Brookdale Community College Screening Recap

The previous day’s double feature, coupled with the lengthy and hectic travel to get to New Jersey, left us pretty tired. But, we were now on the home stretch and nothing would get in the way of our completing this tour! Fortunately, the next screening at Brookdale Community College was extremely well organized. Linda Wang and her students in the Brookdale Asia Society were very proactive in getting the word out to students and the outside community. We also got great publicity from the World Journal and from my uncle’s friends and colleagues. As a result of their efforts, we saw a large crowd of about 120-130 people at the screening. Asia Society even brought a popcorn maker, which brought an authentic movie viewing experience to the evening!

The night kicked off with an overview of Chinese history during the time of Qiu Jin by Michelle, a member of Brookdale Asia Society. This helped set the stage for our film, which was shown on dual projector screens in the room.

The majority of the audience was older Chinese Americans like at our GBCCA screening. When I asked how many of them knew about Qiu Jin growing up, all but a few raised their hands. Even still, they learned some new things after watching the film, such as her extensive work in the Chinese women’s movement.

One audience member asked why Chinese parents didn’t mention Qiu Jin to their American-born children. A woman offered up her own experience of telling her kids about more recent historical events, such as the atrocities that occurred in Nanking during World War II. She felt that it was the responsibility of Chinese parents to pass down the stories of their culture to the next generation, and said she would contribute by showing Autumn Gem to her kids.

On that note, many in the audience also purchased our DVDs. Thank you! We hit an all-time one day sales record that night!

WP-SmugMug Plugin: http://tow.com/projects/wordpress/*[[](/batch.download.php?aid=7518655)Autumn Gem Posters](http://photos.tow.com/832003435oG2id-L.jpg) *Walking to the Student Life Center for our screening at Brookdale Community College in New Jersey. *Uncle Don stands in front of the entrance to the Donald D. Warner Student Life Center at Brookdale Community College. *Posters for Autumn Gem. *Chun and Michelle were the student organizers for the screening at Brookdale Community College. *Brookdale Asia Society welcome table. *Everyone loves popcorn for a movie! I had two bags! *Linda organized a terrific screening of Autumn Gem at Brookdale Community College! *His grandfather and Qiu Jin’s son were friends. *Items on the Asia Society table. *Honored guests. *Rae introduces herself to some of the attendees tonight. *Rae gets introduced. *Showing an excerpt from his book about his grandfather. *Panorama of the room at Brookdale where we screened the film. *Michelle gives the crowd some background on Chinese History before introducing us to the stage. *Chun seems a little nervous before his speech. He and Michelle, along with the rest of Asia Society, did a great job organizing the event! *Guests listen during the presentations before the film. *The scene at Brookdale Community College during the screening of Autumn Gem. *Michelle talks about the Marble Boat that the Empress Dowager Cixi made instead of funding the Chinese army. *Asking questions during the Q&A following the film. *Rae answers questions from the crowd after the screening of Autumn Gem at Brookdale Community College in New Jersey.