Chinese documentary I Am Here (我就是我) at CMU, March 27.

The 2014 Chinese documentary I Am Here (我就是我) will run on March 27 as part of Carnegie Mellon University's International Film Festival. The festival summarizes:

Do you have what it takes to be famous? Reality television and talent competitions have captivated the star-maker medium, as well as the hearts of viewers around the globe. Super Boy, one of China's most popular and adored reality television shows, recruits hundreds of thousands young, Chinese male performers and audiences to watch one boy's rise to the top of this singing competition reality program. Lixin's film I Am Here delves into contemporary Chinese youth culture, allowing us to witness the personalities, the families, the regime of image building, and the arduous training behind the passion we see on stage. Do you have what it takes to be famous-- or what it takes to become famous?

And some comments from Darren Hughes, who attended the Toronto International Film Festival last December:

“WTF is this movie?!”

I scribbled this note midway through I Am Here, Fan Lixin’s trainwreck of a documentary about Super Boy, an American Idol-style talent show that is a ratings sensation in China. I walked out of three feature films at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, each of which was more competently made than I Am Here, but none was as fascinating. Assembled from one-on-one interviews with the contestants, backstage observations, broadcast footage, and fabricated adventures (the film begins and ends with three of the boys walking through the desert, for some reason), I Am Here was surely edited by a committee whose sole concern was protecting and selling the brand. Each sequence feels focus group tested, as if the entire film were compiled algorithmically based on Youku analytics data. Say what you will about shows like Super Boy, but after two decades, its approach to storytelling and montage has become so refined it’s nothing for the editors at Big Brother and Survivor to introduce and individuate ten characters before the first commercial break. After 88 minutes of I Am Here I knew only Ou Hao (the guy with the circle earrings) and Hua Chenyu (the one with the lenseless black frames). In other words, I Am Here isn’t even good reality TV.

The event starts at 7:15 pm in McConomy Auditorium in the Jared L. Cohon University Center and includes a "mock singing competition" and reception. Tickets are $5 for students and seniors, $10 for everyone else, and available online.

Tomodachi Festival at Carnegie Library in Oakland, April 18.

Advance notice for the 4th annual Tomodachi Festival at Oakland branch of the Carnegie Library.

Join us for music, dance, kimono try-ons, haiku, origami art, and more! Cookies will be served. This program is presented by our friends from the Japan-America Society and the Friends of Main Library Bridge to Japan.

It will run from 2:00 to 4:00 pm on Saturday, April 18. The library is located at 4400 Forbes Ave. (map).

"International Health in East Asia" at Pitt, March 20.

The Asian Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh will present Michael SY Liu and his colloquium "International Health in East Asia" on March 20.

East Asia is an important historical case for international health between the 1920s and the 1960s. Prior to WWII, various organizations like The Far Eastern Association of Tropical Medicine (FEATM, 1910-1938), The League of Nations Health Organization (LNHO, 1921/24-39), and International Health Board of the Rockefeller Foundation (1913-51) all tried to dominate the arena. The competition ended in the second-half of the 1940s when new forms of medical aid appeared and the World Health Organization (WHO) was created in 1948. The expansion of state-governed international institutions alongside America’s emergence as a global superpower transformed the state-foundation relationship in profound ways. Professor Liu’s research attempts to demonstrate the changing infrastructures of international health in East Asia during this period, and reveals the possible linkage of U.S. medical aid in post-war East Asia and former activities of colonial medicine in the region. He hopes to provoke a discussion about the nature of American medicine in Cold War East Asia, what constitutes an international relationship in medicine, and whether to consider transnational medical projects in the post-WWII period as a Cold War version of colonial medicine.

The talk begins at 4:00 pm in 4217 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

Night Market 2015 at Pitt, March 20.

The Chinese American Student Association [CASA] at the University of Pittsburgh will host its annual Night Market on Friday, March 20. From the event's Facebook page:

Join us for an awesome night filled with fun games, activities/crafts, prizes and FREE food!! Come out to the William Pitt Union Assembly Room as quickly as you can this Friday night- you do not want to miss out on the FREE Chinese food and FREE bubble tea! First come, first serve!!! Doors open at 9pm!! Can't wait to see you all! :D

It runs from 9:00 pm to midnight in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room (map).

Hotteok (호떡) sale at CMU, March 19.

via Happy Today.

The Carnegie Mellon University Asian Students Association will hold its second Hotteok Sale of the term on Thursday, March 19. Hotteok (호떡) is a fried Korean dessert with a sweet filling, commonly sold by street food vendors for 30 to 50 cents a piece. The sale runs from 11:30 to 3:00 pm---or until they run out; February's sold out in 90 minutes---at University Center Black Chairs.

No shabu shabu yet in Oakland.

The day after posting that Oakland's TOP Shabu Shabu will open the week of March 8, this sign went on its door:

"Japanese Field Games" at Pitt, March 22.

The University of Pittsburgh's Japanese Culture Association and GlobalTies will host Japanese Field Games on March 22, ahead of Children's Day on May 5.

This event is to celebrate children’s personalities and celebrate happiness. We will be playing a variety of “field games” to celebrate.

It takes place from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room (map).

Miss Granny (수상한 그녀) at Pitt, March 18.

The first of two selections in Pitt's 2015 Korean Film Festival is Miss Granny (수상한 그녀), which will play on Wednesday, March 18. Han Cinema provides a summary of the 2014 movie, which was the sixth-highest-grossing film in Korea last year:

Oh Mal-Soon (Nah Moon-hee) is a 74-year-old widow that realizes she is becoming a burden on her family. As she is roaming the streets, she comes across a photo studio and decides to dress up for a self- portrait. When she walks out of the photo studio, she mysteriously turns back into her twenty year old self. Making the most out of this one in a lifetime opportunity, she changes her name to Oh Doo-Ri (Sim Eun-kyeong) and decides to make the most out of her youth.

A New York Times review points out of the "comic-fantasy":

While the broad comedy is entertaining (a youthful Audrey blowing on her grandson’s food and force-feeding him), the film also takes unexpected darker turns. “Nobody raised her baby better than I did — that’s why my baby is so good to me!” Mal-soon shouts when her son is about to send her away. This weird comedy meanders into heartfelt, complex areas about the regrets, attachments and abandonment of the aged.

The movie plays from 6:00 to 8:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (campus map), and is free and open to the public.

"Victims, Martyrs, and Heroes: A formation and manipulation of Historical Memory in China" at Pitt, March 17.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures presents M.A. Candidate Deena Horowitz and her colloquium "Victims, Martyrs, and Heroes: A formation and manipulation of Historical Memory in China". The talk begins at 12:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (campus map) and is free and open to the public.

Korean film Joint Security Area (공동경비구역 JSA) at Pitt, March 20.

The University of Pittsburgh chapter of Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) will present the 2000 Korean movie Joint Security Area (공동경비구역 JSA) on Friday, March 20. The movie stars Kang Song-ho (The Host, Secret Sunshine), Lee Young-ae (Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, TV drama Jewel in the Palace), and Lee Byung-hun (All In, G.I. Joe series), and was the highest-grossing Korean film of all time until the following year. A 2005 New York Times review writes of the movie:

Set in a particularly tense area of the demilitarized zone between the Koreas, it is a fairly straightforward whodunit with a pointedly political theme and an unapologetically humanist message. Major Jean (Lee Yeong-ae), who grew up in Switzerland, comes to South Korea, her father's homeland, to investigate an incident that took place inside the Joint Security Area, administered by Swedish and Swiss peacekeepers.

Collecting depositions from both sides, she encounters two predictably opposed accounts of the shooting, which left two North Korean soldiers dead. Lee Soo-hyeok (Lee Byeong-heon), the South Korean officer who has admitted to the shooting, says he shot his way out of an attempted kidnapping. The Northerners insist it was an unprovoked attack. With the specter of nuclear hostilities hovering, Major Jean's investigation is a lot more than routine police work.

And "Joint Security" itself departs from routine as the real story behind the skirmish emerges in a series of long, cleanly filmed flashbacks.

The movie starts at 7:00 pm in room G8 of the Cathedral of Learning (campus map). The event is open to the public, and tickets range from $1 to $5.