), 0? (1998), and Matrix (2001) have been hailed by critics as the most radical and innovative examples of contemporary electronic music. Currently, Ikeda is working on cyclo, a collaborative project with Carsten Nicolai.

Pitt's Japanese Culture Association New Year's party, January 13.

The Japanese Culture Association at the University of Pittsburgh will host a New Year's party on January 13 from 9:00 pm in room 232 of the Cathedral of Learning.

明けましておめでとう！！Happy New Year!! Come celebrate the new year with us...Japanese style! We will be having red bean soup, mochi, and hot cocoa! Hope to see you there!

Lecture "Korean Art after the Korean War" at Pitt, January 15.

Dr. Joo-eun Lee of Konkuk University in Seoul will present a lecture "Korean Art after the Korean War" at the University of Pittsburgh on January 15. The University Center for International Studies provides a summary:

This lecture aims to investigate the direction of Korean art of the past half century, through observing the trends in modern Korean history. It will briefly cover the social and artistic background of Korea in the 1960s to 2010s. The core issue that is pursued by the art of today is ‘communication.’ The reason behind the popularity of artworks that carry the meaning of breaking barriers between artistic genres, overcoming prejudices among people, and destructing regional boundaries is all for the sake of smoothening out communication. By introducing some influential Korean artists of these days that turned to the everyday culture after experiencing epic changes on a national level, what the present era is trying to express, as well as the situation it is facing, is discussed.

The talk begins at 2:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (campus map).

Tadao Arimoto.

"Alter Table for a Chapel ----- walnut, bent laminated walnut" by Pittsburgh-based woodworking artist Tadao Arimoto. Arimoto, who moved to Pittsburgh in 1976, was honored as a Master Visual Artist in 2013 by the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

Rei Chikaoka's "Release" is part of a touring exhibition titled Emerge/Evolve at the Pittsburgh Glass Center in Garfield (map) through January 18. Writes the City Paper today:

With just over a dozen artists and typically one work from each, Emerge/Evolve provides only a quick glimpse into contemporary glass work. But it's a glimpse intriguing enough to lead the viewer to search out more and give a longer, closer look.

The Search for General Tso at Hollywood Theater in Dormont, from January 9.

The Hollywood Theater in Dormont will show the 2014 documentary The Search for General Tso from January 9 through January 12 and on January 14. The Search for General Tso, says the official site,

is a feature-length documentary tracing the origins of Chinese American food through what is arguably America’s most popular takeout meal––General Tso’s Chicken.

Anchoring the film is an upbeat quest, through small towns and big cities across America and beyond, to understand the origins and popularity of Chinese American food and its top-selling dish. Who was General Tso? And why do nearly fifty thousand restaurants serve deep-fried chicken bearing his name?

Using this Americanized dish and its mysterious mastermind as a lens onto a larger story of immigration, adaptation, and innovation, the film follows a lighthearted journey, grounded in cultural and culinary history, through restaurants, Chinatowns, and the American imagination. Visits to present-day Chinese restaurants spark forays into the past, guided by chefs, scholars, and the occasional opinionated customer. The film’s lively soundtrack and shadow-puppet animations contribute both whimsy and momentum, as viewers find they’re on a search to answer a deeper question: how did America’s Chinese food become so… American?

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. Showtimes and tickets are available at the theater's website.

Free language courses at Carnegie Library in Oakland resume this week.

As the new year begins, a reminder that the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has free Korean, Japanese, and Chinese classes at its Oakland branch (map). Depending on the class and the particular volunteer teacher, the sessions range from a period of casual free talking to more rigorous class with workbooks and chalk-and-talk instruction on grammar and usage.

Here's a look at what's coming up, in order of proficiency level:

* Chinese for Beginners (next meeting: January 11). Held the second and fourth Sunday of the month from 3:30 to 4:30 in the Large Print Room.
* Chinese II (next meeting: January 4). Held the first and third Sunday of the month from 3:30 to 4:30 in the Large Print Room.
* Chinese Conversation Club (next meeting: January 8). Held the second and fourth Thursday of each month from 6:00 to 7:00 in the Large Print Room. For intermediate and advanced learners.

* Japanese for Beginners (next meeting: January 12). Second and fourth Monday of the month from 6:30 to 7:30 in Classroom A.
* Japanese II (next meeting: January 13). Second and fourth Tuesday of the month from 6:30 to 7:30 in Classroom A. "Japanese II is geared toward those who already have a basic understanding of Japanese and are interested in increasing proficiency," says the library website. "Ability to read and write hiragana is required to take this class."
* Japanese Conversation Club (next meeting: January 6). Held on the first and third Tuesday of the month from 6:00 to 7:00 in the Large Print Room. For intermediate and advanced learners.

* Korean for Beginners (next meeting: January 3). Every Saturday from 1:00 to 2:30 in the Large Print Room. Focuses on reading Hangeul and producing basic phrases.
* Korean II (next meeting: January 3). Every Saturday from 11:00 to 12:30 in the Large Print Room.

Students may join the class at any time of the year, though registration is now required for many of the classes. This can be done online by clicking on the class and submitting your name and email address. For more information about the courses, and to register for one, visit the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh homepage, click events, and search for Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.