Yesterday was a double feature of Autumn Gem. We woke up in the morning in Baltimore to drive to the University of Maryland, College Park, for a screening at Professor Larry Shinagawa’s Asian American Studies class. The weather was certainly a lot colder and wetter than our previous screenings in Las Vegas and Arizona; good thing we came prepared with an umbrella and extra layers!

The screening was advertised to the Chinese community in the Washington D.C. edition of the World Journal, and there were several members present. Coupled with fifty of so students from Professor Shinagawa’s class, we had a nice sized group to see Autumn Gem. Rae and I gave our expanded presentation at the beginning of the class, talking about our backgrounds growing up Chinese American in California, how we experienced a bit of culture shock when we traveled to China and how the film helps to bridge the gap between our generation and our parents’ generation. Seeing that the students in the class were born in the 90s, there were nearly three generations present at our screening!

While the film was playing, we spoke with Professor Shinagawa in the adjoining room. We learned that he, Rae and Jeff Ow were all at Berkeley at the same time in the 90’s. Small world, indeed! We also discovered that as part of their final project in the class, students have to produce their own short film. When I was in school, I loved those multidisciplinary classes with projects such as these. And, technology has improved to the point where students can produce quality content in just a fraction of the time it used to take.

We originally came to UMD back in October, 2009, during our first tour of the East Coast. It was good to see my cousins again and their children, who have grown up so much in just six months! Following the screening, Rae and I drove back up to Baltimore for our evening screening at Goucher College.

Here are photos from our second screening at the University of Maryland.