Last week, Rae and I traveled down to Southern California for a screening at UC Irvine. Professor Hu Ying, Associate Professor, East Asian Languages & Literature, was one of our three academic interview subjects in Autumn Gem. We showed the film at Connecticut College and Brown University during our October 2009 tour, so we were excited to complete our scholarly tour!

We drove down a few days before to meet up with filmmaker Arthur Dong, who screened his latest documentary Hollywood Chinese at the South Pasadena Library on Thursday. Meeting with him on Saturday at the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, we discussed methods to better market the film to our core audience of educational institutions and Chinese/women’s organizations.

On Tuesday, we returned to UC Irvine for the first time since we interviewed Professor Hu Ying in May, 2008. It certainly doesn’t feel like nearly two years have passed! We attended her Gender in Chinese Poetry class and listened to three of her students presenting their interpretations of Qiu Jin’s poems. Although the English translations were different, I could immediately identify some of the ones we used in Autumn Gem. Following lunch at the University Club, Rae and I retired to the spacious Student Center to get some work done before the screening. A few hours later, we headed to the McCormick Theater in the new Humanities Center building.

There was a slight problem with the AV cable in McCormick. The sound cable was attached to the VGA cable, but it was too short and couldn’t reach the sound-out port on Rae’s MacBook Pro. I didn’t bring a female-to-female extender cable (won’t make that mistake again), but I did have my MacBook Pro, which has all the ports on the same side. Running the presentation and film off that computer proves the point, “Always have a backup plan!”

By 7:00 pm, the theater completely packed with students, faculty and some people from outside the school. Thanks to all of the professors who brought their students to the screening; we appreciate the large turnout you helped bring! Along with Professor Hu Ying, Li Jing joined us for the Q&A session. One person asked who did the Chinese calligraphy in the film — that was the handwork of Li Jing, my Mom and Rae’s mom.

There was a question about how the re-emergence of Confucianism today was viewed by Chinese women today. In the film, we mentioned how women were not seen positively through the Confucian lens during the Qing Dynasty. Scholars at the time may have distorted Confucius’ teachings to suit their own agenda.

Our next screening will be next Saturday, March 13, 1:00 pm, at the Willow Glen Public Library. It’s sponsored by the American Association of University Women.

Finally, big thanks to Andy/Irene, Walt/Judy and Dave/Audrey for letting us stay at their respective houses in SoCal. And now for some photos from our screening at Irvine!

If you recall from our previous post, Rae carried our clothes and toiletries in her REI Traverse backpack, and I carried all the computers, mobile Internet, camera flash, and power adapters in a Rickshaw Bagworks Medium Commuter Messenger Bag. We took turns dragging around a single Pelican 1510 Carry-On Case that contained 300 DVDs, assorted cables, papers, and my 5D Mark II camera. So, what worked and what didn’t?

For starters, we would try to leave the Pelican at home next time. While ultra-durable and somewhat capacious, it’s also quite heavy and bulky to travel with. When fully loaded, the 1510 tired one’s arm after prolonged periods. Similarly, the Rickshaw bag held a surprising amount of gear, but it too became very heavy to wear over time, even with the critical cross strap (used to distribute the weight more evenly on my body). For the next trip, I think I would try to load everything into my LowePro CompuTrekker AW camera/laptop backpack. I would have to reduce the number of DVDs that we bring with us, but at least 120-140 would fit comfortably along with one computer, my camera, flash, cables, modem and accessories.

Having both MacBook Pros was a luxury yet critical in my mind. If there was a problem with one computer, we could always use the other to run the film. If both failed, we could have resorted to playing the film off DVD. I know several people who love their MacBook Airs, and I think one would be great for Rae, since she isn’t doing development or performing hard core image processing like I am. The Belkin travel surge protector worked well (though like many of our devices, a little bulky), but I was only able to use one of the USB ports to charge one of our iPhones; the device couldn’t charge both devices at the same time. Good thing I brought the tiny iPhone USB AC adapter with us; those things are small!

We made great use of my Verizon EVDO Modem + WiFi router + battery setup; it’s great, but the battery does not make it small and portable. I would consider replacing all three components with a Novatel MiFi 2200 Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot Modem (Verizon Wireless). I would still need an external battery to power the MiFi for longer than 4 hours, but it wouldn’t be as big and heavy as the Tekkeon 3450i that I brought; the AC adapter for it is huge! The other option is to get a smaller battery for the Cradlepoint.

Camera-wise, I’m happy to have brought the 5D Mark II. I’m not so happy about my lens and flash selection. The 550 EX is simply too big of a flash to bring. Maybe getting something like the 7D with its built-in flash would have allowed me to leave the 550 EX at home. The 24-105 f/4L is a decent travel lens, but I really missed my fast primes. Too bad there doesn’t exist a 24-105 f/1.4 lens!

We brought along a stack of Autumn Gem postcards and flyers that we ended up not distributing. One sheet of paper isn’t that bad, but a hundred sheets starts to get bulky.

Onto clothing. I generally packed pretty well on this trip. Two changes, however. I made a mistake bringing two short, synthetic cycling socks instead of long, warmer socks. Though my ankles and feet were never that cold, they could have benefited from a different choice. I brought along a red short-sleeved travel shirt from REI, but I think I only used it twice during the trip. I would replace it next time with a shirt that didn’t wrinkle as easily. Rae tells me that she would have left two shirts at home. It ended up not being too cold, so she could also have left her thermal leggings as well. Rae needs to find a pair of more versatile shoes (comfortable yet stylish), so she would only need to bring one pair instead of two. I got by with a pair of Merrell Moab Gore-Tex XCR shoes.

Those travel bottles of saline solution for contact lenses really last a long time. She could have done with just one bottle instead of two. We stayed with friends and family for the majority of the time, so we also could have done without some of the toiletries we brought.

By making these small changes next time, we’ll be able to pack even more efficiently and travel lighter.

Our last stop was at the University of Pennsylvania. Following the screening at the Evergreen Senior Club in Delaware, Uncle Don drove us to Philadelphia. World Series fever was in the air, as we saw many banners for the Phillies, as well as people sporting Phillies jackets, hats and shirts.

We had an intimate screening, similar to our first stop on this tour in Madison, Wisconsin. Despite the small size, the audience was very enthusiastic about the film; I bet the cold weather and World Series fever contributed to the small showing; next time, we’ll mobilize and get those Women’s Studies and Chinese Literature professors to require their students to watch the film! Rae and I have definitely taken notes on how to get more people in attendance at our screenings; we’ll be testing out our theories in the ones coming up at Stanford (November 30) and Berkeley (December 3).

Among the audience members was my Stanford friend, Andreea. The two of us were the Theme Associates in La Maison Française our senior year. I have fond memories working with her on in-house classes, wine and cheese nights, and movie nights at the French House. Good times those were back in 1996-1997! Andreea is now an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the university. Her field of research is in Several Complex Variables, which is one complex variable too much for me!

On this tour, we’ve had all sorts of cuisine — Japanese, Mexican, Chinese, Italian, Kosher, East Coast Seafood, Afghan, American, Indian, Farmer’s Market, Dorm Food, Mediterranean, Chicago-style Pizza, New York Street Food and Vietnamese — but not African. Following the screening, Uncle Don, Andreea, Rae and I had dinner at Abyssinia, an Ethiopian Restaurant near the UPenn campus. Though I really wanted to get a Philly Cheese Steak from some street vendor, the lure of injera and doro wot was too hard to pass up!

And with the UPenn screening, we were done! 17 tour stops in 25 days! Rae and I were supremely tired but very happy with the outcome of our tour. Recap of the entire experience to come soon, but in the meantime, some photos from UPenn!

About two weeks ago, Rae’s dad told us to call one of his friends from college who now lives in Delaware. Professor Charles Ih (from the University of Delaware) was very interested in showing Autumn Gem to the Evergreen Senior Club at the Chinese American Community Center in Hockessin, Delaware. The only time that we had available was on the October 28th, our final tour date. We arranged to have the screening at 11:00 am, which would give us enough time to drive over to Philadelphia for our 4:00 pm screening.

We got back late the previous evening from our New York screening. Sleeping only a few hours, we woke up bright and early to drive two and a half hours from New Jersey to Delaware. The drive fortunately was uneventful, unlike the rain storm we drove through coming back from Boston the previous week. The CACC building also houses a Montessori School and Child Care Center during the weekdays. We saw lots of little kids and their parents running around during the screening.

From the CACC web site, the “Evergreen Senior Club is open to Chinese American Community Center (CACC) members 55 years old or older. The club meets weekly at CACC on Wednesday from 9 AM to 6 PM. The mission of the Evergreen Club is to provide activities and services to support and enhance the quality of life of its members and to promote Chinese culture.” When we arrived, the members were busy singing; I bet they enjoyed listening to the three choral pieces in Autumn Gem.

We had a terrific response at the club. Since the club is comprised of people from our parents’ generation, many of them already knew the story of Qiu Jin. There was one gentleman, however, who grew up near where Qiu Jin lived, but who had never heard of her until now! Better late than never! We always get a lively response from audience members familiar with Qiu Jin’s life. Many of them only knew about her nationalist work rather than her feminist work, but they all agree that she is a heroine to the Chinese people.

Rae and I are often asked what motivated us to do Autumn Gem. Growing up as American Born Chinese (ABC), we had never know about Qiu Jin; the idea of a strong, female hero isn’t the first thing that pops in one’s mind when thinking about China. Thus, bringing her story to the Western world and to people from our generation was one of our biggest goals. Doing the film also helped us connect with our own past and the past of our parents and their parents. This has been one of the more rewarding benefits — we’ve been able to develop ever closer relationships with our parents.

Following the screening, we had lunch with the Evergreen members before driving an hour over to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for our final stop on the 2009 Midwest/East Coast tour of Autumn Gem.

During our Pasadena screening, we received a very enthusiastic response from one of the audience members. Ann Lau told us that Qiu Jin was one of her role models and she was very excited to have seen the movie. She was instrumental in setting up our screening in New York. Putting us in touch with Peggy Chane from the Visual Artists Guild, we secured Tuesday’s screening at Tribeca Film Center in record time. Peggy is a great marketer, and she brought a nice sized crowd to the showing. It was also great to see friends and co-workers — Christine, Gaelen, Anand and Sid — on Tuesday night. The event was co-sponsored by the VAG and New York Women in Film and Television. All in all, about 40 people braved the wet weather to watch Autumn Gem.

Tribeca Film Center, as one might expect, has a great projector and audio system. We heard things in the movie that are usually muffled by lesser sound systems! I debated between showing the movie from the DVD or from my laptop. While the uprezzer for the DVD was really good, I still saw more detail from my laptop’s 720p version of the film. So, in the end, we went with the laptop.

There was a big discussion during the Q&A regarding the similarities and/or differences between foot binding and cosmetic surgery. Some in the crowd felt that there was no correlation between the two, arguing that cosmetic surgery is elective whereas foot binding was forced upon women. Others felt that societal pressures might have transformed foot binding into something women felt that they needed to have done on them.

After the screening, several of us went to the Greenwich Street Tavern for drinks. We didn’t stay that long because we had to meet up with Joon-Mo at the famous Joe’s Shanghai. We’ve heard from many people that Joe’s Shanghai has the best shu lam baos. The dumplings were indeed very good, large and juicy. It was good to catch up with Joon-Mo, who’s starting his first year at the Business School at Georgetown. We met up with Sid in Shanghai when we began our filming of Autumn Gem in February of 2008. Now, here we were a year later halfway across the world!

Rae at Peace and Love Cafe in New York

We’re currently at the Peace and Love Cafe across the street from the Tribeca Film Center, where we’ll be screening Autumn Gem at 6:30 pm tonight. Our first Midwest and East Coast Tour is coming to a close, with only two more showings tomorrow before we head back to the Bay Area on Thursday.

Overall, it’s been a great tour. We’re a bit tired from all of the travel, but that’s more than made up by the enthusiastic responses to the film and all of the contacts we’ve made. This is not the last tour of Autumn Gem; it’s just the beginning!

Our third week on tour concluded with a screening at the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center in Boston, Massachusetts. The BCNC is celebrating their 40th anniversary of serving the Chinatown community this year, and the organization is having a celebration gala in a couple of weeks on Saturday, November 7, 2009 at the center’s two buildings at 885 Washington Street and 38 Ash Street. When Rae and I arrived, we initially went to the Washington address and were confused when we couldn’t find anyone who knew about the screening. Fortunately, a passerby told us to go across the street to the other BCNC location. Apologies to anyone who came to the screening who first went to the Washington address!

After setting up the projector and tinkering with the image and color settings, we were ready to go around 12:40. Following an introduction by Carmen Chan from the BCNC, Rae and I gave our 10-minute presentation before starting the film. We had to duck out during the screening to be interviewed by a reporter from the World Journal. We were also interviewed by the Sing Tao Daily after the screening. We’ll try to pick up copies of the newspaper when we’re in New York tomorrow.

We had our most spirited discussion during the Q&A session. There was considerable debate among the attendees about the role of feminism versus nationalism in Qiu Jin’s life. Which was more important of the two? Could the two exist separately or were they intricately entwined within each other. This is the question that scholars have been asking for years about Qiu Jin, and there is no right or wrong answer; it’s up to interpretation and one’s own opinion! It was great to see the guests debating each other during the Q&A; it shows that people are reacting to the film! Here’s a video from the discussion:

In addition there was one scholar in the room who pointed out some potential mistakes in the film that we may want to address in a future screening (and DVD) version of Autumn Gem.

Following the screening, we had a late lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant with my high school buddy, David, and his friends, Jessica, Dawn and Arnold. Aside from my friend Rod in Denver, David is the person whom I’ve known the longest — since elementary school! We reminisced about Spreckels, Country Day, San Diego, playing pool, and about old friends now in high places. I’ve said it many times on this blog, but one of the great benefits of taking Autumn Gem on tour is that we’ve been able to see so many of our friends and relatives. That alone is worth the price of admission!

After lunch, Rae and I braved hard rain and strong winds over nearly five and a half hours as we drove back to New Jersey from Boston. We’re now on the homestretch for this tour, with three more screenings on the docket. We’ve added another screening in Delaware at the Chinese American Community Center in Hockessin on Wednesday. On Monday, we’ll be spending our free day in New York City. Any ideas on what to visit?

Here are photos from the screening at the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center. Additional photos are provided by Anh Ðào Kolbe.

On Friday, we had a great time at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, where we participated in several seminars before our screening of Autumn Gem at 4:00 pm.

At most of the screenings on this trip, we don’t have too much time to wander around the school and talk with the students. We have typically arrived at the venue an hour before the screening in order to test the projector, screen and speakers. Following the screenings, we return to the road to reach the next venue. This is why Rae says, “It feels like we’re in a band… minus the roadies!” At UMass Boston, however, we had scheduled two additional events before the screening, giving us time to connect with the faculty and students. Kudos go to Shirley Tang, Professor of Asian American Studies and American Studies at UMass Boston, for organizing these extra events. It’s something that we’ll definitely suggest to other schools that we show Autumn Gem at in the future.

At noon, Rae and I conducted a martial arts demonstration at the Campus Center. Rae performed her mantis form and taught wushu basics, whereas I went through the first few steps of the Tai Chi 24 form. Here’s a video of the two of us performing and teaching, along with student reactions following the workshop:

Afterwards, we visited a core set of Asian American Studies students and talked about our background and how we got to where we are today. These students had all completed their own short films, many of which tackled very personal topics. I hope that Rae and I were able to inspire the students to continue their media projects and create their own feature-length documentaries on the subjects they care deeply about! Shirley was saying that the program encourages students to create media more than they consume media; I heartedly agree with that!

The screening was well received, with over 65 people in attendance. Like at Whitewater, the room had dual projectors, so everyone in the long classroom had a good view of the film. The crowd asked some good questions that were well-documented by Professor Peter Kiang; we’ll try to get these up in the future (and add to our growing FAQ list).

Today, we have a final screening in Massachusetts at the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center; after that, we’ll be returning to New Jersey for the final leg of our four-week trip.

During our East Coast scholar interview trip last June, we also interviewed Professor Lingzhen Wang at Brown University. Following our stop at Connecticut College, Rae and I drove up to Providence, Rhode Island on Wednesday afternoon. This is now the fifth time I’ve been in Providence, having come here as a high school student to visit the University, twice for Autumn Gem, once for a wedding, and finally while traveling with singer-songwriter Vienna Teng on her East Coast Tour in 2003. Unfortunately, in all these instances, I’ve only been in Rhode Island for a day or two at most, so I really can’t say that I’ve spent quality time in our nation’s smallest state.

The Fall colors are really making the East Coast look lovely this time of year; it certainly doesn’t hurt that the weather is similar to a brisk California winter day. It’s good that we planned our Midwest and East Coast tour before the snow arrives; I don’t think we would have been able to make every stop on this tour in such weather.

I’ve learned that my grandfather once attended Brown University as an undergraduate. It’s been told to me that he transferred to MIT because he couldn’t pass the swimming test at Brown! Walking by the buildings, I wondered what it would have been like for him to be in the United States back in the roaring twenties.

Wilson Hall was a great venue for our screening; the projector and screen were top notch in quality and made Autumn Gem look great. The four sponsors of the film — Department of East Asian Studies, Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women, and Cogut Center for the Humanities — did a great job of advertising the screening with posters throughout the campus. We saw students from nearby RISD, people from the outside community, and various faculty members at our screening of 45 people.

Questions came fast and furious in the Q&A session. Some notable ones included:

• How can you differentiate between the myth and reality of Qiu Jin?
• Was she familiar with American and Japanese feminists during her time.
• Was she aware of the women’s suffrage movement in the US?
• What is the status of women today in China?
• How did your research (primarily English-based) influence the process of developing the film? Were we losing something in the translation?

Following the screening, we drove over to Boston, MA for a showing and seminars today at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. We’ll have an open date on Friday and another screening at the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center on Saturday. Until then, here’s photos from the Brown University screening!

Nearly a year and a half ago, Rae, JP, and I went to the East Coast to interview two scholars, Amy Dooling from Connecticut College and Lingzhen Wang from Brown University. Three weeks into our Midwest and East Coast tour, we have returned to both of these schools for screenings of Autumn Gem. Our first stop this week was at Professor Dooling’s Connecticut College. Driving around New London, I remembered the roads to get to the university. The weather was a lot different this time around; back in June, 2008, it was overcast and raining, but in October, 2009, blue skies and autumn leaves greeted us. As we were walking around campus, we saw people playing ultimate frisbee, soccer, and running. We haven’t been exercising as much as we would have liked on this trip; I think I’ve gained a couple of pounds, pounds that I’ll have to burn back off when we return to the Bay Area next week!

It was great to see Professor Dooling again in person; watching the documentary over and over — both in our house during editing and at screening venues across the country — we feel like we’ve been seeing her a lot over the past year and a half! She brought to the screening a sizable contingent from Chinese classes. Several other students and faculty members were also present at the screening, which was held at the Blaustein Humanities Center. Also present was my friend from high school. Melissa’s been out in Connecticut since college, and the last time I saw her was back in 1996 when I visiting France and England during Winter Quarter. Catching up with friends has been great, and there’s a few more people that I’m looking forward to seeing at our Boston, New York, and Pennsylvania screenings.

Rae and I received notification of the first PayPal payment for the Autumn Gem DVD today! Thanks to A. Gung for being the first buyer of our DVD!

Tomorrow, we’ll be leaving Connecticut to go up I-95 over to Brown University, where we have a screening at 4:00 pm. Following the screening, we’ll drive further north to Boston. After Saturday’s screening at the Boston Chinese Neighborhood Center, we’ll be heading back down I-95 to New Jersey. The finish line is in sight for this tour, but we’ve still got several more stops along the way!

Here are photos from the Connecticut College screening of Autumn Gem!