Hae Yeon Choo book talk "Decentering Citizenship: Gender, Labor, and Migrant Rights in South Korea" at Pitt, February 22.

Advance notice for a February 22 book talk in the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Sociology by Dr. Hae Yeon Choo of the University of Toronto.

Decentering Citizenship follows three groups of Filipina migrants' struggles to belong in South Korea: factory workers claiming rights as workers, wives of South Korean men claiming rights as mothers, and hostesses at American military clubs who are excluded from claims—unless they claim to be victims of trafficking. Moving beyond laws and policies, Hae Yeon Choo examines how rights are enacted, translated, and challenged in daily life and ultimately interrogates the concept of citizenship. Choo reveals citizenship as a language of social and personal transformation within the pursuit of dignity, security, and mobility. Her vivid ethnography of both migrants and their South Korean advocates illuminates how social inequalities of gender, race, class, and nation operate in defining citizenship. Decentering Citizenship argues that citizenship emerges from negotiations about rights and belonging between South Koreans and migrants. As the promise of equal rights and full membership in a polity erodes in the face of global inequalities, this decentering illuminates important contestation at the margins of citizenship.

The talk runs from 12:00 to 1:30 pm in 2432 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, Inc.hiring Business Development/Business Analysis/Finance Specialist with Japanese-language skills for Warrendale headquarters.

Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, Inc., headquartered in the northern Pittsburgh suburb of Warrendale, is hiring a Business Development/Business Analysis/Finance Specialist with Japanese-as-a-Second-Language skills and an interest in temporary or long-term relocation to Japan.

Would like to use your Japanese language skills in the business world? Do you have the desire to lead new business initiatives? Do you have the technical knowledge to support an industry leader? If so, Mitsubishi Electric Power Products Inc. (MEPPI) may have the ideal opportunity for you. We are seeking talented individuals with experience in business, business development, finance, coupled with Japanese (as a second language) to work at Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, Inc. headquarters.

Lunar New Year celebrations start January 28 in Squirrel Hill.

Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood will host its second annual Lunar New Year celebration, starting with a kick-off event on January 28 at the Jewish Community Center. A program of events, from Squirrel Hill Magazine:

At 1pm, the Steel Dragon LION Dance Team will ring in the Year of the Fire Rooster, followed by performances and presentations from:

• OCA Pittsburgh/Tsu Chi Academy – Chinese Y-Yo Martial Arts demos
• OCA Cultural Youth Performance
• Win-Win KungFu
• Ai-Lin Chen on Guzheng, a musical instrument performance
• YanLai Dance Academy
• Filipino American Association of Pittsburgh Dance Troupe
• HaiHua Youth Orchestra (of Mt. Lebanon)
• CMU K(orean)-pop
• Pittsburgh Chinese School Chinese Folk Dance
• Oom Yung Doe Martial Arts
• Silk Elephant Thai Dancers
• Yanlai Dance Academy
• Lydia Music Center

Throughout the building, attendees can enjoy free arts and crafts for the kids including calligraphy, origami, making hand-drums (for the parade of course!), and more. There will also be delicious, authentic Asian food for sale.

In addition to the activities inside the JCC, two teams of lion dancers will be visiting and blessing our merchants on Forbes and Murray from 10am to 3pm.

The events are free and open to the public; shirts are $10 for kids or $15 for adults, and are available for purchase online. The holiday celebration closes on February 12 with a parade along Squirrel Hill's Murray Ave.

Korean Lunar New Year Celebration, January 27 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Daehwa Korean Conversation Club will host a Korean Lunar New Year (설날) Celebration on Friday, January 27, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm in the William Pitt Union Lower Lounge (map).

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side Of Dimensions (遊☆戯☆王 THE DARK SIDE OF DIMENSIONS) in Pittsburgh, from January 28.

The 2016 animated Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side Of Dimensions (遊☆戯☆王 THE DARK SIDE OF DIMENSIONS), premiering in the US on January 27, will play in the Pittsburgh area from January 28. It will play at 1:00 pm on the 28th and at 7:00 pm on the 31st at Pittsburgh Mills, and will have four screenings from January 28 through February 4 at Carmike 10 in South Hills Village.

Chinese-language lecture "The Features and Outlook of China's Economic Transformation", January 23 at Pitt.

Dr. Haifeng Huang of the Peking University HSBC Business School will give a Chinese-language lecture, "The Features and Outlook of China's Economic Transformation", at Pitt on January 23. Dr. Huang presented in English on January 17. The talk starts at 12:00 pm in 4217 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

Buddies in India (大闹天竺) in Pittsburgh, from January 27.

The 2017 Chinese-Indian comedy Buddies in India (大闹天竺) will play at the AMC Loews Waterfront theater from January 27. AMC provides a plot summary:

Following his fatheras deathbed confession about the location of his last will and testament, Tang Sen (Bai Ke) packs up and heads to India with his friend Wu Kong (Wang Baoqiang) in search of it. Along the way, the merry duo becomes a motley crew, enlisting a loyal but quirky fighter (Yue Yunpeng) and a cagey but beautiful woman (Liu Yan), all while experiencing the mysteries of a magical land that both helps and hinders them in their quest.

Tickets and showtimes are available from the theater's website. The theater is located at 300 West Waterfront Dr. in the Waterfront shopping complex in Homestead (map), across the Monongahela River from Greenfield, Squirrel Hill, and the rest of Pittsburgh.

Chinese Calligraphy at Carnegie Library in Squirrel Hill, January 28.

The Carnegie Library in Squirrel Hill will host Chinese Calligraphy on January 28.

Stop in on January 28 to celebrate Lunar New Year’s Day with Chinese Calligraphy! Join us to rub ink sticks, learn to write “lucky” Chinese characters with a brush and carry the luck with you into the New Year.

新年好!

The library is located at 5801 Forbes Ave. (map) and is accessible by buses 61A, 61B, 61C, 61D, 64, and 74.

Nomadic Perspectives on Multivocality in the Altai Mountains, January 19 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Center for Russian and East European Studies will host Robert O. Beahrs and his talk "Nomadic Perspectives on Multivocality in the Altai Mountains" on January 19.

Over the past forty years, nomadic vocal practices from Inner Asia known as "throat-singing" or "overtone singing have been commonly misunderstood. Drawing on twelve years of fieldwork in Tuva and Altai, this presentation explores how localized cosmologies and indigenous philosophies of voice and music suggest new ways of conceiving of xöömei beyond ethnic identity and vocal technique. This project joins a number of recent anthropological studies of Central Eurasia that reexamine how indigenous peoples were inscribed into the ethnographic archive and offers new ways of conceiving of the poetics and politics of life in less human-centered ecologies.

The talk starts at 3:30 pm in 4217 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

1993 movie Sailor Moon R: The Movie (劇場版 美少女戦士セーラームーンＲ) at Hollywood Theater January 21 - 25, part of US theatrical premiere.

The 1993 movie Sailor Moon R: The Movie (劇場版 美少女戦士セーラームーンＲ) will play in US theaters for the first time in January 2017, and will be in Pittsburgh on January 21, 22, 24, and 25 at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont. The distributor provides a plot summary:

Long before Mamoru found his destiny with Usagi, he gave a single rose in thanks to a lonely boy who helped him recover from the crash that claimed his parents. This long-forgotten friend, Fiore, has been searching the galaxy for a flower worthy of that sweet gesture long ago. The mysterious flower he finds is beautiful, but has a dark side- it has the power to take over planets. To make matters worse, the strange plant is tied to an ominous new asteroid near Earth! Faced with an enemy blooming out of control, It’s up to Sailor Moon and the Sailor Guardians to band together, stop the impending destruction and save Mamoru!

The theatrical premiere will also include the short "Make Up! Sailor Guardians", and giveaways are available on a first-come first-served basis.

Tickets are currently available online. The screenings on January 21, 22, and 24 will be dubbed in English and the January 25 showing will be in Japanese with English subtitles. The theater is located at 1449 Potomac Ave. in Dormont (map), and is accessible by Pittsburgh's subway/LRT at a block south of Potomac Station.