Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago

Lincoln Park Zoo

Following our screening at Columbia College, we spent a few days in Chicago with my cousin, Steve. Rae and I got caught up on work while preparing for the next slate of screenings; seven showings of Autumn Gem in the next six days! Tonight’s screening will be at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Tomorrow morning, we’re flying to Baltimore, Maryland for a screening at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

On Saturday, we had lunch over at The Bagel. The Mish-Mash Soup was really good and the Reuben sandwich that Jeff and I both ordered was huge! Usually, I can finish my meals, but I had to save half of the sandwich for the bus ride to Champaign on Sunday!

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Screening at Columbia College Chicago

This morning, we departed Madison, Wisconsin, in the seat of a Coach USA bus. Our destination was Chicago, Illinois, and Columbia College Chicago. Switching buses at Janesville, Rae and I slept most of the way to Chicago. When we arrived at Union Station, it was raining outside; good thing that we came prepared with our waterproof jackets and rain-resistant luggage. We took a taxi to Columbia College Chicago building at 1104 S. Wabash Avenue, which houses portions of the Film and Video Department as well as Film Row Cinema where Autumn Gem was later screened. There were many creative types milling around the dining commons, where they were holding a Meet and Greet. Student filmmakers pitched their ideas to their fellow classmates, hoping to snag a few to work on their semester film projects as art directors, cinematographers, casting directors, gaffers, and editors. We certainly could have used some help in those departments; during the production of Autumn Gem, we often felt stretched thin performing all of these tasks between the two of us.

We’ve had some great screening locales, and Film Row Cinema was no exception. Though we had another intimate screening, we had another spirited discussion afterwards. One of the audience members asked why we focused so much on scholars views of Qiu Jin instead of Chinese feminists views on her. While in Hangzhou by the Qiu Jin Monument, we did record some man-on-the-street interviews about people’s perception of Qiu Jin. In the end, however, we felt that those interviews did not fit well within the overall narrative of the film. In addition, adding them in would have extended the running time to over an hour, which we did not want to do. In the final cut, Autumn Gem is aimed at introducing the story of Qiu Jin to someone who has little or no knowledge of her. Perhaps in the future, we’ll include some clips from our Hangzhou interviews on this web site.

Following the screening, we met up with our friends, Ivan, Margaret, Steve, Jeff and Rina. We had authentic Chicago-style pizza for dinner at Lou’s. We’ll be staying in Chicago for a few days before heading out to Champaign-Urbana on Monday.

Here are photos from our screening at Columbia College.

Screening at University of Wisconsin-Madison

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We had an intimate screening at the University of Wisconsin-Madison today; though there were not many people who showed up, those that did asked some great questions. One was whether Qiu Jin was viewed as more of a nationalist or feminist? In China and Taiwan, people are taught in school about Qiu Jin’s revolutionary work more so than her feminist work. In our film, we argue that you can’t really have one without the other. In order for China to become a strong nation, women had to rise up from their oppressed status. Another question was how we found out about Qiu Jin’s grand-nephew? We didn’t use Facebook, that’s for sure, but we did use existing networks of friends and their friends to locate him.

Earlier in the day, we walked around Madison, stopping by the State Capitol and the Overture Center for the Arts, which had a nice exhibition of Robert Rauschenberg’s Stoned Moon Series. Within a month after the moon landing in 1969, Rauschenberg created a series of 34 lithographs commemorating the event. What he painstakingly did back in 1969 was exactly what we can do so easily today in Photoshop using multiple layers and the overlay blending mode. Qiu Jin and Rauschenberg, in their own ways, were both pioneers of their times!

Following the screening, we went to the Kabul restaurant for dinner with Tanya, along with David from the Center of East Asian Studies (who co-sponsored the event) and my friend Erika from college. While it’s great to travel around the country screening our film, it’s equally rewarding to reconnect with friends and relatives whom we haven’t seen in years. Facebook lets us keep in touch with people virtually, but there’s no substitute for face-to-face interaction!

Here are the photos from the screening.

Packing for a 17 stop, 25 day trip

With the start of our 25-day tour of Autumn Gem underway, we’d like to talk a little bit about our packing strategy. First, some background information on how we used to approach packing.

Back in 1995, I was a junior at Stanford spending a quarter abroad in Paris, France. I brought way too much stuff with me on the trip: a garment bag, two suitcases, and a backpack (which held my PowerBook 180 and original Newton MessagePad). When I went back to Paris for a week during Winter Quarter, I just brought one bag with me. That was my first trip where I deliberately tried to minimize the amount of stuff I traveled with; I soon became a convert to minimal packing. It’s so much easier to travel when you don’t have to worry about schlepping too much stuff with you halfway across the world.

That's all we're taking on our 25-day tour

When Rae and I went to France and Spain in 2006, we brought two daypacks with us, an REI Traverse 2006 for Rae and the same REI backpack I had back in 1995. It helped that I didn’t lug around my DSLR with me; we brought two small Canon PowerShots with us on this trip. Traveling with a DSLR, even one that’s relatively small in the 5D Mark II, can get tiresome after awhile. If I were to go on a long vacation again, I’d buy a G11 and just use that.

For our Midwest and East Coast Tour, we both wanted to pack as light as possible. It was determined that Rae would carry all of the clothes and personal items for the trip. I would carry all of the tech equipment, such as two laptops and the camera. Finally, we brought with us my Pelican 1510 hard case to store all of the DVDs that we plan to sell on the trip. Three pieces of luggage, all of them that we can carry onto the airplanes.

The photo to the right shows us with all of our baggage. Not bad for a 25-day, 17 stop tour?

There’s cold weather in the forecast on this trip; we’re dealing with it by wearing multiple layers of clothing. We’ll also be washing our laundry regularly; this is how we’re getting away with bringing a reduced number of clothes. Synthetic fabrics are the key here; they dry quickly and are more durable and wrinkle-resistant than the cotton clothes we normally wear in the Bay Area.

We’re taking two computers (15-inch MacBook Pros) with us on the trip. In case one of the computers breaks down, we’ll still be able to screen the film with the other one. If both of them were to fail, we have the DVD to fall back on. I’m using my Verizon EVDO Wireless Router setup to provide us with mobile Internet across our iPhones and laptops. Because we’re gone for a month, I have to watch out that we don’t go over Verizon’s 5GB bandwidth limit.

After the conclusion of our trip, I’ll write up another report detailing what I would have done differently packing-wise.

First Stop: Madison, Wisconsin

We arrived in Madison, Wisconsin, shortly after 7:00 pm CST. A number of people on our flight were sporting Green Bay Packers logos; no doubt they were eagerly anticipating the matchup on Monday Night Football between the Packers and the Brett Favre-led Minnesota Vikings. The Packers put up a good fight, but they fell to their former quarterback 30-23. Favre is the first QB to have beaten all 32 teams in the NFL. Quite an achievement, even if it comes at the expense of his former team.

Tomorrow, we’ll be showing the documentary at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We’re looking forward to kicking off our tour of Autumn Gem to enthusiastic crowds!

Here are some photos from our first night in Madison. Tanya (big thanks for hosting us!) took us out to eat at The Weary Traveler. I noticed that the restaurant was on Twitter, so I tweeted about my menu choice of Hungarian Goulash. Within minutes, Chef Joey responded back. How’s that for service?

Off to Madison

We’re off on our whirlwind tour of the Midwest and East Coast! We’ll be reporting from all of the cities, schools, and locations we’re screening Autumn Gem in. Be back later today from Madison, Wisconsin!

Pacific Asia Museum Screening Recap

Autumn Gem at Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena

Rae and I returned last night from Pasadena, where we screened AUTUMN GEM at the Pacific Asia Museum. The museum had been holding a weekly film series for the past few months, and we were the last film on its summer schedule. PAM’s Becky Sun (Community Outreach Coordinator) and Amelia Chapman (Curator of Education) organized and advertised the event to PAM members. Along with our marketing efforts, we estimated about 70-80 people were present at the nighttime showing in the museum’s lovely courtyard. The weather was great and the screen and projector were in fine form; if only every screening could be held in such ideal conditions!

We had a great time meeting new people, along with friends and family. Thanks to Marc, Li Jing, and Rae’s cousins for attending the screening and bringing their friends. We got a number of good contacts for future screenings in Southern California.

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On the East Coast

Rae, JP, and I took the redeye flight to Newark, NJ and Providence, Rhode Island yesterday evening. We’re on the East Coast to interview two more scholars, Lingzhen Wang of Brown University and Amy Dooling of Connecticut College. The weather in Providence is great; it actually feels like the Bay Area with sunny skies!

Off to SoCal and the East Coast

Rae and I are heading down to Southern California for our next round of filming and interviews for The Qiu Jin Project. We had a a very productive past three weeks filming in Berkeley, Saratoga, San Jose, and our very own Santa Clara. Next up are Irvine, San Diego, Connecticut, and Rhode Island!

Today, Tim and his friends helped us return the furniture back to the Teak House in San Jose. Our garage is looking and feeling a lot emptier now that our 19th-Century Chinese Set has been taken down!

Travel Update From Shanghai

Apologies on the lack of updates. We’ve been busy traveling to and from various cities in China. The day after arriving in Shanghai, we took a van out to Shaoxing, where Qiu Jin’s childhood home and the school where she taught at are located. There, we interviewed several scholars and officials, including Qiu Jin’s grandnephew! We also went to monument at the site of her execution by Qing Dynasty.

After Shaoxing, we spent several days in Hangzhou, where there is another memorial dedicated to Qiu Jin. Before her death, she requested that she be buried next to the tomb of General Yue Fei near Westlake. We got some more great footage and photos of the monument.

Tomorrow, we’re headed to Beijing on the final leg of the tour. I’ll have some more time in the next few days to upload some images from the first two weeks of our trip!