Goucher’s Philosophy and Religion Department Presents "Autumn Gem: A Documentary on the Life of China’s First Feminist"

March 30, 2010 |

Goucher College’s Philosophy and Religion Department will present a screening of Autumn Gem: A Documentary on the Life of China’s First Feminist on Tuesday, March 30, at 7 p.m. in Kelley Lecture Hall. A Q&A with Rae Chang and Adam Tow, the film’s directors, will follow the screening.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Steven DeCaroli, chair of the philosophy and religion department, at sdecaroli@goucher.edu.

At the beginning of the 20th century, China underwent a series of dramatic social and political changes. The dynasty system that had ruled for thousands of years came to an end, and a new republican form of government emerged. Also during this period, small but vocal groups of women rose up and demanded equal rights and opportunities for the first time in the country’s history.

Qiu Jin was a seminal leader in both the revolutionary movement and the struggle for women’s emancipation. An impassioned writer, orator, and educator, she dedicated herself to the fight for women’s rights and the struggle to free the country from imperialism. Her radical ideology eventually led to her involvement in an attempted armed uprising against the government. She was accused of treason and executed at age 32, becoming China’s first female martyr for the revolutionary cause.

Qiu Jin is celebrated as a national heroine in China today. She is the subject of several books, plays, and films in China and is memorialized in an official monument and museum.

This hour-long film creates an intimate portrait by using archival images, scholar interviews, and dramatic recreations based on Qiu Jin’s original writings. It was produced and directed by two San Francisco Bay area Chinese-American filmmakers, Rae Chang and Adam Tow.

Chang graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1994 with degrees in art and anthropology. She has worked as a graphic designer at various Internet companies since 1998. Her fine-art works in drawing, sculpture, performance, and video have been presented in the San Francisco Bay area. She is trained in Chinese martial arts and performs with the dance company Facing East Dance and Music.

Tow graduated from Stanford University in 1997 with a degree in symbolic systems. A digital media and Web producer, he runs his own technology consulting business and is a professional photographer.

Goucher’s screening of Autumn Gem is being made possible with funding from the Gertrude C. Bussey Lectureship.