To register to attend please email shannon.cheal (at) deakin.edu.au or phone 03 9244 6417

View Autumn Gem Screenings in a larger map

We will continually update this map as the film makes its way to more and more places around the globe!

On Sunday, the Chi Am Circle club sponsored a screening of Autumn Gem at the Saratoga Public Library. Ninety people were in attendance for the screening, including Qiu Jin’s Great Grandnephew, Charles Fan, whom we first met at the Willow Glen screening back in March. Now that we’re back from our Spring 2010 Tour, we have time to start planning our next steps with the film: more screenings, interviews, a study guide for the Institutional version of the DVD and the iPad application.

As with the Wellesley College screening, we ran the entire Keynote presentation and video from our iPad. In addition, we demoed the Autumn Gem iPad app at the end of the screening. We hope to have it uploaded to the App Store in the next couple of weeks for those million people who bought an iPad in the first month of the product’s availability!

Special thanks go out to Edric (one of our Qing soldiers from the film), who loaned us his projector. Thanks also go out to the Chi Am Circle club for organizing the screening and providing the refreshments.

The Spring 2010 Autumn Gem Tour featured 13 screenings in 18 days. Our final stop before returning to the Bay Area was at State University of New York at Stony Brook on Long Island. Saying goodbye to my relatives in New Jersey, we took an early morning train to New York’s Penn Station. We didn’t head immediately to Long Island, as I had to make a quick jaunt over to the All Things Digital “East Coast Office” in Midtown. The differences between the two cities of Boston and New York were readily apparent as we walked between the towering skyscrapers. Boston had more of an old-time colonial and working class feel to it, whereas New York had a more hustle and bustle, white-collar feel. I can understand how intense a rivalry can develop between these two cities (esp. in sports); the variations here are more apparent than those between Northern California and Southern California cities.

We spent just an hour inside the News Corp. building before leaving to return back to Penn Station for our Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) train ride. I didn’t realize the News Corp. building had a subway stop in the basement — convenient! I’m very fortunate that I’m able to work remotely while on tour. We couldn’t have produced Autumn Gem without having the flexibility to work virtually anywhere, be it in China, Las Vegas or the East Coast. My motto is “Have Internet, will travel!”

The last time that I took the LIRR was during Vienna Teng’s East Coast tour way back in 2003. My, how time flies! Vienna recently announced that she’s embarking on a new chapter in her life by getting her MBA at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Another thing that we’re blessed to have are friends who are off blazing their own trail in their professions and interests. If there’s just one student that we’ve inspired to make their own films or work on their own projects, our trip will have been a success. Of course, we would like to have inspired more than just one, but you get the point! We hope to have a screening one day at UMich so we can go and visit her — instead of the other way around!

Thanks to my friend Randy’s guidance, we rented a car from the Enterprise store not too far from his parents’ house, where we would be staying that night. From there, we drove 45 minutes to Stony Brook University. The first thing that we both noticed was that Long Island really is long! Next, the scenery seemed to gradually change from suburbia to farmland! Third, you have to go on so many different highways, parkways, turnpikes and roads to get from Bellmore to Stony Brook. Thank goodness that we had a GPS to guide us there!

The screening was held at the Charles B. Wang Center on campus. For those unfamiliar with their tech history, Charles Wang is the founder of Computer Associates, the well-known computer software corporation. He lives in Stony Brook and donated a generous sum of of over $40 million to fund the construction of the building, which is “dedicated to presenting the public with a multifaceted, intellectually sound, and humane understanding of Asian and Asian American cultures, and their relationship to other cultures.” And what a lovely building this was! I really liked the high ceilings, the floor-to-ceiling windows that let in so much light and the multiple levels that made the building seem endless. The theater was equally stunning, easily the most beautiful venue on this tour.

We had about 150 in attendance, comprised primarily of three classes of students. Unfortunately, many of them had to leave right before the end of the film, as they had another class to catch (there’s only 10 minutes between sessions). Next time, we’ll be more aware of this and shorten our introductory presentation accordingly.

One comment from the audience was regarding the choice of an elite female athlete to portray Qiu Jin. In a way, Li Jing embodies the legacy of Qiu Jin’s efforts to emancipate women physically, to transform the frail, bound-footed women of the past into strong, healthy, capable bodies. For the women of Qiu Jin’s time, the very act of engaging in exercise was revolutionary. We hoped to capture this spirit through the beauty of women performing wushu.

The screening was organized primarily by Professor Sunita Mukhi and Iona Man-Cheong. Big thanks to them and their assistants for bringing us a large audience to conclude our tour. We also met Gary Mar, professor from the Philosophy Department, who was instrumental in bringing the donation of the Wang Center to Stony Brook. Professor Mar has also produced documentary films himself, and was able to direct us to some excellent resources to help us expand the reach of our film.

We had dinner at the Jasmine Restaurant in the Wang Center. With selections ranging from Indian to Chinese to Thai to Japanese, I chose Indian for my dinner. We hit many of the world’s cuisines on this tour: Afghan, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, American, Italian, Vietnamese, New England Seafood and more.

And so ends our first big tour of 2010! We will be having a couple of screenings in the San Francisco Bay Area over the next several weeks. We will also be planning another Fall tour, too. We would like to go back to the East Coast, but we’d also like to visit the Pacific-Northwest and Texas (yes, Texas is like it’s own geographical locale!). If you and your organization are interested in having a screening of Autumn Gem, please contact us!

Finally, I wrote these last several blog entries while on the plane heading back to the Bay Area. And, I used my iPad instead of my laptop! Signing off for now!

The previous day’s double feature, coupled with the lengthy and hectic travel to get to New Jersey, left us pretty tired. But, we were now on the home stretch and nothing would get in the way of our completing this tour! Fortunately, the next screening at Brookdale Community College was extremely well organized. Linda Wang and her students in the Brookdale Asia Society were very proactive in getting the word out to students and the outside community. We also got great publicity from the World Journal and from my uncle’s friends and colleagues. As a result of their efforts, we saw a large crowd of about 120-130 people at the screening. Asia Society even brought a popcorn maker, which brought an authentic movie viewing experience to the evening!

The night kicked off with an overview of Chinese history during the time of Qiu Jin by Michelle, a member of Brookdale Asia Society. This helped set the stage for our film, which was shown on dual projector screens in the room.

The majority of the audience was older Chinese Americans like at our GBCCA screening. When I asked how many of them knew about Qiu Jin growing up, all but a few raised their hands. Even still, they learned some new things after watching the film, such as her extensive work in the Chinese women’s movement.

One audience member asked why Chinese parents didn’t mention Qiu Jin to their American-born children. A woman offered up her own experience of telling her kids about more recent historical events, such as the atrocities that occurred in Nanking during World War II. She felt that it was the responsibility of Chinese parents to pass down the stories of their culture to the next generation, and said she would contribute by showing Autumn Gem to her kids.

On that note, many in the audience also purchased our DVDs. Thank you! We hit an all-time one day sales record that night!

A short while after our first East Coast tour, we got an email from Montclair State University asking us if we would like to screen the film. It was this email and screening around which we scheduled our Spring 2010 tour. By locking in the date early on, we were able to plan all the stops before and after. For instance, knowing that we didn’t have to be in New Jersey until the sixth of April, we were able to schedule the Southwest and Maryland/Massachusetts portions of the tour. There’s a saying about beginning with the end in mind, and we followed that to a hilt!

After lunch at Kean University, Rae and I hopped back into our rental car and drove further up the highway to Montclair. As with the past few days, the weather was unusually warm for this time of year on the East Coast, and we saw many people wearing what amounted to summer clothes. On the day we left to return home to the Bay Area, the weather suddenly went from 80 degrees to 50-60 degrees! I doubt many of them are wearing t-shirts and shorts now!

Before the screening, Professor Roberta Friedman told us that we would be interviewed at the DuMont Television Station. We felt like television or movie stars while sitting in the studio, which had an uncanny resemblance to a talk show set. I wish we had a setup like this when we were filming our interior scenes! As we stated in our presentation, we built a set in our garage for the film. Because space was so cramped inside the garage, we could only film from the garage-door side. To get around this limitation, we rearranged the furniture and hung up different scroll paintings on the walls. And ta da! We had a “different” room! It would have been a whole lot better, however, if we had access to a setup like in DuMont!

I was glad that they had a makeup person, as my face felt and probably looked extra “shiny” from the hot weather. Roberta’s friend, Ellen Zweig, an artist living in New York, interviewed us with questions similar to those posed by the Chinese TV station earlier in the day at Kean University. The only difference was the three studio cameras pointing at us and hot lights all around (main, fill and hair lights).

After the television interview, we rushed back to the screening venue, where most of the students and community members were waiting. The primary audience at this screening were film students. Tough crowd, I was thinking as the movie played. I wasn’t sure how many students were seriously thinking about doing their own independent films or if they wanted to work in the industry doing production, writing or marketing. With Autumn Gem, we had to do all these roles and more! One student asked what aspects of filmmaking we wished we had more people helping us with. We think for our next film, we’ll definitely get help in those areas in which we were sub-optimal, like makeup and sound.

Another question from the crowd was about our next project. Now that I have an iPad I was able to pull it out during the answer and say, “From Abacus to iPad” as the working title of the next film. This title is really all we have at the moment, as we are in the early ideation / pre-pre-pre-production phase. The scope of a film about mobile computing can be either very broad or extremely focused, and we have yet to decide on the direction. We hope to have something more to say by the end of this year!

Tuesday was a double feature day, with two screenings at Kean University and Montclair State University in New Jersey. We started our journey right after our screening at Wellesley College in MA. Professor Joseph drove us to the train station where we took the MBTA back to Boston’s South Station. We had several hours to burn, since our Megabus to New York’s Penn Station wouldn’t depart until midnight! For several hours, we sat away in the bus terminal next to some power outlets. I charged up all of my devices while using my iPad which I hid in behind a newspaper. No need to attract any would-be thieves late at night!

While sitting in the waiting area for our bus to arrive, we had a great conversation about fate and destiny with Fay, a lawyer who was returning to Boston after a day trip in NY. Maybe I’ve watched Terminator 2 a little too much, but to a degree, I believe that fate is something that you make for yourself. How you react to particular situations and life experiences is entirely up to you. You can be a boat floating down in the stream of life, or you can grab a paddle and start steering your own path!

At midnight, the Megabus departed for a four-hour journey to New York. I was able to get some rest on the bus ride, unlike Rae who has trouble falling asleep on moving vehicles. We then had to wait another hour before our NJ Transit train for New Jersey left Penn. There were many homeless people loitering or sleeping in the station, no doubt because it was unusually warm. The train ride to Middletown was uneventful, and we were picked up by my Uncle Don who took us to his house, which would be our base of operations for the next two days. I stayed up to talk with my uncle, aunt, cousin and niece while Rae rested upstairs. It’s only been six months since we last saw our niece Kimberly, but she seems to have grown up so much! Blink and she’ll be in high school and college soon!

Borrowing my uncle’s car, we drove to Kean University with about an hour to spare. Before we went into the Little Theater where our screening was to be held, we were interviewed by ICEPN, a local Chinese Internet television station. We’ll post the video once it becomes available on the ICEPN web site.

Professor Sue Gronewold’s class has been learning about Chinese history during the tail end of the Qing Dynasty, so our film was especially relevant to the students. One of them mentioned that as a history major he had never heard of Qiu Jin, and asked why she isn’t more well-known in the U.S. Sadly, women are still often left out of the textbooks, and there’s still much to be done to incorporate them into the larger historical narrative.

Also in attendance at the screening was Professor Larry Tung, who teaches in the Media and Film Department and is an independent filmmaker. During lunch following the screening, he gave us the names of several contacts to whom we’ll be reaching out for Autumn Gem marketing in the future. As we tour to more and more places, our business rolodex is getting bigger and more detailed! Marketing and selling the film is all about networking, and we thank everyone who has shared contacts and ideas with us. You, along with our donors and supporters have been very instrumental in the success of Autumn Gem thus far, so thank you!

Following the screening at the Greater Boston Chinese Cultural Association, we got a ride from Phoebe and Shaw over to Wellesley College. It was late when we arrived, but a key was waiting for us at the front desk. We were pretty tired after the screening in Newton, so Rae and I called it an early night. In the morning, I woke up before Rae to walk around Lake Waban. Armed with my EVDO modem, I got caught up with some work while overlooking the beautiful lake. We were really fortunate to have such great weather on this trip. We were joking to people that we brought California’s weather to the East Coast, and that the typical cold weather was on the other side of the country!

After checking out of the hotel at 11:00, we strolled around the campus for a little bit, taking various photos of each other with the iPad. Yes, I really think this device is going to change the way how many people around the world are going to use computers. The first computer that I recall using was the Apple ][ back in the early 80's. For children growing up today, I can easily see the iPad becoming their first computer. I marvel at how quickly children can pick up an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad and within minutes know how to interact with the device. It sure beats typing "catalog" to get a directory listing in ProDOS!

Coming out of high school, I really wanted to go to college on the East Coast. Fate had it that I went to Stanford instead, but I sometimes wonder how things would have turned out had I went back east. I have always loved the architecture of the East Coast campuses like Princeton and Harvard. The ivy covered buildings and cobblestone walkways make me feel smarter just by walking around! At Wellesley there were a mix of old and new buildings. For instance, the Lulu Chow Wang Student Center was a built just a few years ago. The modern style of the building contrasted with the older brick and stone buildings on campus -- which reminded both of us of the Lego castle sets we played with growing up. Inside, I really liked the asymmetrical walls, how the light came in from everywhere and the funky chairs and sofas. Rae and I got a snack to eat, took some more iPad photos and even mailed some clothes and documents back to our home in the Bay Area!

After lunch, we headed over to the office of History Professor Pat Giersch in Founders Hall. He and Professor William Joseph from the Political Science Department were the organizers for the screening. Professor Giersch took us around the part of campus we had not yet toured, showing us the Science Center, which is a modern building that was constructed around an older, brick building. He dropped us off to meet with Professor Joseph and the three of us went to the Margaret Clapp Library to set up.

I mentioned that in our previous stop, I had wanted to use the iPad to screen the film and run the Keynote presentation. The AV setup in Clapp was better suited for this task, so Rae and I decided to go for it! I found it interesting that when the VGA dock connector is attached to the iPad running Keynote, the current slide isn't shown on the device. Instead, only buttons for going to the next/previous slide are shown. Similarly with the Videos application, the video is not seen playing on the device while it's being outputted through VGA. I'm guessing that they either (1) did this to conserve battery life or (2) ran out of time during the development cycle. Perhaps a future version of the Videos and Keynote application will bring these features, as they seem to be pretty important when running a presentation (so you don't have to keep looking from the iPad to the projector and back). Despite these niggling observations, the iPad performed perfectly with flying colors! I feel very comfortable using the device as my primary presentation system. The days of lugging around two laptops will soon be a thing of the past for us!

Seeing that Wellesley is a women's college, we expected to get a different set of questions than at our other screenings. Many of them concerned Qiu Jin's struggle to bring feminism and nationalism together, and the dilemmas she faced being a female revolutionary. As Professor Lingzhen Wang says in our film, she died in men's dress, but Qiu Jin emphasized that she died for women's cause.

Following the screening at Wellesley College, Professor Joseph drove us to the train station near campus. Our journey was only just beginning, as we had to get to New Jersey by noon for our screening at Kean University!