"Asia on Screen: Everyday Media Comportment: Living Between Infrastructures" at Pitt, October 30.

On October 30, the University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will present the next installment in its Asia on Screen Series, "Everyday Media Comportment: Living Between Infrastructures" with Thomas Lamarre of McGill University.

This presentation proposes to explore the relations between three distinct yet overlapping infrastructures in contemporary Tokyo: broadcast television, mobile phones or keitai, and the commuter train network. The basic aim is to how consider the lived experience of polarized medial tendencies between and across these infrastructures. While a variety of everyday comportments have arisen between broadcast television and keitai, there are sites and moments where comportment seems to reach a limit, and life across polarized
tendencies feel impossible, unworkable.

The event will be held in Conference Room A of the University Club (map) from 4:00 pm, and is free and open to the public.

Chinese movie The Witness (我是证人) in Pittsburgh, from October 29.

The 2015 Chinese movie The Witness (我是证人) will open at the AMC Loew's Waterfront theater on October 29. A remake of the 2011 Korean movie Blind (블라인드), The Witness stars former member of K-pop group EXO Lu Han and Chinese singer Yang Mi,

[the movie is] about a blind girl and young boy who accidentally become the witnesses of a rainy night kidnapping, however, their testimonies are entirely contradictory.

Tickets and showtimes are available at the AMC Loews Waterfront website. The Witness continues the recent trend of new Chinese movies coming to Western Pennsylvania via the Waterfront: Saving Mr. Wu (解救吾先生) and Lost in Hong Kong (港囧) opened on October 2, and Goodbye Mr. Loser (夏洛特烦恼) on October 16.

Japanese punk band Peelander-Z at Brillobox, November 12; in Morgantown, November 11.

Japanese punk band Peelander-Z will play at Brillobox in Lawrenceville on November 12. Wikipedia provides an overview of their shows:

They perform on stage and appear in color-coordinated costumes, which they state are not costumes, but their skin. The costumes range from sentai style suits, to kimono, to rubber Playmobil style wigs. There is also a tiger costume and a giant squid/guitar costume to coincide with the song "Mad Tiger". Another aspect of their routine is their on-stage antics such as human bowling (diving head-first into bowling pins), pretending to hit each other with chairs in imitation of pro-wrestlers, and mid-performance piggyback rides. They often allow audience members on stage to join in on the fun, and often dive into the audience or hang from a balcony as part of their act.

They most recently played in Pittsburgh in 2013 and 2014. Doors open at 9:00, the music starts at 9:30, and tickets are $10 for the 21-and-over show. Brillobox is located at 4104 Penn Ave. (map), about a block from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

"Talking About Asia: The Late Prehistory of Northeast Asia" with Dr. Sungjoo Lee at Pitt, October 27.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center and the Department of Anthropology present Dr. Sungjoo Lee, a professor of Archaeology and Anthropology at Kyungpook National University in South Korea and his talk "Talking About Asia: The Late Prehistory of Northeast Asia" on October 27.

How have nationalist interpretations of Northeast Asian archaeology impacted academic research in Asia? Professor Sungjoo Lee explores this critical question by analyzing the current conceptualization of the Bronze Age in Korea. Current research in population dynamics and relocation of Bronze Age settlements, the construction of monumental burials, and the development of cultural environments are rapidly changing these politically-charged interpretations. His own research will illustrate how center-periphery relations of Northeast Asia were impacted by the rapid and compressive cultural changes in the late prehistory of Korea across the region.

The talk will start at 4:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map), and is free and open to the public.

Cemetery of Splendor (รักที่ขอนแก่น), Mountains May Depart (山河故人) at 3 Rivers Film Fest in November.

The annual 3 Rivers Film Fest announced its complete 2015 lineup today, and it includes two Asian movies: Thailand's Cemetery of Splendour (รักที่ขอนแก่น) and China's Mountains May Depart (山河故人). A summary of 2015's Cemetery of Splendour, from the 3RFF site:

Soldiers with a mysterious sleeping sickness are transferred to a temporary clinic in a former school. The memory-filled space becomes a revelatory world for housewife and volunteer Jenjira, as she watches over Itt, a handsome soldier with no family visitors. Jen befriends young medium Keng who uses her psychic powers to help loved ones communicate with the comatose men. Doctors explore ways, including colored light therapy, to ease the men’s troubled dreams. Jen discovers Itt’s cryptic notebook of strange writings and blueprint sketches. There may be a connection between the soldiers’ enigmatic syndrome and the mythic ancient site that lies beneath the clinic. Magic, healing, romance, and dreams are all part of Jen’s tender path to a deeper awareness of herself and the world around her.

And of 2015's Mountains May Depart, from a review in The Guardian:

[The] movie is split into three parts, taking place in 1999, in 2014 and in 2025. We begin with a bunch of people dancing to the Pet Shop Boys’ Go West, and as the new century and millennium dawns, the movie shows China more or less obsessed with doing that: going West, embracing capitalism while at the same retaining the monolithic state structures of the past, and beginning to worship consumer goods as status symbols: stereos, cars, and perhaps most importantly mobile phones — a technology which the film shows retaining its fetishistic power for the next quarter-century.

Both films will have two screenings, starting on November 7. The festival runs from November 6 through November 15 at five theaters around Pittsburgh. Showtimes and ticket information are available at the 3RFF website.

Sushi Kim to close after 25 years.

The Pittsburgh Business Times writes on Wednesday that Sushi Kim, one of only a handful of restaurants in Pittsburgh with a Korean menu, will close after 25 years in the Strip District.

[Real estate director David Glickman] described Sushi Kim as one of the early purveyors of sushi in Pittsburgh.

“That’s a long run that they’ve had,” he said. “Not many restaurants in Pittsburgh are successful for 25 years.”

Yong Kim, the owner of the restaurant, is selling so that he can retire, said Glickman.

Sushi Kim is located at 1241 Penn Ave. on the west edge of the Strip District (map) and was voted the best sushi in Pittsburgh by readers of the Pittsburgh City Paper in 2003.

"How Pittsburgh is Growing America's Next Great Chinatown".

Sign from Pittsburgh's Chinatown bus station. The remnants of Pittsburgh's former Chinatown are downtown.

Food critic Melissa McCart of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes for Saveur that Pittsburgh's Chinese student population is leading to an improve Chinese restaurant scene. Today's article borrows from McCart's July 9 Post-Gazette piece and profiles the people behind Everyday Noodles, Sakura, and Chengdu Gourmet, three restaurants in Squirrel Hill.

Pittsburgh sits at the gateway to the Midwest and the crux of the Appalachian mountains, with more bridges than Venice, a vibrant arts community, and a growing restaurant scene. But the city has not been known for its national diversity, with a 2010 census showing that only 4 percent of residents were born abroad.

That's changing now as schools like University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, Duquesne University, and Point Park University are attracting more international students from Asia—especially China. Five years ago, Pittsburgh universities counted under 1,000 Chinese students in their undergraduate and graduate programs combined; today more than 5,000 Chinese students, and several thousand more residents, call Pittsburgh home—a number that's expected to keep growing.

The surge in diversity has sparked changes in restaurant kitchens around the city, with Chinese-American and pan-Asian restaurants recruiting Chinese chefs with the help of overseas government agencies, cooking schools, and placement services in New York in order to get cooks with the cultural literacy and specialized skills to serve more regional Chinese cuisine.

Chinese movies Goodbye Mr. Loser (夏洛特烦恼), Coming Home (归来) in Pittsburgh through October 29.

Two Chinese movies---2015's Goodbye Mr. Loser (夏洛特烦恼) and 2014's Coming Home (归来)---will continue their runs in Pittsburgh through October 29.

Chinese filmmaker Xu Xing at Pitt, October 23 and 24.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center and Film Studies Program will host Chinese filmmaker Xu Xing on October 23 and 24 for "Asia on Screen: Lost in History or Omitted by It?", the latest installment in this term's "Asia on Screen Series".

On Friday, October 23, at 1:00 pm, the documentary Summary of Crimes (罪行摘要) will play at 121 Lawrence Hall (map):

Xu Xing's documentary searches for a group of peasants from the lowest stratum who were labeled "active counter-revolutionaries" during the Cultural Revolution era (1966-1976). They have been left with no means to recount what they suffered decades before, or to tell what has befallen them since. As the years pass, they have simply been forgotten.

A roundtable discussion with Xu follows at 3:45.

Panelists include Edward M. Gunn (Cornell University), Paola Iovene (University of Chicago), Kun Qian (University of Pittsburgh), Jinying Li (University of Pittsburgh)

On the 24th, a lecture by Xu and a screening of two films in Conference Room A of the University Club (map):

Filmmaker Xu Xing will give a lecture about his journey to documentary filmmaking. A Chronicle of My Cultural Revolution film screening will start at 10:40 am followed by a screening of 5+5 at 2:00 pm.

All events are free and open to the public.

"Bilingual Japanese Product Classification Analyst -- Onsite At Google" position in Pittsburgh.

HCL America has a position available for a Bilingual Japanese Product Classification Analyst position onsite at the Google offices in Larimer / Shadyside. The job posting, via Dice.com: