Chinese-Canadian movie Old Stone (老石) at CMU International Film Festival, March 30.

The 2016 Chinese-Canadian film Old Stone老石) will play in Pittsburgh on March 30, part of the annual Carnegie Mellon University International Film Festival.

Old Stone follows the repercussions of a car accident in a society where life is cheap and compassion is ruinously expensive. Chinese taxi driver Lao Shi finds himself in a living nightmare after he reluctantly picks up a drunken passenger and must face the consequences of a car accident that permanently cripples a pedestrian. According to Chinese law, Lao Shi is required to assume financial responsibility for the injured pedestrian until the end of that individual's life. As he fights to save the life he once had and strives to do the right thing, Lao Shi is forced to act in ways contrary to his own identity and morals.

A panel discussion with Jinying Li, Assistant Professor of Film Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and Tae Wan Kim, Assistant Professor of Business Ethics at CMU will accompany the screening. The event starts at 7:00 pm in McConomy Auditorium in the Jared L Cohon University Center (map), and tickets are currently available online.

Chinese movie The Devotion of Suspect X (嫌疑人X的献身) in Pittsburgh, from March 31.

The 2017 Chinese movie The Devotion of Suspect X (嫌疑人X的献身) will play at AMC Loews Waterfront from March 31. AMC provides a summary of the film, an adaptation of the 2005 Japanese novel:

Based on Keigo Higashinoas award-winning novel, THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X follows a professor (Wang Kai) assisting in a murder investigation, only to find that a longtime rival and friend (Zhang Luyi) from his early university days may be involved.

Tickets are available from the AMC 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.

Wayback Wednesday: When a K-pop group performed in Pittsburgh in 2009.

On July 25, 2009, the K-pop quintet Wonder Girls toured the US with the Jonas Brothers, and provided the first and only K-pop performance in Pittsburgh. They were one of the biggest girl groups in Korea in 2007 and 2008, and had focused on an international tour in 2009. Unfortunately, and perhaps unsurprisingly for the time and the presentation, they made little impression in Pennsylvania.

Wild N Young: K-Pop Appreciation! at James Street Gastropub and Speakeasy, May 17.

Advance notice for Wild N Young: K-Pop Appreciation! at James Street Gastropub and Speakeasy on May 17.

We're bringing K-POP to Pittsburgh, it's way past due.

Korean Pop music has spread over the world and now we are celebrating it here in Pittsburgh at James Street Gastropub & Speakeasy

Join us mid-week, mid-May for the best of the best in K-pop dance, sound and video.

You might even become part of a choreographed routine , which will be performed at the end of the night

Free entry... Buy drinks n dance your buns offff
Starts at 8 goes all night...

It's located at 422 Foreland St. in the Deutschtown neighborhood (map).

Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language Workshop at Pitt, March 24.

The University of Pittsburgh's School of Education will host the next Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language Workshop on Friday, March 24, with Dr. Shuhan C. Wang (王周淑涵) of ELE Consulting International. The event starts at 2:00 pm in 5604 Posvar Hall (map), and is conducted in Chinese.

Ariba hiring bilingual Chinese-English Procurement Operations Specialist (SAP Ariba) for overnight position.

Pittsburgh-based Ariba is again hiring a bilingual Chinese-English Procurement Operations Specialist for an 8:00 pm to 5:00 am shift. An excerpt from the job posting:

The Customer Support Specialist is the face and voice of Ariba to our customers, building relationships in each interaction. Specialists help our customers maximize the benefits of Ariba solutions to facilitate a global exchange of goods and services in the world’s largest business to business trading community. They use their expertise and collaborate with team members and customers across the globe to provide detailed solutions that exceed expectations.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Provides inbound application and functional support for all relevant Ariba applications, both internally and externally, by way of email, webform and phone.
• Resolves 80% of issues without escalation.
• Respond to customer inquiries in a timely manner and within service level objectives.
• Successfully documents all requests through the CRM system while adhering to all documented procedures.
• Provides general assistance to other teams within Global Customer Support and Ariba.
• Conducts all customer interactions in a manner that presents Ariba in a positive light. Specialists are required to be respectful, fair, gracious and knowledgeable and to uphold the core values established by Ariba.
• Ensures that individual performance meets or exceeds the department standards.
• All other duties as assigned.

Additional details and application information are available on the SAP website.

Governor’s Advisory Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs Town Hall in Pittsburgh, March 25.

The PA Governor's Advisory Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs will host a Town Hall meeting at the University of Pittsburgh on Saturday, March 25.

Please join the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs for an interactive dialogue. GACAPAA is responsible for serving as the advocate agency in the Commonwealth for our diverse AAPI communities. The Commission wants to hear about the challenges facing the AAPI communities in Greater Pittsburgh and how we can leverage our strengths to effectively advocate, promote resources and best serve our AAPI communities. Space is limited and your participation is critical. Please plan to attend. If you have specific questions or issues you want addressed please e-mail them ahead of time to tlawson at pa.gov.

The event runs from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm in room 2700 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public. The required registration can be completed online.

"Animal Socialities: Healing and Affect in a Japanese Animal Café" at Pitt, April 4.

Via Pitt Magazine.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of Anthropology will present a talk by PhD candidate Amanda Robinson, "Animal Socialities: Healing and Affect in a Japanese Animal Café", on April 4.

This presentation examines how young people in Japan use “animal cafés” to meet their need for sociality. In animal cafés, owners, employees and customers are all involved in constructing a refuge from the social consequences of Japan’s labor market deregulation. I propose that the sociality of the animal café is tied to relaxation and the performance of non-productivity, where visitors can feel connected to others in a public space without having to “work” at interacting. As a business that allows visitors to experience a sense of iyashi (healing) that emerge from non-discursive, relaxing connections with animals, I conceptualize animal cafés as part of the affect economy that is increasingly important as Japanese people turn to the market to meet their emotional needs.

The presentation starts at 1:00 pm in 3106 Posvar Hall (map).

"The Impact of Local Changes and Global Trends: The US, Japan, and the Rise and Fall of the TPP" at Pitt, March 23.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Kay Shimizu of the Department of Political Science and Patricia Maclahlan of the University of Texas and Austin on March 23 for "The Impact of Local Changes and Global Trends: The US, Japan, and the Rise and Fall of the TPP".

The joint lecture will discuss how and why policymakers in both the US and Japan that have reacted to the rise and fall of negotiations over the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The talk starts at 12:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

The Way Home (집으로) at Maridon Museum, March 24.

The Maridon Museum will show the 2002 Korean movie The Way Home (집으로) as the first installment of this spring's Korean Film Series on March 24. A 2002 San Francisco Chronicle review provides a summary:

Dumped by his mother at the rural home of his ancient grandmother, a 7-year- old boy turns surly and depressed. His Game Boy batteries die, Grandma's food tastes strange, and the countryside lacks the vivid distractions of urban life.
Gradually, the spoiled brat (Seung-Ho Yoo) and the deaf, exquisitely patient grandmother (Eul-Boon Kim) grow to love and understand each other. By the time his mother returns to claim him, the boy has learned more from the old woman's gestures of kindness than his mother ever taught him.

The Maridon Museum is an Asian art museum at 322 N. McKean St. in downtown Butler (map) that runs film series periodically throughout the year, in addition to art classes, book club meetings, and its regular exhibits.