張蕊與夫 戲說秋瑾傳奇

記者王金城聖荷西報導

影片「秋瑾」製作人曹健鏗、張蕊夫婦29日在聖荷西歷史公園的太平洋旅館向南灣觀眾介紹他們費時多年，精心製作的這部歷史教育記錄片。兩人講解鑑湖女俠秋瑾的生平與歷史背景，以及在中國、灣區等地拍攝的情形。放映會場上也展示「秋瑾」的影碟與相關歷史資訊。
張蕊的父母來自台灣，大學時期對自己的家世背景與中國歷史展生興趣，知道了近代中國推翻滿清帝制時出現秋瑾這麼一位女中豪傑。

她說，這個發現令她非常興奮，因為秋瑾不只是革命先烈，也是女權運動先驅，早在100多年前就挺身而出，爭取男女平等，是非常進步的思想。

張蕊和曹健鏗於2007年開始籌畫製作這部影片，準備工作花了五個月，拍攝時並到秋瑾故鄉紹興實地製作，訪問當地學者。曹健鏗表示，「秋瑾」可為第一代華裔與在美國成長華裔之間的橋梁，因為兩岸三地很多來美的移民都知道秋瑾的故事，可是在美國生長的華裔並不知道。這部影片成為不同世代華裔相互溝通的管道。

「秋瑾」由張蕊編演，曹健鏗製片，是他們完成的第一部自製自導紀錄長片。張蕊畢業於柏克萊加大、主修藝術與人類學。曹健鏗則畢業於史丹福大學，從事電腦與網路工作，也是專業攝影師。

http://sf.worldjournal.com/view/full_sfnews/18406326/article-張蕊與夫-戲說秋瑾傳奇?

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.

The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) is the largest worldwide scholarly professional association for those interested in the study of Asia. Last October, we attended their Western Regional Conference, held at California State University Northridge. This year’s conference was a much larger affair, a joint event with the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS), held at the Hawai’i Convention Center.

With over 5000 attendees, the Convention Center was bustling with activity, and we ran into several people we met over the course of our screening tours. We also saw the three scholars whom we had interviewed for our film: Amy Dooling, Lingzhen Wang, and Hu Ying, and it was great reconnecting with them all at the same place.

Prior to our panel, we attended some other sessions, including “Rethinking the 1911 Revolution” which was moderated by Mary Rankin, who had written an invaluable study of Qiu Jin, “The Emergence of Women at the End of the Ch’ing: The Case of Ch’iu Chin” in Margery Wolf and Roxane Witke’s book Women in Chinese Society.

We also caught a few movies playing in conjunction with the conference, including 1428, a documentary on the devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake and the recovery efforts by government agencies and survivors, and Ruby Yang’s Tongzhi in Love, a poignant account of the conflicted lives of gay men in Beijing.

Our panel, “Word and Image in Chinese Film Adaptation,” was organized by Professor Tze-Lan Sang from the University of Oregon. The five panels covered a range a topics in analyzing the adaptation of literary works onto film, and included presentations by Xiaoquan Zhang from the University of Oregon, Alexander Huang from Pennsylvania State University, Hsiu-Chuang Deppman from Oberlin College, and Tze-Lan Sang, with Lingzhen Wang as the discussant.

Prior to the panel, we had lunch with our fellow presenters, all of whom we met for the first time (except Lingzhen Wang). I discovered that Alexander Huang, who had recently written a book called Chinese Shakespeares: Two Centuries of Cultural Exchange, is a colleague of my uncle in Taiwan, who is also a Shakespeare scholar. We also found out some more information about the upcoming feature film on the Xinhai Revolution currently in production in China. Simply titled 1911, it’s directed by Jackie Chan, who plays revolutionary leader Huang Xing. The role of Qiu Jin is played by Ning Jing, whom we’re not familiar with, but in any case we’re looking forward to seeing this when it comes out in September!

We had a tight schedule with our five presentations squeezed into a 2-hour session, but it went fairly smoothly, with a few of us having to shorten our talks a bit to fit into the time limit. Adam served as tech coordinator to help transition between the multiple presentations, and there was time to get in some thoughtful audience questions as well as Lingzhen Wang’s insightful commentary.

Overall, it was a constructive and enlightening experience, and we had a great time participating in the conference. Thanks to all our fellow panelists for a fantastic job!

We had a full house of students and community members at both screenings, held at the downtown HPU campus near Honolulu’s Chinatown. An interesting point brought up at the Q-and-A was the connection between the feminist movement in China and other countries. The British and U.S. women’s suffrage movements were gaining momentum at the same time that Qiu Jin and her cohorts were fighting for their rights. Also during this period was the development of a radical feminist movement in Iran. Were these women influenced and inspired by each other, tapping into a similar energy worldwide? Qiu Jin, for example, specifically mentions contemporaries like Harriet Beecher Stowe and Florence Nightingale as role models for Chinese women.

Many thanks go out to Professor Linda Lierheimer, coordinator of the Viewpoints Film Series, and her student assistant Tim for putting on a successful event. We especially enjoyed the free pizza and snacks provided by the History Department, which made for a festive atmosphere!

Hawaii holds a special place in relation to the 1911 Revolution since it was where Sun Yat-sen spent his formative years. He attended the Iolani School and later studied at Punahou School, whose famous alumni also includes President Obama. His education in Hawaii had a strong impact on his political ideals, and he later incorporated the American concept of “government of the people, by the people, for the people” into his revolutionary principles.

While checking into the hotel, we ran into Amy Dooling, one of the scholars in our film, who was speaking on a panel called “The Gender of Revolution.” One of the larger questions in light of the 1911 Revolution centenary is the role of women, and we were glad to see this subject addressed at the conference.

At the hotel we also saw Tamara Jacka, our contact at Australian National University, who was in town for the upcoming Association for Asian Studies Conference. It was great reconnecting with her, and we’d be seeing many of our other past screening acquaintances at the conference itself.

We had a great turnout for our screening at the Art Building Auditorium, due in large part to the extensive promotional efforts of our local contacts Leigh-Wai Doo and Marsha Joyner. We met Leigh-Wai back in 2009 at one of our first events, at the US-China Peoples Friendship Association National Conference in San Francisco. Leigh-Wai is involved in several organizations including the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Hawaii Foundation, Palolo Chinese Home, and United Chinese Society. Besides being a pillar of the Chinese community in Hawaii, his grandfather was an early supporter of Sun Yat-sen and one of the 72 National Martyrs of Revolutionary China.

Marsha Joyner came across our film while researching Chinese women revolutionaries. A life-long civil rights activist and former president of The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Coalition in Hawaii, she was initially drawn by the issue of footbinding and Sun Yat-sen’s efforts to bring women into the political process. She’s been a fantastic supporter of the film and has helped us get involved in many of the centenary events in the area.

Many thanks also to Frederick Lau, Director of the Center for Chinese Studies, Cynthia Ning, Director of the Confucius Institute, Professor Shana Brown from the History Department who was our initial contact, and CCS coordinators Daniel Tschudi and Jialin Sun for hosting us. We had a fantastic time participating in the conference, which was an excellent lead-in to the upcoming Association for Asian Studies event.

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.