"Ecologies of Chinese Computing: A Guided Tour through Recent History" at CMU, February 7.

The Carnegie Mellon University Department of History and School of Computer Science will host Thomas Mullaney of Stanford University and his lecture "Ecologies of Chinese Computing: A Guided Tour through Recent History" on February 7.

Early in the history of computing, Western engineers determined that a 5 x 7 dot matrix grid offered sufficient resolution to print legible Latin alphabetic letters. To do the same for Chinese - a writing system with no alphabet, and whose graphemes present greater structural nuance, variation, and complexity - required engineers to expand this grid to no less than 18 x 22. In the 1960s, the development team behind ASCII (the American Standard Code for Information Interchange) determined that a 7-bit coding scheme and its 128 addresses offered sufficient space for all of the letters of the Latin alphabet, along with numerals and key analphabetic symbols and functions. Chinese characters, by comparison, in theory demanded no less than 16-bit architecture to handle its more than 70,000 characters. And of course, long ago Western computer engineers piggy-backed on the preexisting typewriter keyboard, using the two-dimensional SHIFT key to toggle between lower and uppercase letters.

By comparison, Chinese keyboard designers from the 1970s onward experimented with what might be termed “hyper-SHIFT” - 15-level SHIFT keys which transformed “flat” touchpad surfaces into hyper-dimensional Chinese character interfaces. Whether in terms of screens, printers, interfaces, character encoding schemes, optical character recognition algorithms, or otherwise, Chinese has constantly pushed to the world of computing far beyond its familiar alphabetic ecologies.

In this talk, Thomas S. Mullaney charts out the ecologies of Chinese computing, an unfamiliar terrain that remains unmapped despite China’s present-day status as a global I.T. powerhouse. Abridged Abstract: Whether in terms of screens, printers, interfaces, character encoding schemes, optical character recognition algorithms, or otherwise, the Chinese language has constantly pushed to the world of computing far beyond its familiar alphabetic ecologies. In this talk, Thomas S. Mullaney charts out the ecologies of Chinese computing, an unfamiliar terrain that remains unmapped despite China’s present-day status as a global I.T. Powerhouse.

The event begins at 4:00 pm in the McKenna, Peter, and Wright Rooms of Cohon University Center and is free and open to the public.

"Lunar New Year Celebration: Year of the Rooster" at Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, February 4.

The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh will host "Lunar New Year Celebration: Year of the Rooster" on February 4 from 12:00 to 4:00 pm.

In ancient times, Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on Chinese New Year. Twelve came, and Buddha named a year after each one. Come celebrate the Chinese year 4715, the year of the Rooster, with Silk Screen Asian Arts and Culture Organization. Make art, enjoy live music, and join the Steel Dragon Lion Dance Team for a parade through the Museum!


12:00 pm: Explore caligraphy with guest artist, Ming Rui, and make a sign for the parade.

1:00 pm: Steel Dragon Lion Dance Team performs in the Art Studio. Join them for a parade into the Theater.

1:00 pm - 4:00 pm: Make Korean Yuk Sticks with Pitt Asian Studies Center in front of the Theater.

1:00 pm - 4:00 pm: Fresh Picks: Taste some of our favorite teas and learn about the Vietnamese 5 Fruit Tray tradition in front of the Theater.

2:00 pm: Learn dance moves from Yanlai Dance Academy and enjoy music by Purple Bamboo, a Chinese musical ensemble in the Theater.

The celebration is free with museum admission ($16 for adults, $14 for kids aged 2 through 18, and free for infants under 2). The museum is located at 10 Children's Way on the Northside (map).

"Cue integration in Korean fricatives: Intrinsic or learned?" colloquium at Pitt, January 27.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of Linguistics will host Dr. Jonah Katz of West Virginia University and his colloquium "Cue integration in Korean fricatives: Intrinsic or learned?" on Friday, January 27.

A central question in phonetics is whether the integration of information across various acoustic cues is driven primarily by inherent properties of the auditory system, or primarily by linguistic experience with covariance of cues. Obviously, the two theories tend to make similar predictions, because cues with similar auditory effects tend to covary in speech. Here I present experimental data from Korean that tends to support a role for inherent properties of the auditory system instead of or in addition to learned covariance. In particular, I show that multiple acoustic cues involving the presence of low-frequency energy integrate in the perception of Korean coronal fricatives. The finding helps explain a surprising asymmetry between the production and perception of these fricatives found in previous studies: lower F0 onset in the following vowel leads to a response bias for plain [s] over fortis [s*], despite the fact that there is no evidence for a corresponding acoustic asymmetry in the production of [s] and [s*]. A fixed classification task using the Garner paradigm provides evidence that low F0 in a following vowel and the presence of voicing during frication perceptually integrate. This suggests that Korean listeners in previous experiments were responding to an ‘intermediate perceptual property’ of stimuli, despite the fact that the individual acoustic components of that property are not all present in typical Korean fricative productions. This in turn makes it unlikely that Korean listeners have experience with this type of covariance. The finding broadens empirical support for the general idea of auditory-driven integration to a new language, a different manner of consonant, and a situation where covariance of the acoustic cues under investigation is not generally present in a listener’s linguistic input.

The talk begins at 3:00 pm in 332 Cathedral of Learning (map) and is free and open to the public.

TOKiMONSTA at Carnegie Mellon, January 28.

Carnegie Mellon University's Activities Board will host LA-based electronic music performer TOKiMONSTA on January 28. The event starts at 7:00 in the Cohon University Center Studio Theater and is free for CMU students with a valid student ID. More information available via the Facebook event page.

"Fertility Restrictions and Life Cycle Outcomes: Evidence from the One Child Policy in China" at Pitt, January 28.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of Economics will host Harvard University PhD candidate Wei Huang and his talk "Fertility Restrictions and Life Cycle Outcomes: Evidence from the One Child Policy in China" on January 28. The abstract, based on his job market paper:

I use the experience of China's One Child Policy to examine how fertility restrictions affect economic and social outcomes over the lifetime. The One Child Policy imposed a birth quota and heavy penalties for “out-of-plan” births. Using variation in the fertility penalties across provinces over time, I examine how fertility restrictions imposed early in the lives of individuals affected their educational attainment, marriage and fertility decisions, and later life economic outcomes. Exposure to stricter fertility restrictions when young leads to higher education, more white-collar jobs, delayed marriage, and lower fertility. Further consequences include lower rates of residing with the elderly, higher household income, consumption, and saving. Finally, exposure to stricter fertility restrictions in early life increases later life female empowerment as measured by an increase in the fraction of households headed by women, female-oriented consumption, and gender-equal opinions. Overall, fertility restrictions imposed when people are young have powerful effects throughout the life cycle.

The talk runs from 3:30 to 5:00 pm in 4716 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

"Transport Infrastructure, City Productivity Growth and Sectoral Reallocation: Evidence from China" at Pitt, January 27.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of Economics will host UCLA PhD candidate Yang Yang and his talk "Transport Infrastructure, City Productivity Growth and Sectoral Reallocation: Evidence from China" on January 27. The abstract, based on his job market paper:

This paper examines the impact of highway expansion on aggregate productivity growth and sectoral reallocation between cities in China. To do so, I construct a unique dataset of bilateral transportation costs between Chinese cities, digitized highway network maps, and firm-level census. I first derive and estimate a market access measure for cities in China from 1995 to 2005. I then examine the channels through which the highway infrastructure affected economic outcomes. Highways promoted aggregate productivity growth by facilitating entry of new firms and reallocation among existing firms. I estimate the aggregate economic impact of China's national highway system and find that eliminating all highways in China would decrease aggregate productivity by 3.2%. There is also evidence that the national highway system led to a sectoral reallocation between cities in China.

The talk runs from 3:30 to 5:00 pm in 4716 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

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).