CCAC recruiting Chinese teachers for Community Education Courses.

The Community College of Allegheny County is recruiting Chinese (and other language) instructors for its Community Education Courses. The school is offering a Chinese 1 course in the spring term at its Allegheny Campus on the North Side. An excerpt from the job posting:

1. The primary responsibilities of faculty are to teach and to develop the curriculum. Prepare and provide students with course outlines that support learning objectives set forth in the course syllabus. Assess student performance and maintain grade records.
2. Create an effective learning environment through the use of a variety of instructional methods.
3. Collaborate in the development and continued assessment of learning outcomes for use in program reviews and curriculum revision.
4. Participate in appropriate professional development activities to assure currency in both discipline, knowledge and instructional methods.
5. Collaborate in the development of program and/or discipline promotional materials.
6. Support the college's goals.
7. Perform other related duties as required or assigned.

2017 Chinese movie Youth (芳华) opens in Pittsburgh (for real this time), December 15.

The 2017 Chinese coming-of-age drama Youth (芳华), released in Mainland China on October 1, will play in Pittsburgh from December 15. It was originally set to open on September 29. A September 9 Variety review introduces the film:

The narrator Suizi (Zhong Chuxi), a stand-in for screenwriter Yan Geling (“The Flowers of War” and “Coming Home”), whose semi-biographical novel was the film’s literary source, belongs to a military dance troupe stationed in the Great Southwest. However, the central figure is actually Xiaoping (Miao Miao), whose father has been branded a Rightist and thrown in a re-education camp. She is recruited from Beijing by the good-looking and kind-hearted lead dancer Liu Feng (Huang Xuan).

The pristine surroundings of their training center and dreamy soft focus that accompanies the young dancers whenever they rehearse revolutionary ballets exude a rarefied atmosphere that reinforces how privileged the troupe is, shielded from hunger, violence and back-breaking labor at the height of the Cultural Revolution. And yet, a hierarchy based on political pedigree is firmly in place in the so-called classless society. Shuwen (Li Xiaofeng) the daughter of a general and hospital supervisor, is the queen bee. Dingding (Yang Caiyu) scores with her looks, while Mongolian Drolma (Sui Yuan) plays her ethnic minority card.

Tickets and showtime information is available via Fandango. 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.

MEPPI Japan Lecture Series - Tokyo, One of the Safest Cities in the World, January 18.

"Tokyo" by kalcul (Creative Commons).

Advance notice for the first MEPPI Japan Lecture Series of 2018, "Tokyo, One of the Safest Cities in the World" on January 18. The lecture series is presented by the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania and sponsored by Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, Inc.

Why is Tokyo so safe? After devoting 15 years to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, Police Inspector Naruomi Ebitani now works at Carnegie Mellon University researching information security. From his experience in both countries and his police officer’s perspective, he will address the differences between policing and crime in Japan and the United States.

The lecture runs from 6:00 to 8:00 pm in Margaret Morrison Carnegie Hall and is free and open to the public. Registration is required and can be completed online.

Japanese Coming-of-Age Ceremony (成人の日) at Pitt for students turning 20, January 10.

Kasai does 成人の日 in 2010.

A large cohort of students from Yasuda Women's University is studying at Pitt's English Language Institute this fall and will miss the traditional Coming-of-Age Ceremony (成人の日) in Hiroshima next month, so the Asian Studies Center will hold its own ceremony on January 10. The Asian Studies Center introduces Pitt's ceremony:

A local government official will preside over the ceremony here in Pittsburgh and a Yasuda University student will give the student address. The ceremony is open not only to the ELI students, but also Pitt students, especially those studying Japanese, who are turning 20 (between April 2, 2017 and April 1, 2018).

And Japan Visitor introduces the day and its traditions:

Seijin Shiki or 成人式 could be translated as 'Coming of Age Day Ceremony' in English. Seijin-no-hi (Coming of Age Day) is a Japanese public holiday that occurs on every second Monday of January.

Coming of Age Day or Adult's Day honors every person that has turned 20 years old over the past year. When young people reach twenty they officially become adults in Japanese society and they now have responsibilities as well as newfound liberties: such as being able to drink, smoke, go to hostess bars, gamble and to drive legally. The voting age was lowered from 20 to 18 in 2015.

The girls always wear gorgeous and very expensive kimono, although most admit to having rentals as the outfit is worth up to 1,000,000 yen. The boys usually wear a regular suit and tie but a few will wear traditional Japanese dress.

It runs from 7:00 to 8:30 pm in Ballroom B of the University Club (map), and those interested should email asia [at] pitt.edu.

Studio Ghibli Film Series continues at Row House Cinema for another week.

The Row House Cinema's Studio Ghibli Film Series, which opened on December 1, will run for another week through 14 and highlight the acclaimed Japanese animation studio. The six films comprising the series are: 1991's Only Yesterday (おもひでぽろぽろ), 1992's Porco Rosso (紅の豚), 1997's Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫), 2001's Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し), and 2013's The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya (かぐや姫の物語) and The Wind Rises (風立ちぬ).

Ticket and showtime information is available online. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).

This year's trend replaces 2015's at Ross Park Mall.

Icy Roll 2.0 just before it opened last month.

Icy Roll 2.0 recently opened in Ross Park Mall, replacing a bubble tea place next to the Sears on the second floor. Thai-styled rolled ice cream places have opened everywhere in Pittsburgh over the past year, from the suburbs to the inside of a hot-pot place to a gas station in Bloomfield. Squirrel Hill is getting its first sometime next year when the newest 15 Fahrenheit location opens. This is in contrast to 2014 and 2015, when an Asian eatery couldn't operate in the city without sticking bubble tea somewhere on the menu.

HCL Technologies hiring Bilingual Japanese Query Understanding Analyst for position onsite at Google.

HCL Technologies is hiring a Bilingual Japanese Query Understanding Analyst for a position working onsite at Google in Larimer. The posting, via Monster.com:

Bilingual Japanese Query Understanding Analyst is a full-time job through HCL America, Inc. onsite at Google Pittsburgh. You will work to enhance users’ online shopping experience by performing in-depth product research, analyzing the user query stream, and improving query classifier performance using highly technical internal tools and processes. It is part of a fast-paced environment, partnering closely with operations and engineering teams. Native or near-native Japanese reading/writing fluency is preferred and spending significant time living/working in the Japanese culture is a plus.

Pedagogical Technology Mini Workshop: Anki, December 8 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures will present part two of this term's Pedagogical Technology Mini Workshops with a presentation on Anki by Dr. Stephen Luft, the coordinator of Pitt's Japanese program.

Assigning study with Anki as homework: This presentation will describe how to hold students accountable for studying with Anki, a free flashcard program, outside of class. While the presentation will focus on using Anki to aid retention of newly learned characters (e.g., kanji), it is considered to be applicable to a wide variety of subjects.

The workshop starts at 12:00 in 4130 Posvar Hall (map).

2016 Japanese movie Harmonium (淵に立つ at Carnegie Library in Oakland, January 7.

Next month's International Cinema Sunday will feature the 2016 Japanese movie Harmonium (淵に立つ), which played at this year's Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival. From a 2016 Variety review:

Even before the arrival of the mysterious Mr. Yasaka (Tadanobu Asano), the marriage of Toshio (Kanji Furutachi), the owner of a small machine shop, and his self-effacing wife, Akie (Mariko Tsutsui), appears passionless. Polite but distant, they share meals and the care of their small daughter, Hotaru, with so little intimacy that when Toshio offers Yasaka a room and a job, he doesn’t even ask his wife’s opinion. All too soon, though, he’ll have cause to regret his impulsiveness.

The movie plays from 2:00 to 4:30 pm at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's main branch in Oakland and is free and open to the public. The library is located at 4400 Forbes Ave. in Oakland (map) and is accessible by buses 28X, 54, 61A, 61B, 61C, 61D, 67, 69, 71A, 71B, 71C, 71D, and 93.

Former Pirates pitcher Masumi Kuwata again on Japanese Hall of Fame ballot.

Via Kyodo Photo.

On November 28 the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame announced its ballot for the Class of 2018, and former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Masumi Kuwata (桑田真澄) again made the list. Kuwata, the first Japanese player in Pirates history, pitched briefly for Pittsburgh in 2007 as a 39-year-old rookie. He accumulated 173 wins in Japan, 106 of which came before an elbow injury in 1995 that kept him out for almost two seasons. Results of the Hall of Fame voting will be announced on January 15.

Tracing his career on his Baseball-Reference.com wiki page, it follows a trajectory common among Pittsburgh Pirates free agents of that era:

"1987-1994: The Glory Years," "1995-1996: Injury," "1997-2002: Post-Injury," "2003-2006: Further decline," "To the USA."

He pitched 19 games in relief in 2007 but was demoted to Triple A in August, two days after his family arrived in Pittsburgh to see him play against the Giants. He retired the following spring:

Kuwata, a baseball superstar in his native Japan, formally announced his retirement after the Pirates' 7-4 victory against the Detroit Tigers this afternoon, a game in which manager John Russell asked him to pitch one final time as a show of respect. But he declined.

"He told us he's pitched thousands of innings, that we should use that time to look at pitchers for our future," Russell said. "He's a class act, a true professional and a great human being. We wish him the best of luck in everything he does."

The ritual at the mound was meant to symbolize a farewell to the game. And, although Kuwata's impact in Pittsburgh was negligible, some in the assembled Japanese media were saying that this farewell would top their nation's news for the day.

"He's a legend in our country," said reporter Yasuko Yanagita, who broke the story of Kuwata's retirement for the Hochi Shimbun sports daily. "Everyone will want to know about this, and everyone will be surprised."