On 16 October 2010, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared multiculturalism in Germany a failure. Far-right parties that have recently gained power in countries such as Sweden and Austria have further raised doubts about the viability of multiculturalism in Western Europe and North America. Meanwhile, in South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, where immigration is tightly controlled and integration programs are at their infancy, the catchword, “multiculturalism,” has gained popularity among policymakers and the public alike.

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania (JASP) is co-hosting a Halloween Mixer with Point Park University's Anime Club for students interested in Japan and Japanese culture.

All students are welcome!

**Event Schedule**
6:00 pm : Arrival and Sign in
6:15 pm : Food and lots of candy
6:30 pm : Japan-related Club Introductions
7:00 pm : Yokai (Japanese folklore monsters) Presentation
7:45 pm : Costume Contest
8:15 pm : Horror film screening (movie title TBA)
10:30 ~ 11:00 pm : End of mixer
**Don't forget to dress up!**

2014 has been a remarkable year in terms of democratic developments in Asia. Landmark elections in India and Indonesia brought dramatic leadership changes to the region's two largest democracies. Afghan citizens defied Taliban threats to exercise their franchise in elections leading to the country's first democratic transition from one elected president to another, and student-led protests on the streets of Hong Kong demanded a greater voice in choosing their elected leaders.

Four Visiting Scholars at the Center for Disaster Management will lead a dialogue on the impact of recent extreme events in their respective countries, and outline new approaches for managing risk and building resilience to hazards at the community level. Dean John T.S. Keeler will introduce the research and exchange programs between GSPIA and Kobe University, Japan and Nanjing University, China for faculty and students.

The panel will include:

Art, Therapy, and Disaster Recovery: Popoki in the Tohoku Region, Japan - Ronni Alexander, Professor, GSICS, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan.

Jinying Li studies East Asian cinema, animation, and digital culture in transnational/trans-media contexts. Trained as a scientist before becoming a media scholar, Jinying is interested in the interplay between techno-science and screen cultures, and her research focuses on the question of how digital technologies transformed global media ecology as well as the forms and aesthetics of moving images.

Jim Busis, CEO and Publisher of The Jewish Chronicle and former director of the Asia Pacific Institute at the American Jewish Committee, will discuss the past, present, and future of PRC-Israel relations.

Please join us for a panel discussion and open forum on the current student protests over elections in Hong Kong. After brief presentations, we hope you will join us and add your views to the discussion.

Presentations:
“Chinese Protest Movements in Historical Perspective” - David Luesink (Department of History)
“Disequilibrium: The institutional failure of “one-country two systems” - Pierre Landry (Department of Political Science)
“Perspectives on Hong Kong” - Nicole Constable (Department of Anthropology), Hei Ting Wong (Graduate Student, Ethnomusicology)

Located on China’s southeast coast, the city of Xiamen had long stood as one of the poles of the Overseas Chinese universe; local merchants had already established a well-defined trading network as early as the 13th century, and over 2 million people departed from the city for Southeast Asia over the course of the 19th century. The global scope of Xiamen’s merchants and their trading networks, the people’s historical roots in diaspora and international commerce, and the distinctive nature of overseas “Chineseness” combined to produce a new narrative of community and development.

October 2nd, Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, is the International Day of Nonviolence, per a United Nations declaration in 2007.

Join us for an afternoon of activities celebrating the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi and his teachings! Enjoy tea, snacks, and conversation with Pittsburgh organizations at the 2 p.m. reception, followed at 3 by cultural performances, inter-faith presentations, and a talk by Dr. Pankaj Jain of the University of North Texas:

Gandhi - Nonviolent Methods to Save the Planet

WU Wenguang, one of the founding figures in Chinese independent documentary, brings three young filmmakers from China to present their collective work, “the Memory Project.” The project is based at Coachangdi Workstation in Beijing. From there, young filmmakers fanned out to return to family villages and their own pasts, real and imagined, to inquire about The Great Famine of 1959-61 — a disaster of whose memories have been actively abandoned by the state.