Spend time with your favorite people to wind down and have a late night meal. Celebrate the Korean culture by playing games and eating FREE Korean food!
. . .Yoonsun Choi, associate professor at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, will deliver a free public lecture at noon Nov. 8 titled “Race and Culture in the Family: Their Impact on Youth Outcomes of Asian American Adolescents.” The talk will be held at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center on Race and Social Problems, School of Social Work Conference Center, 20th floor, Cathedral of Learning, 4200 Fifth Ave., Oakland.
Choi has examined how race, ethnicity, and culture fundamentally shape the development of minority and immigrant youth, a growing population in the United States. According to Choi, how preteens and teens manage family issues, peer pressure, and stereotyping will often determine their mental health and academic outcomes. Choi’s studies have shown that multiracial youths—compared to single race minority youths—can have greater difficulty navigating the challenges related to race and identity. They may also face more alienation. If they feel marginalized at an early age, Choi says, it may lead to cigarette smoking, drug and alcohol use, and violence.
"A Touch of Sin," the powerful if uneven new film by highly regarded Chinese director Jia Zhangke, is a corrosive depiction of the New China, an everything-for-sale society still figuring out how to cope with the dehumanizing effects of unbridled capitalism.A Touch of Sin plays at 6:15 on Saturday the 9th and at 6:30 on Tuesday the 12th at the multiplex in the Waterworks Mall (map). It is one of four Asian films in the 2013 festival.
Jia, whose 2006 "Still Life" won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, has dealt with the problems of Chinese society in the past, but in a more allusive, elliptical way. Now his concern about the nakedness of the corruption and an increasing trend of individuals resorting to violence out of desperation has led him to modify his style in ways that are both awkward and effective.
Written by the director (who received the best screenplay award at Cannes), "A Touch of Sin" is an omnibus film of four separate but subtly linked stories that take place in different corners of the country and are based on real events that Jia, in a director's note, says "are well-known to people throughout China."
The City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA and Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, hereby jointly reaffirm on the 15th year anniversary that the two cities enter into the sister city relationship in order to achieve the following common objectives:
• Promote friendship between the citizens of their respective cities,
• Foster mutual understanding and trust through cultural, social, educational, economic and sports activities,
• Follow the guidelines of Sister Cities International,
• Cooperate together in an ever-lasting effort to deepen friendship and goodwill, and
• Encourage the mutual growth and spirit of the continued Renaissance for both cities through the exchange of information and the promotion of trade and business development in the future.
The City of Pittsburgh and Saitama City hereby pledge to exercise their collective best efforts to achieve the above-mentioned common goals in order to deepen the friendship between the cities’ respective citizens and governments.
This agreement is hereby signed by the representatives of both cities, whose signatures appear below, in order to confirm the above accord.
The 29th day of October, 2013
In the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA
Sewickley Academy (map) will host Phan Thị Kim Phúc for two talks titled "The Girl in the Picture" on November 7 as part of the school's Sewickley Series of speakers and events. From a press release:The Vietnam War knows many tragedies. A photograph of a young girl running naked down a road, her skin on fire with napalm, changed the way the world looked at war. The girl in the picture is Kim Phuc.The two talks are scheduled for 11:15 am and 12:45 pm in the Middle School and High School assembly rooms, respectively. Both are free and open to the public.
In 1997, Kim established The Kim Foundation, a nonprofit organization committed to funding programs to heal children in war torn areas of the world. During her time at the Academy, Kim will share her message of forgiveness with the community.
In line with the Players' policy of producing at least one experimental drama each year, Mr. Whitehill chose this allegorical satire of the Oriental theatre convention. Over make-believe mountains, across imaginary rivers, through mythical snow storms, Woo Hoo Git (John Reid) made his way in search of his lost heritage. Fantastic spiders did not daunt him, nor were the temptations of beautiful women in "the flowery paths of pleasant ways" enough to turn him from his quest. The play was comparable to an Oriental Our Town . . . The play was more than amusingly novel, and the Players presented it admirably.A 2010 Theater Journal article, "Trying on The Yellow Jacket: Performing Chinese Exclusion and Assimilation", goes into the contemporary politics and modern interpretations of the play, which not surprisingly didn't age well.
The Hong Kong movie CZ12 (十二生肖) was released in the US on October 18 and is playing in Pittsburgh at the AMC Loews Waterfront. It stars Jackie Chan and was, until this year, the second-highest grossing Chinese-language movie in China. Hong Kong's South China Morning Post summarizes:Reprising the adventurer/thief role he first played in 1987's Armour of God, JC (the character's name) is hired to steal animal head relics that once were displayed in the Summer Palace in Beijing. Along the way, he encounters a greedy collector (Oliver Platt) forging fakes, bumbling and accident-prone French folks, some pirates, and a beautiful antique activist (Yao Xingtong) who gets him to grow a conscience.A cursory glance around the internet shows mostly poor reviews, though, including the SCMP's, which calls the movie "sad and sorry" and writes "CZ12 is like watching a former star athlete struggle in a meaningless game."
