Though I’m writing this as I’m furiously packing, it was nice to have some local screenings for a change. The Santa Clara library is five minutes from our house and is the library that we personally go to. Both screenings had very enthusiastic crowds who posed many questions when the lights came back up. We’ve been showing a version of the film that has Chinese subtitles during the spoken English sections. We’ve been working on this version for the past several months in anticipation of our Hong Kong trip.

We’ll be scheduling more screenings at local libraries around the Bay Area in 2012. Check our screenings page for a full list or join our mailing list to get quarterly updates.

And now for some photos from Santa Clara and Hayward:

This past week, we returned to Southern California for a week of screenings at the Cerritos Library, West Covina Library, San Marino Chinese School, Fullerton Library, Diamond Bar Library and Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.

As I’ve stated numerous times one of the benefits of traveling with our film is the opportunity to visit with friends and family. In-between screenings, we were hosted by Dave and Audrey and by Rae’s aunt and uncle. We also met up with Rae’s cousin Hans (who played the role of Qiu Jin’s cousin in Autumn Gem), my cousin King-Ming, along with his fiancée Aimee, and Rae’s college friends Ben and Christine in Sherman Oaks.

Following a radio interview at EDI Media in West Covina, we paid a visit to our actress, Li Jing, at her new Wushu Action Star Academy in Temple City. At the San Marino screening, one of Li Jing’s acting colleagues, Peter Kwong, was in attendance. Rae and I remember him as the villainous Rain in Big Trouble in Little China, one of our favorite movies growing up!

Here are photos from our Southern California Fall 2011 screening. Our next stop is this Monday and Wednesday at the Santa Clara Library and Hayward Library. Then, we’re off to Hong Kong for several screenings in my parents’ hometown!

A new feature film on Qiu Jin called “The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake” is opening this week in Hong Kong. It’s directed by Herman Yau and stars Huang Yi as Qiu Jin and veteran actor Anthony Wong as a Qing Dynasty official.

Check out the trailer here:

And here’s our version:

Somehow I think they had a bigger budget. I thought it’d be fun to compare stills from their version with ours. What do you think – any similarities?

Qiu Jin – The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake

Portrayed by Huang Yi (left) and Li Jing (right):

Gender Bender

Male attire suits her well.

Wedding Woes

Qiu Jin isn’t too happy with her arranged marriage.

Family Portrait

At least her husband and kids look like they’re having fun on the left.

A Talented Writer

Writing was central to Qiu Jin’s life and I’m glad to see this element depicted in the new film. I noticed they include a voice-over of her poetry in the trailer, as we do in ours.

Stirring up Revolutionary Fires in Japan

Arrest Qiu Jin!

Qiu Jin Makes Her Final Stand

I think their budget could afford more than our four soldiers for the final battle scene:

“The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake” opens on August 25 in Hong Kong. We’ll be showing AUTUMN GEM in Hong Kong as well October 24-28 – check out the full list of screenings here. We’re looking forward to watching the feature film while we’re there – it’ll be interesting to see their version of Qiu Jin!

The Epoch Times attended our screening at the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum in Downtown San Diego last weekend. The newspaper just posted its review of the screening.

曹健鏗與張蕊在影片放映後舉行的招待會上和聖地亞哥中華歷史博物館館長莊紹文合影（攝影: 楊婕／大紀元）

加州華裔後代拍「秋瑾」巡演百場

【簡體版】 【不顯現/顯現圖片】

【大紀元2011年06月03日訊】（大紀元記者楊婕美國聖地亞哥報導）值辛亥革命成功、中華民國建國百年，來自北加州的華裔後代曹健鏗和張蕊夫婦再次攜帶兩人合拍的「秋瑾」記錄片回到聖地亞哥，於5月28日在中華歷史博物館放映，自3年半前完成該片來在各地巡迴放映已過百場。
張蕊畢業於加州大學柏克利分校藝術系，喜愛舞蹈和傳統繪畫。她介紹說，幾年前讀到一本秋瑾傳記，深受感動，因為很多西方人，以及像她這樣在美國長大的華裔從來沒有聽說過秋瑾。秋瑾作為一個性格剛烈的女性民族英雄，給她留下很深的印象。她想，如果能拍一部秋瑾生平事跡的記錄片，讓更多的人，尤其是西方人知道，應該是很有意義的事。
張蕊的想法得到先生的支持。雖然曹健鏗畢業於史丹福大學計算機軟件專業，他也是專業攝影師，對藝術的興趣不亞於太太，兩人也希望有機會成為獨立電影製片人。張蕊於是辭去職位，為拍片全力以赴。
夫婦倆介紹，他們自籌資金，花了兩年多的時間拍片。期間他們到多家圖書館、博物館查找資料， 並到中國參觀了紹興的「秋瑾紀念館」，訪問了秋氏後人，還錄製了美國漢學專家對秋瑾的評價。影片以豐富的史料為主線，加入一些表演鏡頭，由前中國女子武術冠軍、好萊塢華裔女演員李靜飾演秋瑾，使記錄片內容更加全面、更容易讓沒有中國歷史背景的觀眾看懂。
自該片2009年在曹健鏗的母校，聖地亞哥私立學校「La Jolla Country Day School」首映以來，一年多的時間裏，這對年輕的夫婦足跡從美西到美東，並到加拿大。他們除了向公眾放映，還應邀到學校做教學介紹。所到之處，很多人對影片表現出極大興趣。今年十月他們將到香港介紹他們的作品。
張蕊和曹健鏗說，在製作過程中，雙方父母都給予很多幫助和支持，比如他們會幫忙把一些中文資料翻成英文等。這次在中華歷史博物館的放映，也靠曹健鏗的父母，聖地亞哥華裔畫家梁潔貞和先生曹進美牽線搭橋。
2011-06-03 14:47:30【萬年曆】

Early on in our project we had contacted the museum to do background research and also film some historical artifacts. Museum director Dr. Alexander Chuang and his staff were very generous in sharing their knowledge and support for our project. It was great to come back with the finished film and have a showing at the museum’s Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.

We had a fantastic turnout with a full house of 100 people, who all managed to fit inside the cozy auditorium. Some audience members had attended our first screening two years ago, and noticed the difference between our earlier version and the latest cut (we’re up to Cut #21 now!).

Many thanks to Dr. Chuang and the terrific museum staff for hosting us and organizing a wonderful reception afterwards.

Our actress Li Jing attended the screening, and we had a nice chat with one of her wushu friends from China, who currently does stuntwork in Hollywood as well. We also got excellent advice and feedback from several audience members who are active in the arts and film community in Southern California.

Our friend Rafael posed a great question about the reception of gender equality in current repressive regimes. Adam pointed out a recent article about the ongoing Egyptian protests, in which women participating in a march on International Women’s Day were harassed by men and told to “go home where they belong.” Women throughout history have been fighting for their rights and engaging in political activism, but oftentimes they’ve faced resistance from men who accuse them of impinging on “their” revolution. It’s inspiring to see the struggle for equality continue with the women in Egypt, who share the same spirit as Qiu Jin.

Many thanks go out to Senior Librarian Cindy Costales for helping us set up and managing a full house, and the Friends of the Library for providing the delicious refreshments.

Here’s the article, copied below.

UTSA East Asia Institute to screen documentary on China’s first feminist

By Kris Rodriguez
Public Affairs Specialist

(Nov. 10, 2010)–As part of UTSA Diversity Month, the UTSA East Asia Institute will host a free screening of the documentary “Autumn Gem: The Story of China’s First Feminist” at 3:30 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 14 in the University Center Retama Auditorium (2.02.02) on the UTSA Main Campus. Directors Rae Chang and Adam Tow will attend the screening to meet the public and discuss their project.

The film is about Qui Jin, a Joan of Arc-style character, who defied tradition to become the leader of a revolutionary army fighting against the corrupt Qing dynasty. The radical women’s-rights activist challenged traditional gender roles and emerged as a national heroine celebrated in China today.
Jin envisioned a future where women would free themselves from the confines of tradition and arise as strong and active citizens of a new and modern nation. She spoke out against foot binding and other oppressive practices and demanded equal education for girls.

Chang graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in art and anthropology. Her short films have been presented at APAture Film Night in 2003 and the Women of Color Film Festival in 2004.

Tow is a digital media producer and Web consultant who graduated from Stanford University in 1997 with a degree in symbolic systems. An accomplished photographer, his work has been published in the New York Times, Stanford magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle.

---

The UTSA East Asia Institute promotes appreciation and understanding of East Asian societies and cultures through research, outreach, networking, education, student-faculty exchange, and business development and cooperation. The institute organizes seminars, workshops, lectures, conferences, film festivals and art exhibitions as well as bringing in performing art groups from China, Japan, Korea and other Asian nations. The institute encourages faculty research collaborations within UTSA and with participating East Asian university researchers. For more information, call 210-458-4943 or e-mail eai@utsa.edu.

Our final screening¹ while in Australia was held at the Tenth International Women in Asia Conference at The Australian National University in the capital city of Canberra. The theme of this year’s conference was Crisis, Agency, and Change, certainly apt descriptors for the time that Qiu Jin lived at the turn of the last century. I attended a panel on Raden Kartini, Indonesia’s first feminist. Kartini lived and died around the same time as Qiu Jin. Like her Chinese counterpart, she left behind many writings (from her correspondences with European friends) in which she commented on the condition of Indonesia women. Certainly during this timeframe, there was a lot of activity in the women’s movement across the world! We had never heard about Kartini before this conference, much like non-Chinese have never heard about Qiu Jin.

The keynote speaker on Day 2 of the conference was Tufts University Professor Susan Napier. Her talk was centered on the role of sex dolls in gender studies in Japan today. She featured clips from the movie Air Doll, which we missed setting at the Film Festival in San Francisco. The primary actress from the film played the archer from the Korean film The Host which we saw not too long ago.

We enjoyed screening the film to the Women in Asia conference attendees. In addition to 2011 being the 100-year anniversary of the fall of the Qing Dynasty, it’s also the 100-year anniversary of Women’s History Month. The theme next year is Our History is Our Strength. So, we envision many more screenings of Autumn Gem in 2011, both domestically and internationally!

We’d like to thank ANU for sponsoring our screening. Conference organizer Tamara Jacka was the first person to contact us about screening Autumn Gem in Australia. From that initial email several months ago, we were able to set up and kick off our first — but not last — international tour!

Rae and I spent two and a half days in Canberra. We’ll be posting more photos from our stay in the capital city, including our visit to Parliament, but until then, enjoy the photos from the Women in Asia Conference!

¹ Unfortunately, what would have been our final screening in Australia at the Chinese Youth League in Sydney had to be cancelled due to an unforeseen scheduling mixup.

On Tuesdsay, we took the Metlink Tram to Burwood where one of the campuses of Deakin University is located. Deakin is a relatively new university, having only been established 25 years ago. It has campuses in several locations, including Geelong, the site of the 2010 Worlds Cycling Championship happening this week. Had we more time, it would have been fun to see some of the top racers in the world duke it out — drug-free hopefully — for the rainbow colored jerseys.

In contrast to the RMIT University screening the previous day, we had a lot more staff and outside guests come to this screening. There were several friends of my parents’ friend Bella in attendance. In addition, two of Li Jing’s compatriots from the Beijing Wushu Team were present. We have enjoyed meeting and making connections with the extended family of all those who contributed to the development of Autumn Gem!

Our screening was sponsored by the Centre for Teaching Asian Languages at Deakin. Program Coordinator Shannon Cheale and Centre Director Alex Kostogriz were the perfect hosts, providing refreshments for guests and even giving us these Deakin scarves following the screening. These already have come in handy as the weather has gotten dedicedly cold in Melbourne and Canberra. Shannon even drove us back to the city following the screening, which was useful since the tram ride takes an hour!

One of the comments that we’ve been receiving in Australia has been whether or not we’ve screened the film in any Asian countries, such as China, Singapore, Taiwan or Hong Kong. It’s definitely in our plans, though our focus to-date has been on English-speaking Western nations. That said, I think these Asian countries would appreciate seeing a Western-interpretation of their beloved national heroine. We hope that 2011 will bring about a full Asian tour of Autumn Gem!

On Monday, we had a screening at RMIT University in downtown Melbourne. The city features a wide range of architectural styles, and the RMIT student center was definitely a unique example. One of the buildings looked like it was covered with green slime! Our screening was organized by Professor Lisa French in conjunction with her “Asian Cinemas” class. Lisa’s research interest is in gender and feminist issues in film, so we thought our film would be a good fit. The audience consisted mostly of students, as well as our friend Jen and Melinda O’Connor from 3CR Radio, who had interviewed us a few days ago.

We had our first technical glitch during this screening. The VGA connector down by the stage wouldn’t sync resolutions properly with either my MacBook Pro or iPad. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time to try setting up the computer in the projection booth, so we verbally gave the Keynote presentation and played the movie via the DVD. The mantra that I’ve been saying in previous posts holds, “Always have a backup!”

After the screening Lisa and Jen accompanied us to dinner at a Vietnamese noodle shop. Lisa told us that she has the opportunity to travel abroad to teach at RMIT’s other campuses, including Singapore.

And now for some photos from our screening at RMIT University.