Simon Fraser University Screening Recap

We’re currently in Texas and getting ready to leave lovely San Antonio for Texas A&M in College Station. Catching up on our screening recaps, we’d like to tell you about the great screening we had at Simon Fraser University last week in Vancouver, British Columbia. As you can see in the photo to the right, we had a huge turnout. Originally, our screening was to be held in a different auditorium, but SFU received so many RSVPs that they had to move the location to the Woodward’s building in downtown Vancouver. The venue was recently opened or renovated, so our film was among the first to use the new space.

Before the screening, we walked around the Vancouver Chinatown, which reminded us of the one in San Francisco. We went to the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Public Park, which would have worked great as a filming location for Autumn Gem! Rae and I also tried to look for buildings that were featured in some of our favorite TV shows, including Battlestar Galactica, MacGyver and The X-Files. Vancouver has a bustling film industry, and there are many filming locations scattered throughout the city and surrounding area.

Big thanks to the David Lam Center, including Professors Jan Walls, Paul Crowe, Edith Lo, Rosalie Tung and Shuyu Kong for organizing. Also thanks to my parents’ friends Henry Ng and Linda Wong, who brought a sizable contingent from the Vancouver Lions Club. My parents brought along their friends and relatives to the screening, which featured over 225 people.

Immediately following the screening, Professor Shuyu Kong gave a short presentation on the different ways Qiu Jin’s story has been interpreted by her contemporaries, including Sun Yat-sen, Wu Zhiying and Lu Xun. We drew upon these three sources for our film, providing hints to the multitude of possible interpretations on Qiu Jin: revolutionary heroine, women’s rights activist and troubled or conflicted martyr. Scholars on this tour have commented on the many layers of Qiu Jin described in our film; in a way, Autumn Gem is adding its own layer to the myth of Qiu Jin.

We wished we could have stayed longer in Canada, but we had to jump back in the car and make the three-hour drive back to Seattle. After a short sleep, we were headed to the airport, where a plane was waiting to take us on our third leg of our tour — to Texas!

WP-SmugMug Plugin: http://tow.com/projects/wordpress/*[[](/batch.download.php?aid=8772501)Outside SFU Woodward’s in Downtown Vancouver, Canada.](http://photos.tow.com/1090817321BVJaD-L.jpg) *Before the screening inside Room 3200 at SFU Woodward’s. *Conversations before the screening. *Henry Ng arrives. He was instrumental in getting the great turnout at the SFU screening. *The room starts to fill up. *Waiting for the screening to begin. *Professor Jan Walls, Founding Director of the David Lam Center, and current Director of the center, Paul Crowe, talk with Rae before the screening. *These kids are probably learning about Qiu Jin for the first time. *Before the screening. *The 300-person room was almost filled to capacity. *Paul Crowe makes an announcement to the crowd. *Adam’s Mom’s friends from Hong Kong. *Rae addresses the crowd during our introductory presentation. *Listening to the presentation. *Questions from the crowd. *More questions from the crowd. *With the organizers of the SFU screening. *With Auntie Dorothy, cousin Phillip and Adam’s parents.