Susan Choi talk with Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures, online on September 14.

Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures will host author Susan Choi online on September 14 as part of this year's Ten Evenings series.

The author of five novels, Susan Choi won the 2019 National Book Award for Trust Exercise, an ingenious meditation on fiction and truth, friendships and loyalties, the capacities of adolescents, and the powers of adults.

In an American suburb in the early 1980s, students at a highly competitive performing arts high school struggle and thrive in a rarified bubble, ambitiously pursuing music, movement, Shakespeare, and, particularly, their acting classes. The outside world of family life and economic status, of academic pressure and of their future adult lives, fails to penetrate this school’s walls — until it does, in a shocking spiral of events that catapults the action forward in time and flips the premise upside-down.

Choi’s first novel, The Foreign Student, won the Asian American Literary Award for fiction. Her second novel, American Woman, was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into a film. A Person of Interest was a finalist for the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award. In 2010, Choi was named the inaugural recipient of the PEN/W. G. Sebald Award. Her fourth novel, My Education, received a 2014 Lammy Award.

Tickets for the 7:30 pm event are $10 for students and $15 for the general public.

2003 Bong Joon-ho film Memories of Murder (살인의 추억) in Pittsburgh-area theaters, October 19 and 20.

The 2003 Bong Joon-ho film Memories of Murder (살인의 추억) will play in Pittsburgh-area theaters on October 19 and 20. From the distributor:

MEMORIES OF MURDER tells the harrowing true story of the hunt for a sadistic serial rapist and murderer terrorizing a small province in 1980s South Korea. Marking the first of many successful collaborations between four-time Oscar winner Bong Joon Ho and leading man Song Kang Ho, the film follows the paths of three increasingly desperate detectives as they attempt to decipher the violent mind of a killer in a futile effort to solve the case.

Now, seventeen years after its initial release, and a year after the real culprit was identified, this cult classic takes its place as a modern masterpiece.

So far it is scheduled to play at AMC Loews Waterfront and the Cinemark in Robinson and tickets are available online.

Fantuan / Just Order Enterprises Corp. (饭团) hiring Mandarin-speaking Marketing Developer.

Fantuan, a delivery service catering to Asian restaurants and groceries that recently expanded to Pittsburgh, is hiring a Mandarin-speaking Marketing Developer.

Fantuan was founded in Vancouver, Canada in 2014. With a mission of “life made easier,” the company is a one-stop platform providing food delivery (Fantuan Delivery), reviews (Fantuan Reviews), an errand service (Fantuan Rush), e-commerce and marketing services. Fantuan is one of the top Asian life-services platforms in North America, currently operating across Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Montreal, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York and other metropolitan areas in Canada and the US.

Responsibilities

• Actively develop business partners and maintain relationships with existing businesses
• Correctly instruct customers to register, install and use merchant app
• Responsible for the offline promotions
• Complete specified monthly tasks on time

Requirements

• University/college degree/diploma related to marketing an asset
• Must have valid SIN number
• Valid Driver's License and access to vehicle
• Positive mindset when facing challenges
• Strong communication skills and good customer negotiation skills
• Hardworking, motivated, and entrepreneurial
• Willing to work independently, while being a part of a great team
• Understand Chinese is an asset

Chinese movie Wild Grass (荞麦疯长) in Pittsburgh, from September 10.

The 2020 Chinese movie Wild Grass (荞麦疯长) will play in Pittsburgh from September 10. Something of a synopsis, from the distributor:

In the 1990s, the two girls and a boy who first entered the society tested the incredible destiny they experienced in the pursuit of a new life. In the flourishing 1990s, they rose up with the dream and they survived.

It plays locally at the AMC Loews Waterfront and tickets are available online.

Applications for Pitt's Asian Studies Center Language Partner program being accepted.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center is now accepting applicatiosn for its latest Language Partner program.

"Harbor From the Holocaust," documentary on European Jews who fled to Shanghai in the 1930s, premieres on WQED, September 8.

The new documentary "Harbor From the Holocaust" will premiere on WQED, Pittsburgh's PBS affiliate, on September 8. The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center newsletter provides more information:

18,000 Jewish families were able to escape from Europe to China during World War II because of the good deeds of one Chinese official, Ho Feng-Shen. These Jewish families, called Shanghailanders, lived and worked along side Chinese families in a small section of Shanghai’s occupied area. There are a surprisingly large number of Pittsburgh connections to the story of the Shanghailander Jews. The granddaughter of Ho Feng-Shen lives in Pittsburgh as does the grand-niece of the principal of the Jewish school in Shanghai. These connections intrigued Michele Ferrier of the Asian Studies Center and Daryl Ford-Williams from WQED, the Pittsburgh PBS station. Now after almost 6 years of work, several grants, and many trips to China, we are proud to announce the grand premier of the film Harbor from the Holocaust on WQED Tuesday September 8 at 10 pm EDT. We hope that you enjoy this fascinating and unsung World War II story, and look out for more teaching and engagement content about this topic in the weeks and months ahead.

It will play on WQED and stream on the PBS website at 10:00 pm EST.

뭐야? Seen at the Waterworks Party City.

September screenings of 2019 Chinese documentary Our Time Machine (时光机) cancelled due to Rangos Giant Cinema's closure.

The 2019 Chinese documentary Our Time Machine (时光机) was to play online via Carnegie Science Center's Rangos Giant Cinema from September 11 but it, and other upcoming events, are cancelled due to the cinema's closure for the foreseeable future.

The Rangos Giant Cinema is closed indefinitely due to the challenging circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It will still be available online via dozens of other theaters nationwide from September 11 through 25.

BTS concert film Break the Silence (브레이크 더 사일런스: 더 무비) in Pittsburgh from September 24.

The upcoming BTS concert film Break the Silence (브레이크 더 사일런스: 더 무비) will play in Pittsburgh from September 24.

BTS WORLD TOUR 'LOVE YOURSELF: SPEAK YOURSELF' is now over. The worldwide stadium tour topped the Billboard Boxscore, and marked BTS as the first Korean group to perform at Wembley Stadium. The tour took place across Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, São Paulo, London, Paris, Osaka, Shizuoka, Riyadh, and Seoul. With unprecedented access, BREAK THE SILENCE: THE MOVIE travels with BTS throughout the tour, exploring each band member behind the curtain. Off stage, we see another side of BTS. The seven members begin to candidly tell personal stories they have never voiced before. Facing my other self ‘PERSONA’

It will play locally at the Cinemark in Monroeville and Robinson though more venues may be announced later. Tickets for the Monroeville screenings are available online via Fandango.

Three Japanese documentaries to be screened September 24 - 26 (online) at Pitt.

As part of the 2020 Pittsburgh Japan Documentary Film Award, the Japan Council of the University of Pittsburgh and SCREENSHOT: ASIA will screen three documentaries online later this month:

* Friday, September 24: Oyster Factory (牡蠣工場) at 6:30 pm followed by a conversation with the director, Soda Kazuhiro.
* Saturday, September 25: Book-Paper-Scissors (つつんで、ひらいて), the 2020 Honorable Mention, at 7:00 pm, followed by a conversation with director Nanako Hirose.
* Sunday, September 26: An Ant Strikes Back (アリ地獄天国), the 2020 Grand Prize winner, at 7:00 pm, followed by a conversation with director Tokachi Tsuchiya.