"Blocked on Weibo: Content Regulation in Chinese Social Media", November 1 at Pitt.

A few times a month the University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center hosts hour-long "Asia Over Lunch" brown bag lectures during a weekday lunch hour. On November 1st the topic is "Blocked on Weibo: Content Regulation in Chinese Social Media", by Jason Q. Ng, a graduate student in the East Asian Studies department. It will be held in 4130 Posvar Hall from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm. Here's the abstract:

Like most nations, China regulates the content that goes over its airwaves, runs through its printing presses, and is transmitted through its Internet. In July 2009, when tensions in the predominately Muslim population of China’s Xinjiang province escalated into violent riots, Chinese authorities turned off the Internet there. This inspired Jason Q. Ng to devise a computer script to test all 700,000 terms in Chinese Wikipedia to see which ones are routinely blocked on Sina Weibo, China’s most important social media site. Analyzing these censored words serves as a guide to sensitive topics in modern day China and also exposes the fascinating fissures between the idealized society that Chinese authorities dream of having and the actual one that Chinese netizens are creating each day.

And here's the presenter's tumblr site devoted to the topic.

"Everyday Noodles" coming to Squirrel Hill.

The six other Asian restaurants on Forbes Avenue in Squirrel Hill will face some competition when "Everyday Noodles" opens, which advertises "Traditional Handmade Noodles and Soup Dumplings".



It's on 5875 Forbes Ave. (map) and will occupy what was most recently Sirani Gallery. It's across the street from Rose Tea Cafe, and nearly across from Sakura, How Lee, and the Ramen Bar opening shortly.



Speaking of Ramen Bar, I'll hopefully have an update soon. The paper is off the windows, staff have been in at nights, and there is a large mural of a Tokyo street scene on one wall.

10/28/12 Linklets

* The popularity of ballet in Japan combined with limited opportunities for dancers means companies in the US are attracting student and stars, and Pittsburgh is no exception, writes the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today.

* One blog asks if the Pirates will pursue Shohei Otani, a promising 18-year-old pitcher out of Japan. It says that new rules regarding international free agents means the Pirates could have a more level playing field when it come to signing top Japanese players. (However, unless he's a utility infielder or a 30-something relief pitcher, the Pirates probably won't touch him.)

* A story on a Lehigh Valley couple introducing Asian pears to Pennsylvania.

* Local idiocy makes the Korean news, again, as outlets have picked up the story out of Beaver Falls of a man who shot a 9-year-old girl in a skunk costume because he thought she was a skunk. Who shoots skunks?

* And speaking of American gun play, this season is the 20th anniversary of the murder of Yoshihiro Hattori, a 16-year-old Japanese exchange student shot and killed in Louisiana when he accidentally went to the wrong house for a Halloween party in October 1992. The shooter was charged with manslaughter but claimed self-defense and was acquitted, and the incident called "just one of those unfortunate things" by the Louisiana governor, but was, and is, a huge story in Japan. The Japan Times, among other outlets, this month picked up on Hattori's mother's continued efforts for justice, and her attempts to encourage stricter gun-control laws in the US.

Vietnamese-language film Owl and the Sparrow at Butler's Maridon Museum, October 26.

The third and final installment of the Vietnamese Film Series at Butler's Maridon Museum (map) will play Friday, October 26 at 6:30 pm. Owl and the Sparrow, says Wikipedia,

follows the fictional story of three Vietnamese individuals (a runaway child, a zoo keeper and a flight attendant) over a period of five days as they meet in Saigon.

Pittsburgh Sakura Project Fall Planting Day, November 10.

The Pittsburgh Sakura Project, which for the past three years has been planting cherry blossoms (sakura) in North Park, will have its Fall Planting Day on November 10 from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. There is a registration form on the homepage, and the deadline is November 3rd.

Southeast Asian Culture Fest at Pitt, October 28.

There will be a Southeast Asian Culture Fest at the University of Pittsburgh from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm on Sunday, October 28th in rooms 540 and 548 of the William Pitt Union (map). It has a Facebook page:

VSA (Vietnamese Students Association), FSA (Filipino Students Association), and MalaCCA (Malaysian Cultural Camaraderie) are “tri-collaborating” for our first ever (and hopefully annual) Southeast Asian Cultural Fest.


Come and mingle with the e-boards and also sample some FREE cultural food, dances, and music.

Hope to see you there!

Sincerely,
Your VSA, FSA and MalaCCA executive boards.

[via the Asian Studies Center Facebook page]

One Japanese, one Thai film at 2012 Three Rivers Film Festival in November.

The lineup for Pittsburgh's 2012 Three Rivers Film Festival, released today, features two movies from Asia: Japan's The Makioka Sisters and Thailand's Mekong Hotel. At first glance I thought those pickings pretty slim, but last year's festival had just two Asian films, too.

The Makioka Sisters (細雪 Sasame Yuki) is a series of movies based on a well-known book, and the one playing here is the third and final installment. From the film festival website:

Presented in a new, restored 35mm print, this rich, lyrical film centers on the lives of four sisters who have taken on their family’s kimono manufacturing business. Shot in rich, vivid colors, and set in the years leading up to the Pacific War, it's a graceful study of a family at a turning point in history – a poignant evocation of changing times and fading customs. The two oldest sisters are married and according to tradition, the rebellious youngest sister cannot wed until the third, who's terribly shy, finds a husband. Don't miss this gorgeous film on the big screen.

The English-subtitled trailer from the 1983 film:



It will play at the Regent Square Theater on Sunday, November 4th at 7:30 pm, with tickets available both online and at the door.

On November 8th and 10th is a 59-minute film out of Thailand, Mekong Hotel:

Recently featured in Toronto Film Festival's “wavelength” sidebar of experimental art films, it is the gifted director's follow-up to Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. This unique film explores the theme of reincarnation as it shifts between fact and fiction in a calming rhythm of ebb and flow. In a hotel situated along the Mekong River, on the border of Thailand and Laos, a filmmaker rehearses a movie expressing the bonds between a vampire-like mother and daughter.

Both screenings are at the Harris Theater, downtown, with tickets available both online and in person.

The Three Rivers Film Festival runs from November 2 through November 17, with the 62 domestic and international movies showing at three theaters: the Harris Theater downtown (map), the Melwood Screening Room in Oakland (map), and the Regent Square Theater in that East End neighborhood (map).

"The Melodrama of Mobility, Continued: South Korea's Fragile Cosmopolitan" talk by Dr. Nancy Abelmann, October 26.

Dr. Nancy Abelmann will be giving a talk on Friday, October 26, at the University of Pittsburgh titled "The Melodrama of Mobility, Continued: South Korea's Fragile Cosmopolitans". The summary of her talk, from the Asian Studies Center:

In this talk I think about the changing aesthetics of desire and social mobility. I consider the porous boundary between the radically normative and potentially transgressive in South Korea today. I tune into the adult lives of the now adult children of women featured in my earlier work on South Korea’s developmentalist mothers; as well as memoirs written by early study abroad mothers. I also take up several cultural texts, including blockbuster novel, Please Take Care of My Mother; and the 2004 film, My Mother the Mermaid.

That's rather vague, though you can read some of her previous work on her webpage. I would be interested to read the source materials, the memoirs written by early study abroad mothers, as well as finding some treatment of how the fathers---left behind to work in Korea while their families go abroad, and often neglected in scholarship---cope with the demands this quest for social mobility places on them.

The title of the talk is in reference to her 2003 book The Melodrama of Mobility, and you can learn more about it at the library or through this 2004 review from Anthropology Quarterly (.pdf).

The talk will be held at Posvar Hall (map) from 4:00 to 5:30.

Information session at Pitt on teaching English in East Asia, October 24.

If you are in Pittsburgh and would like to learn more about teaching English in East Asia (Japan, Korea, China), the University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will hold an information session on October 24th from 4:30 to 7:00 pm. From the Asian Studies Center Facebook page:

The Asian Studies Center and the Consulate General of Japan in NYC will be hosting a “Teach in Asia” and “Japan Exchange and Teaching Program” information session on Wednesday, October 24th, from 4:30-7:00 PM in 4130 Wesley W. Posvar Hall. Anyone interested in applying to teach English in China, South Korea, or Japan, or work in local government in Japan is welcome to attend – the session is free and requires no registration.

Teach in Asia Information Session – China, South Korea, and Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program
Wednesday, October 24th from 4:30 pm - 7:00 pm
4130 Wesley W. Posvar Hall, University of Pittsburgh


4:30 – 5:15: Teach in China and South Korea information session
5:15 – 6:00: JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program information session
6:00-7:00: JET Program alumni panel Q&A

Students and local residents who are interested in teaching English in Asia are welcome to attend this information session! The session begins with information on teaching in China and South Korea through various opportunities, including the TaLK and EPiK programs, and continues with the official JET Program information kit and alumni panel. Stop by for a short time or stay for the entire session – we will answer your questions and help you decide which option is right for you and how to get started!

The JET program attracts a lot of Pitt students and can be quite competitive---and perplexing for those who don't get in---but it's only one of many avenues for teaching in Japan. There are dozens of job boards for teaching in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, and elsewhere in Asia, and there are open positions in just about every capacity: kindergardens, pubilc schools, private schools, cram schools, adult conversation schools, colleges, companies, and summer camps, to name eight. Those looking outside of Tokyo or Seoul will face less competition and less race- and age-based discrimination.

There are likewise several resources for learning about teaching in Asia, though this panel looks particularly useful. There are thousands of blogs (use Google for a few and peruse the sidebars for the rest) and several big messageboards (Waygook.org for Korea, Gaijinpot for Japan, Forumosa for Taiwan) to give perspective on daily life, adjustment issues, visa questions, classroom management, and, yes, a lot of gripes. Blogs and messageboards tend to be generally negative, largely because their authors are young, abroad for the first time, encountering prejudice and discrimination (implied and institutionalised both) for the first time, and coming to grips with how others see them and their respective countries. The outpouring of negativity might be a Western thing, too, stemming from the idea we've cultivated that everyone is special and everyone is entitled to an opinion, and opinions are meant to be voiced, whether they're mature thoughts or not.

But there are certainly challenges in and around the classroom, too. People who go abroad to teach and gain experience, or those who already have advanced training, may grow cynical to find they are more in the edutainer / pronunciation machine / English monkey business. Likewise, coming to terms with what "native speaker" means in these countries is a challenge, too, for schools and coworkers often have certain expectations of how a native English speaker should act, how he or she should look, and how he or she should relate to their new country. Nonetheless it behooves new and prospective teachers to remain open, curious, and mindful of the reasons why they got interested in teaching and in Asia in the first place.

Nakama voted Best Japanese in Pittsburgh by City-Paper readers again.

The Pittsburgh City-Paper this week released its "Best of Pittsburgh 2012" readers' poll results, with Nakama Japanese Steakhouse being voted the Best Japanese restaurant in the city. Same as 2008, 2009, and 2011.

Table-side cooking from animated — and at times knife-wielding — chefs is the draw, but so are the extensive sushi and cocktail menus.

Tamari was voted best sushi, Nicky's Thai Kitchen the best Thai place, and Sesame Inn best Chinese, to round out the Asian selections. Nakama benefits from being in a neighborhood that's a destination for food and drink, and that people are going out not just for the food is evidenced by "cocktails" getting mentioned in the write-ups for top Japanese and Chinese restaurants. Among Japanese, though, the most popular Japanese places are Chaya in Squirrel Hill and Teppanyaki Kyoto in Highland Park (here's a write-up from June), and are definitely worth visits if you can find parking.