"From Hanok to Hanbok: Traditional Iconography in Korean Hip-Hop Music Videos" by Dr. CedarBough Saeji, February 24 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Dr. CedarBough Saeji and her talk "From Hanok to Hanbok: Traditional Iconography in Korean Hip-Hop Music Videos" on February 24 in the next installment of this term's Asia Pop series.

In her virtual lecture From Hanok to Hanbok: Traditional Iconography in Korean Hip-Hop Music Videos, Dr. Saeji will explore the contradictions and effects of the use of imagined and real Korean settings and traditional iconography in recent videos from Korean hip-hop artists. She investigates what symbols and icons are used to visually represent Korea in the videos, as they take a foreign genre and imbue it with Koreanness. These videos circulate and re-circulate a limited number of icons of Korea, because the images are meant not to portray pre-modern Korea in its complexity, but traditional Korea both as a symbol of national pride and as a (domestic and international) tourist destination where the palace is a backdrop and you wear a hanbok to create a visually striking Instagram post.

It starts at 6:30 pm and is free and open to the public, though registration is required.

2021 Chinese movie Assassin in Red (刺杀小说家), a.k.a. A Writer's Journey, continues in Pittsburgh through February 23.

The 2021 Chinese movie Assassin in Red (刺杀小说家), also known as A Writer's Journey, which opened in Pittsburgh on February 12, will continue here through at least February 23. A brief overview, from a Variety preview last year:

“Assassin in Red,” which is executive produced by Ning Hao and backed by CMC Pictures, tells the story of a father who is tasked with killing a novelist in order to save his daughter who went missing six years ago. It turns out that the man’s writing creates a fantastical world that ends up influencing the father’s quest. The film stars Lei Jiayin (“The Longest Day in Chang’an”), Yang Mi (“Tiny Times”), and Dong Zijian (“Mountains May Depart”).

It opened on the Lunar New Year and was the third-highest grossing film in China its first week. It plays locally at the AMC Loews Waterfront and the Cinemark in Robinson through the 17th, and at the Waterfront from the 18th, and tickets are available online.

"2021 Japan Lecture Series – Shofuso: Philadelphia's Japanese Gem," February 18.

Taken by me at Shofuso, April 2013.

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania and the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia will present "2021 Japan Lecture Series – Shofuso: Philadelphia's Japanese Gem" on February 18.

Did you know that Philadelphia has one of the best Japanese gardens in North America? Shofuso Japanese House and Garden sits in Philadelphia's West Fairmount Park, which has had a continuous Japanese presence since the 1876 Centennial Exposition, when the first Japanese garden in North America was installed behind a small Japanese bazaar. Designed by architect Junzo Yoshimura, Shofuso was built in Japan in 1953 using traditional techniques and materials. It was shipped to New York and exhibited in the courtyard of the Museum of Modern Art in New York before moving to its current location in 1958. The traditional and modern features of Shofuso and its collection were recently featured in the documentary Shofuso and Modernism: Mid-Century Collaboration between Japan and Philadelphia and an article in Nikkei Asia magazine.

Join the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania and the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia for a special lecture on this Pennsylvania gem by JASGP Executive Director Kim Andrews. Shofuso re-opens to visitors on March 20, and Ohanami events begin April 10. Philadelphia’s cherry trees generally bloom at the end of March through the end of April.

The online lecture runs from 6:00 to 8:00 pm and is free and open to the public, though advance registration is required.

Pittsburgh-based ReadyAI hiring Mandarin-speaking Instructional Design and Technology Associate.

ReadyAI, a branch of Pittsburgh-based education consultancy WholeRen (美国厚仁教育集团), is hiring a bilingual Mandarin-English Instructional Design and Technology Associate.

Essential Functions

* Create fun, accessible, interactive, thought-provoking materials for AI classes, for both online and in-person instruction
* Collaborate with AI researchers and academics and write AI lesson plans on various subfields of AI
* Build relationships with local schools, organizations, and businesses to bring ReadyAI classes to their organization
* Identifies and initiates relationships with stakeholders in the AI education community
* Write program proposals for summer programs and after school
* Coordinate class schedule with local organizations at which we are offering classes
* Represent ReadyAI at events

Competencies

* Client orientation
* Bilingual Preferred English and Mandarin communication skill
* Fosters teamwork and collaboration

More information is available on the job ad.

1957 film Sumpah Pontianak online with Pitt's Asian Studies Center, February 17.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will present the 1957 film Sumpah Pontianak on February 17 as part of its upcoming Pontianak Film Series.

Third in the series of schlocky films from the 50s. The first Pontianak film appeared in 1957 Singaporean Malay horror film directed by Indian film director B.N. Rao starring Maria Menado and M. Amin. Based on the Malay folktales of a blood-sucking ghost born from a woman who dies in childbirth. The smash hit premiered on 27 April 1957 and screened for almost three months at the local Cathay cinemas. Its success spawned two other sequels, Dendam Pontianak (Revenge of the Pontianak, 1957) and Sumpah Pontianak (Curse of the Pontianak, 1958). It is also said to have launched the Pontianak genre in Singapore and Malaysia, with rival Shaw producing its own Pontianak trilogy and several movies of the same genre were also made in Malaysia.

The movie has been pushed back two weeks from its originally-scheduled screening. It starts on Vimeo at 7:00 pm, and registration is required.

Screening of 2019 Nailed It documentary and Q&A with filmmaker, February 16 at Pitt; follow-up discussion with Pitt's ASA and BAS, February 19.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center and Asian Student Alliance will present a screening of the 2019 Nailed It documentary and Q&A with filmmaker Adele Pham on February 16. From the documentary's official site:

In virtually every city, state and strip mall across the U.S., women get their nails done in salons likely owned by Vietnamese entrepreneurs. How did this community come to be such a presence in the field? NAILED IT takes viewers from Los Angeles to the Bronx to meet the diverse people and relationships behind this booming and enigmatic trade, as well as through the complex history behind this part of the beauty industry.

The event starts at 7:00 pm and is free and open to the public, though registration is required. It will be followed on the 19th by a panel discussion between the ASA and Pitt's Black Action Society at 8:00 pm.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review profiles Mai Khoi, Vietnamese pop singer and activist now at home in Pittsburgh.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is the latest local outlet to profile Mai Khoi, the "Lady Gaga of Vietnam," who now has made a home in Pittsburgh.

Her name is Mai Khoi (pronounced “my coy”) and she is a successful Vietnamese pop star turned activist who was forced to leave her home country after being harassed and silenced by the Vietnamese government.

The 38-year-old Khoi has found refuge in Pittsburgh, arriving last November and becoming the second scholar in residence at the University of Pittsburgh through the Scholars at Risk program. The program partners with an initiative of the Institute of International Education called the Artist Protection Fund.

The fund supports threatened artists by placing them in safe countries for a full year, where they can continue their work and plan for their futures. Khoi is also supported by the Pittsburgh-based International Free Expression Project and the City of Asylum on the North Side, where she and her husband have found their Pittsburgh home.

See also a January 19 WESA FM profile.

First look (by a magazine) at Jian's Kitchen.

Hal B. Klein reviews Jian's Kitchen for Pittsburgh Magazine this month in a profile of new restaurants.

There’s a lot to celebrate with this opening, and foremost is the depth of its menu. You Shan Pei, the former head chef of Northeastern Kitchen, remains on staff, and he’s joined by Michael Chew, a Taiwanese chef with 40 years of experience; Chew first cooked in Pittsburgh 30 years ago when he was the chef of Chef Chow in Fox Chapel.

Rather than focus solely on the lesser-known (though utterly delicious) cuisine of Heilongjiang province, as was the case at Northeastern Kitchen, the two chefs are collaborating on a pan-Chinese menu. Those dishes go beyond the typical Chinese restaurant menu to celebrate the nation’s culinary intricacies, and they’re also exploring the depths of regional cuisine.

Jian's Kitchen (品江南) opened in December in Squirrel Hill, in the spot formerly occupied by Northeastern Kitchen.

"Building the post-1949 State in China and Taiwan," February 16 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Dr. Julia Strauss and her lecture "Building the post-1949 State in China and Taiwan" on February 16.

By the late 1950s, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Republic of China (ROC) stood as exemplars of success for both “revolutionary” and “conservative” variants of the modern state. However, in 1949 these two regimes had an overlooked yet substantial amount in common in structure and state building agendas. Juxtaposition of the PRC in Sunan (Southern Jiangsu) with the ROC in Taiwan, illustrates that each relied on a fluctuating mix of bureaucratic and campaign modalities to implement similar policies each deemed essential to state building – the dispatch of enemies of the state, and the implementation of land reform. However, the ways in which campaigns against subversives and for land reform were publicly performed pointed to key differences in each regime’s core values, how it represented itself, and how it attempted to generate legitimacy.

It starts at 3:00 pm and is free and open to the public, though registration is required.

2020 Goro Miyazaki film Earwig and the Witch (アーヤと魔女) continues in Pittsburgh through February 18.

The 2020 Goro Miyazaki film Earwig and the Witch (アーヤと魔女), which opened in Pittsburgh on February 3, will stay in some local theaters through the 18th. A synopsis, from the distributor:

Growing up in an orphanage in the British countryside, Earwig has no idea that her mother had magical powers. Her life changes dramatically when a strange couple takes her in, and she is forced to live with a selfish witch. As the headstrong young girl sets out to uncover the secrets of her new guardians, she discovers a world of spells and potions, and a mysterious song that may be the key to finding the family she has always wanted.

It will continue at the Waterworks and Cranberry Cinemas. Tickets are available online; please note that some screenings are in Japanese with English subtitles while others are dubbed in English.