Vietnamese film The Scent of Green Papaya at Pitt, March 18.

The University of Pittsburgh's Global Ties will show the 1993 Vietnamese-language movie The Scent of Green Papaya (Mùi đu đủ xanh) on March 18 as part of its "Global Spotlight: Vietnam" series of activities in March. From a 1994 Roger Ebert review:

Here is a film so placid and filled with sweetness that watching it is like listening to soothing music. "The Scent of Green Papaya" takes place in Vietnam between the late 1940s and early 1960s, and is seen through the eyes of a poor young woman who is taken as a servant into the household of a merchant family. She observes everything around her in minute detail, and gradually, as she flowers into a beautiful woman, her simple goodness impresses her more hurried and cynical employers. The woman, named Mui, is an orphan - a child, when she first comes to work for the family. She learns her tasks quickly and well, and performs them so unobtrusively that sometimes she seems almost like a spirit. But she is a very real person, uncomplaining, all-seeing, and the film watches her world through her eyes. For her, there is beauty in the smallest details: A drop of water trembling on a leaf, a line of busy ants, a self-important frog in a puddle left by the rain, the sunlight through the green leaves outside the window, the scent of green papaya.

The film will be shown on the 6th floor of the William Pitt Union from 7 to 9 pm, and is free for those with a valid Pitt student ID card.

"'Bound Together' Book Club: The Things They Carried" at Carnegie Museum of Art, March 13.

Coming to the Carnegie Museum of Art, March 13:

Join us for a discussion of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried as we take a closer look at Vietnamese artist Dinh Q. Le’s installation Light and Belief: Sketches of the Life from the Vietnam War. Call Lucy Stewart at 412.622.3222 to receive a complimentary copy of the book.

The Things They Carried is the Community College of Allegheny County's selection for the 2014 Big Read campaign, and events pertaining to it were and are scheduled throughout the month of March (.pdf file).

"Katsuhiro Otomo's Manga & Animation" at CMU, March 20.

The Carnegie Mellon School of Art shares this upcoming talk on the works of Katsuhiro Otomo by Kei Suyama of Tokyo Polytechnic University on March 20. The College of Fine Arts building is labelled number 5 on this campus map (.pdf).

Multicultural Night at O'Hara Elementary School, March 20.

If there are children in your family they might enjoy visiting O'Hara Elementary School (map) in the Fox Chapel Area School District for its Multicultural Night on March 20. There will 20 culture booths including Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan, and China; a bunch of local performers; and vendors with Korean, Turkish, and Argentinian food. It will run from 5:30 to 8:00 pm at the School Commons Area.

In Schenley Park.

Pittsburgh almost built an "Asia on the Allegheny".

From a February 20, 1989 Pittsburgh Press article.

Looking online for something else brought us to articles in local papers about a late-1980s plan to build an "Asian Trade Center" on the North Shore, part of a redevelopment effort that would soon bring the Andy Warhol Museum and the Carnegie Science Center to the area. In 1988 and 1989, the plan was to construct apartments, hotels, and Asian retail in the blocks between on what is now the site of the Morgan at North Shore Apartments.

Live Your Dream: The Taylor Anderson Story at Melwood Screening Room, March 13.

The Japan-American Society of Pennsylvania will present the film Live Your Dream: The Taylor Anderson Story at the Melwood Screening Room in Oakland (map) on March 13. Taylor Anderson taught English in Japan for three years and died in the March 11, 2011 tsunami at age 24. A brief summary of the film from JQ Magazine:

[Filmmaker Reggie] Life opens the window for the viewer to glimpse the life of Taylor Anderson (Miyagi-ken, 2008-11) through personal accounts from her loved ones. Laced with emotional reflections, vivid photos and jovial home movies, the film walks the viewer through Taylor’s 24 years on earth and untimely end caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011. In light of the tragedy, the film sends a message of hope, optimism and encouragement for all to follow their hearts.

The movie starts at 7:30, and tickets are $2.

Photography exhibition "My Odd Journey" at Imagebox Productions, March 7 through 31.

A photography exhibition by Shanning Wan titled "My Odd Journey" will open today at Imagebox Productions in Garfield (map).

Shanning Wan’s travel photography throughout China and the US which touches upon topics such as Muslims in China, women, architecture, found objects, and more.

The opening reception runs from 6 pm to 9 pm and is part of Unblurred: First Fridays on Penn. The exhibit runs through March. Wan was last on this blog last summer with her Northwest Chinese Pop-Up Restaurant.

New Pirates pitcher complains to press about life in Korea.

Coverage by OhMyNews. "Korean life was terrible" . . . Returning foreign player's "criticisms".

This off-season the Pittsburgh Pirates signed Adam Wilk, a pitcher formerly in the Detroit Tigers organization and who pitched the 2013 in the Korean Baseball Organization. Some Korean news outlets have noticed the comments Wilk made about his time in Changwon to the USA Today and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Cathedral of Learning on cover of 미국 대학의 힘.

Pitt's Cathedral of Learning and Stephen Foster Memorial are on the cover of a Korean book published last year by Sanzini Books, 미국 대학의 힘, which translates to The Strengths of American Colleges. The book was released on December 16, 2013, was written by Hak-soo Mok of Pusan National University, and looks at services available to students, professors, and applicants.