"Seeking Healing Through Internet Suicide Websites? Existential Suffering and Lack of Meaning Among Japanese Youth" lecture at Pitt, April 10.

The Asian Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh hosts Emory University's Dr. Chiako Ozawa-de Silva and her lecture "Seeking Healing Through Internet Suicide Websites? Existential Suffering and Lack of Meaning Among Japanese Youth" on April 10. A summary from the Asian Studies Center website:

Suicide has become a major public health concern in Japan over the past decade due to extremely elevated suicide rates since 1998. Discourse in Japan on suicide prevention has nevertheless focused almost exclusively on the state of the Japanese economy and levels of mental illness, neglecting the subjective experience of suicidal individuals and the roles that meaning and positive mental health play in suicide and its prevention. Increasing evidence suggests that a lack of positive mental health may be more important than the presence of mental illness in predicting future suicide attempts, and also that treatment of mental illness alone may not address the lack of psychological and social well-being (including meaning or purpose in life, loneliness, and existential suffering) implicated in suicidality. Since positive mental health and subjective well-being involve meaning-making processes and social relationships that are heavily influenced by cultural factors and may vary widely cross-culturally, there is great scope for local ethnographic studies to contribute to our knowledge of factors conducive to positive mental health and potentially preventative for suicide.

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

KTown at Pitt on April 6, Asian Student Alliance Culture Fair on April 7.

The University of Pittsburgh Korean Culture Association will hold its annual KTown festival on April 6 in the O'Hara Student Center Dining Room (map). A brief description from its Facebook page:

We'll have plenty of food provided by Oishii Bento, performances, and fun booths afterwards!

The festival runs from 4:00 to 8:00 pm.



The following evening, several university student groups will participate in the Asian Student Alliance Culture Fair. Details are still sparse, though the generic "food, performances, and prizes" applies. The participating organizations include the Chinese American Student Association, the Pitt Filipino Student Association, the Korean Culture Association, the Pitt South Asian Student Association, and the Vietnamese Student Association. The ASA Culture Fair will run from 8:00 pm to 10:30 pm in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room (map).

Hina Matsuri doll collection at Maridon Museum through May 3.

Hinamatsuri, by Rodrigo Verschae (Creative Commons).

Butler's Maridon Museum has a Hina Matsuri Doll Exhibit now through May 3rd, in addition to its regular exhibitions of Asian art. March 3rd is Hinamatsuri (雛祭り) in Japan, Girls' Day, and is commemorated by a series of dolls, says Wikipedia:

Platforms covered with a red carpet are used to display a set of ornamental dolls (雛人形 hina-ningyō) representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period.

And the museum writes:

When a little girl is born in Japan they usually are gifted a set of Hina Matsuri dolls. These dolls are to be put up and taken down on March 3rd. If the dolls are not taken down at the end of the evening it could me bad luck for the little girls future.

This Festival is also called "Momo no sekku (Peach Festival)" because of the peach blossom season on the old lunar calendar.

The museum is located at 322 North McKean St in downtown Butler (map), and is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm.

Two talks by visiting short-term fellow Ruth Hung at Pitt, April 7 and 9.

Dr. Ruth Hung is a short-term fellow visiting the University of Pittsburgh from Hong Kong Baptist University, and will give two talks next week. A lecture, "Red Nostalgia: Commemorating Mao in Our Time", is scheduled for 5:00 pm on April 7, and a colloquium on April 9 at 12:30 "How Global Capitalism Transforms Deng Xiaoping". Dr. Hung presented on the former last year at the Chinese University of Hong Kong; here's the abstract:

This essay departs from the figure of exoticism and argues that twenty-first century chinoiserie needs to address the reality of a new context surrounding the creation of the “orient.” The paper focuses on the cult of posthumous Mao that became fervent in the 1990s and has become, since the turn of the millennium, a nexus in which global capitalism and “effective authoritarianism” negotiate conflicting interests and, together, create a line of development in their search for a global modernity. I argue that, on the one hand, twenty-first century chinoiserie accepts revolutionary China as a source of unlimited possibilities, treating its relics with special care, and puffing it with so much capitalist money, creativity, and productivity that it allows its protagonist Mao Zedong to live an afterlife hardly any other historical leader has enjoyed. On the other hand, the new chinoiserie in the age of global capital continues to construct China from within the hegemonic framework of capitalism precisely in its attempt at liberating and depoliticizing Red China. Despite its narrow focus on the market, it even lends power to a new authoritarianism that has ceaselessly been inventing, reconstructing, and staging China’s revolutionary past as no more than a spectacle or amusement park in which the party-state allows and contains social discontents. The rise and fall of Bo Xilai, the party boss in Chongqing before his arrest, along with his Chongqing Model—a grand example of “Red Culture” resurrected, is a case in point. Ultimately, I am less interested in the extent to which twenty-first century chinoiserie actually exists outside of the Chinese community. In some way, the commodity industry of posthumous Mao nowadays witnesses chinoiserie’s transformation from a western China craze into a policed imagination--a chinoiserie with Chinese characteristics.

The latter is the subject of a forthcoming article in the Summer 2014 issue of Boundary 2, published by Duke University Press. Both events will be held in room 602 on the sixth floor of the Cathedral of Learning.

Breakfast menu coming to Tân Lạc Viên.

Signage at Tân Lạc Viên in Squirrel Hill says a breakfast menu is coming soon. The Vietnamese restaurant on Murray Ave. (map) is currently open from 11:30 to 10:00 pm Sunday through Thursday, and until 11 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Here's a look at how a Vietnamese restaurant in Seattle does breakfast.

Talks on bilingual education in Indonesia, disaster management in China, at 2014 IISE Symposium at Pitt, April 2.

The University of Pittsburgh's Institute for International Studies in Education will host two Asia-related presentations as part of its 2014 IISE Symposium Series on April 2.

* Anis Sundushiyah: Builingual Instruction in Indonesia's "Internationalized" Schools: Goals and Consequences
* Yuchi Song: The Policy Development of Disaster Management and Education in China: A Comparison between Policy Expectations and Actual Implementations in Earthquake Preparation Demonstration Schools (EPDS)

The presentations will be held in 5604 Posvar Hall (map). Both speakers are part of the Spring 2014 Asia Over Lunch series through the Asian Studies Center; Anis Sundusiya's March 20 talk was cancelled, though, and Yuchi Song's is scheduled for April 3 from 12:00 to 1:00 pm in 4130 Posvar.

April 5: Pittsburgh Sakura Project, Tomodachi Festival, and Origami Spring Social.

The Pittsburgh Sakura Project will hold its annual Spring Planting Day on April 5 from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm near the North Park Boathouse (map). The Pittsburgh Sakura Project has been planting sakura (cherry blossom trees) and other trees at North Park since 2009, and will plant 37 next weekend. More details on the events of the day, via the group's website:

To start us off, there will be a little music, provided by Mr. Koichiro Suzuki, of the River City Brass Band, a speech, and a planting demonstration. There will also be a raffle, including a $500 discount coupon for roundtrip to Japan through Chicago courtesy of ANA (All Nippon Airways) and the Japan Association of Greater Pittsburgh.

Besides planting, we will spread mulch, water trees, and install deer-protection fences, so we can use volunteers of all strengths!

From 2:00 to 4:00, the Carnegie Library in Oakland (map) will host the third annual Tomodachi Festival, which serves as an introduction to Japanese culture for local children.

Tomodachi is a Japanese word meaning "friends." Help us celebrate the spirit of friendship through activities, art and treats that showcase Japan, its people and its rich history. Activities include kumihomo-making, origami, kamishibai theater, music, and kimono try-on.

And from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm in room 527 of the William Pitt Union, the origami clubs from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University will hold an Origami Spring Social. The William Pitt Union is on the Pitt campus, one block west of the Carnegie Library in Oakland.

Rally for Taiwanese democracy, March 30 at CMU.

To coincide with rallies for Taiwanese democracy around the world, Taiwanese students at Carnegie Mellon University will be demonstrating at the CMU Fence at 1:00 pm on March 30. From a press release posted by organizer Sylvia Lin on the event's Facebook page:

On March 30, the Taiwanese community in Pittsburgh will join people from 17 countries and more than 49 cities around the world and assemble at Carnegie Mellon University to condemn state violence and defend Taiwan’s democracy while supporting those protesting at the Legislature in Taiwan.

The “Occupy Parliament” student movement in Taiwan is a protest in response to the democracy crisis surrounding the controversial Cross-Strait Services Trade Agreement between Taiwan and China. Protesters have peacefully occupied the main chamber of the Legislative Yuan since March 18. Tens of thousands of people have participated in a peaceful sit-in. On March 23, some protesters occupied the executive building and riot police evicted them with brutal violence, beating unarmed students and citizens with batons and shields, after the police evicted media from the scene.

Supporters of Taiwan’s democracy will gather at Margaret Morrison A14 Lecture Hall of Carnegie Mellon University from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. to condemn the state violence against peaceful protesters in Taiwan. We demand that (1) President Ma refrain from the use of police brutality; (2) the Cross-Strait Supervisory Agreement be enacted; and (3) civil society be included in dialogue regarding further actions by the government..

Please note the event has moved from Margaret Morrison to The Fence (next to item 7 on the campus map). According to the invitation that accompanied this release on the Facebook page, attendees are asked to observe the following:

Please wear in BLACK.
Please bring a sunflower or Taiwan's flag if you have one.
Please discuss and behavior in rational manner.
Please be on time (space is limited) and bring your own water.

"Voices of Asian Modernities: Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Asian Popular Music" Conference at Pitt, April 4 - 6.

From April 4 through April 6, the University of Pittsburgh will host the "Voices of Asian Modernities: Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Asian Popular Music" Conference. A brief summary from the conference website:

This conference aims to demonstrate how female entertainers, positioned at the margins of different intersecting fields of activities, created something hitherto unknown: they were artistic pioneers of new music, new cinema, new forms of dance and theater, and new behavior and morals. They moved from the margins to the mainstream and in their wake Asian pop cultures now have followed. These female performers were not merely symbols of times that were rapidly changing. Nor were they merely the personification of global historical changes. They were active agents in the creation of local performance cultures, of the newly emerging mass culture, and the rise of a region-wide and globally oriented entertainment industry. 

This interdisciplinary conference will bring together a group of scholars from a range of fields including Music, Literature, History, Anthropology, Film Studies, Cultural Studies, Women’s Studies, Performance Studies, and Asian Studies to properly historicize the artistic sounds, lyrical texts, visual images, and social lives of female performers in Asian popular music of the 20th century.

Several items are of particular relevance to this blog, including

* The documentary Kim Loo Sisters: Portrait in Four-Part Harmony and discussion with the director on April 4
* Kookmin University's Hee-sook Kim of Kookmin University presenting "From Female Dance Divas to K-pop Girl Groups: Gender, Sexuality, and the Body in Popular Music of South Korea from the 1980s to the 2000s".
* "Female Passivity or Musical Democracy?: Making Music with Hatsune Miku" by Jennifer Milioto Matsue of Union College.
* The University of Toronto's Joshua D. Pilzer presenting "The 'Comfort Women' and the Voice of East Asian Modernity".
* "The Acoustic Ladies: Remediating 'Chinese' Femininity and (Inter)nationality in Early Talkies" by Yimin Wang of UC-Santa Cruz.

A complete conference program is available online, and the film and the presentations are free and open to the public.

Short Peace (ショート・ピース) at Hollywood Theater, May 3 and 4.

The 2013 Japanese animated anthology film, Short Peace (ショート・ピース), is coming to the Hollywood Theater in Dormont (map) in May, and tickets for the two showings, May 3 at 1:00 pm and May 4 at 7:00 pm, are now available online.

This omnibus film called Short Peace, which consists of 4 short animated films. One of the films from Short Peace was nominated for this year's Academy Awards. Short Peace is also from the creator of AKIRA, Katsuhiro Otomo. in Japanse language with English subtitles

That nominee, Possessions, was in Pittsburgh earlier in the year. The complete film will have a nationwide release from April 18.

The theater is located at 1449 Potomac Ave. in Dormont, and is accessible by Pittsburgh's subway/LRT at a block south of Potomac Station.