College of Southern Nevada Screening Recap

Rae at the College of Southern Nevada

On Thursday, we held a screening at Professor David Wang’s Chinese language class at the College of Southern Nevada. The students who were taking the class came from very different backgrounds, and their reasons for taking Chinese were equally diverse. One individual had a dream of moving to China and setting up an orphanage. Another student was half-Chinese and wanted to connect with her parent’s family in Taiwan. Yet another saw China as the next thing and didn’t want himself nor his family left behind in the coming years.

There’s a photo of me when I was a child learning Chinese characters, but I don’t really recall every going to Chinese School. I studied French from junior high through college. Living in France was never a problem for me because I was confident in my language abilities. That confidence was non-existent in China or even Hong Kong where my parents are from. I think I speak for many Asian-Americans of my generation who either (1) didn’t go to Chinese School or (2) didn’t really pay attention at Chinese School that I really wish I went to and excelled at Chinese School! It’s never too late for me, however, and I’m looking forward to the day when I will learn Chinese.

Here are some photos from our screening at the College of Southern Nevada. Afterwards, Cynthia from the US China Peoples Friendship Association drove us to the airport so we could catch our flight to Phoenix, Arizona. Big thanks go out to her, as well as Pongky and Myta for hosting us in Las Vegas.

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UNLV Screening Recap

Autumn Gem at UNLV

Our Spring 2010 Tour of Autumn Gem got off to a great start last night at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The screening was held at the Marjorie Barrick Museum Auditorium / Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies (or MSM/HRC for short) and was sponsored by the Asian Film and Drama Club, Asian Studies Program, Department of Foreign Languages and the Las Vegas chapter of the US China Peoples Friendship Association. We first got the idea to come to Las Vegas after meeting with UNLV’s Joan Mann when she in San Francisco for the USCPFA’s National Convention last September. Big thanks go out to her, Cynthia Tripp and Professor Ying Bao for organizing!

We had anywhere from 60-70 people at the screening. This time, we remember to write down the questions that we got from the crowd. Some of the notable ones included:

Did Qiu Jin see herself as a poet or literary figure? We certainly feel this was the case. Qiu Jin left behind 200 poems and writings following her death.
What prompted us to do the film and how does it relate to today’s sociological issues? Introducing the story of a influential Asian feminist to a Western audience was a driving force behind the project. We certainly feel her example still is relevant to women today.
Are we talking to PBS or the History Channel to get this film shown on television? This is certainly one of our long-term goals for the film.

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One Bag Packing Strategy for Spring 2010 Tour

This weekend, Rae and I saw and enjoyed Up in the Air. Being a packing fanatic, I liked seeing George Clooney’s character pack efficiently for his trips. Each time I travel, I endeavor to travel lighter, smarter and faster.

We’re just a few hours away from our Spring 2010 Autumn Gem tour! This time around, we’ll be traveling for two and a half weeks, heading to Las Vegas, Arizona, Maryland, Boston, New Jersey and New York. We learned a lot about what to pack and what not to pack during our last tour in October, 2009. We’re leaving the rolling Pelican case at home; while it’s durable and can hold a lot of stuff, but it’s sure and tiring to drag around everywhere!

Rae is bringing her REI Traverse 30 backpack once again. As for me, I’m replacing the Rickshaw Medium Commuter Messenger Bag with my LowePro CompuTrekker AW backpack. I did a lot of online research and hands-on testing of backpacks at the local REI store, but I kept returning to the CompuTrekker. Yes, it’s kind of bulky due to its rigid, foam-padded frame, but it can carry a surprising amount of gear, including my laptop in a separate, padded compartment. It’s reasonably comfortable, aided in part by its sternum strap and waist belt, and it has a stowaway rain cover. This might come in handy if the weather gets wet on the East Coast. I’m putting my clothes, DVDs, camera, lens, flash, and various cables in the main compartment. The outside compartment will hold pens, surveys, and other documents. Rae is going to have to fit her laptop in her backpack, but that shouldn’t be a problem since she won’t have to carry any of my clothes.

I recently purchased a Microfleece Hoodie from SCOTTEVEST. I’ve long wanted to try out Scott Jordan’s products, and this trip gave me that opportunity. The hoodie has 11 pockets, and believe me, I’m going to use most of them! The weather in the Bay Area has warmed up significantly, so it’s a bit too warm to wear during the daytime. It stands to be colder where we’re going, so the hoodie should be perfect. I also bought a Ribz vest, but I feel it’s more suited for a backpacking trip than this film screening tour. I may experiment with the Ribz during my next photography gig, however, as it allows for quick access to gear front the front.

Traveling with one bag is a liberating experience. I love not having to wait in line at the baggage claim for our luggage, and I take pride in being able to fit everything I need underneath the airline seat. One of my dreams is to travel extensively with no more than what’s on my back. Ideally, if I could travel with no carry-ons, I would!

Update March 31, 2010: A quick update now that we’re traveling on tour right now. I didn’t quite get it down to one bag for me personally. I’m also carrying an REI Flash UL convertible backpack as a daypack and a clothes carrier. I couldn’t fit both the DVDs that we’re selling and my clothes into the CompuTrekker AW. Sometimes the clothes go into the backpack and sometimes the DVDs are in the Flash. As we sell through our lot of DVDs, more space will become available in the CompuTrekker, and my goal is to fit everything into that by the time the tour ends next week. I’m also routinely carrying Rae’s laptop and my laptop in the back pouch of the CompuTrekker (yes, two MacBook Pros can fit in there!). In addition, we sometimes travel with some food, drinks and snacks, which we carry in a plastic or paper bag with us. Still, traveling with one and a half bags is a whole lot better than lugging around a rollable suitcase. We’ve gotten a number of compliments on our packing strategy!

UC Irvine Screening Recap

Autumn Gem Screening at UC Irvine

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.

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Packing Recap

Now that our tour is over, we’ve identified some things we would have changed regarding our packing strategy (see photo to right). We often felt like we were a rock band traveling the country during this tour. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any roadies to help carry our gear! So, because it’s just the two of us, we have to be extra vigilant and ruthless with regards to what we bring with us.

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.

University of Pennsylvania Screening Recap and Photos

Rae and Adam outside the Annenberg Center at UPenn.

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!

Evergreen Senior Club Recap and Photos

Evergreen Senior Club screening of Autumn Gem

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.

Here are photos from the Evergreen Senior Club screening.

New York Screening Recap and Photos

Autumn Gem in New York

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!

Here are photos from the Visual Artists Guild and New York Women in Film and Television screening.

Respite in New York

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!

Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center Screening Recap and Photos

Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center - 885 Washington Street

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.