On November 8, 2010, we woke up very early in the morning to catch the 8:30 am ferry — the only one leaving that day — from Anacortes, Washington to Sidney, British Columbia. Located over 70 miles north of Seattle, the Anacortes Ferry Terminal was quiet and nearly deserted when we arrived at 6:00 am. We went into town for some breakfast before queuing the rental car up to get onto the ferry.
The boat ride was pretty fun; we saw the sun rise as we made our way through the various islands between the United States and Canada. The trip took about three hours, with one stop at San Juan Island. I saw a lone seal or seal lion swimming in the harbor as we made our way out of San Juan; with a thick layer of blubber, it must have still been warm in the chilly water!
Our first stop on our second international tour of Autumn Gem was at the University of Victoria, located on Vancouver Island. My parents are accompanying us on this leg of our tour, and their knowledge of the area has proven to be very useful thus far.
After disembarking from the boat and checking into our hotel, we drove to downtown Victoria to sightsee for a few hours before the screening. We walked along Victoria Harbor, checking out the Parliament Buildings, the Royal British Columbia Museum, and the Fairmont Empress Hotel. Rae and I made a mental note to return one day to Victoria for an extended stay. One afternoon is not enough to properly appreciate this beautiful place!
The screening at the University of Victoria was jointly sponsored by the History and the Pacific and Asian Studies Departments. Held at the David Strong Building, we had over 30 students, faculty and community members present. One notable question during the Q&A was whether or not we interviewed other Chinese or Japanese scholars for our film. We did in fact interview two more scholars while in China, but they did not make the final cut of our film due to time constraints. Perhaps in the future, we’ll include their remarks on this website as supplemental material. And, if we were to go to Japan or Asia next year, we may also conduct a few more interviews with prominent Qiu Jin scholars in Asia.
Many thanks to Professors Shelly Chan and Zhongping Chen and grad student Galen Poor for their support in organizing the screening. Here are photos from the event at the University of Victoria.
WP-SmugMug Plugin: http://tow.com/projects/wordpress/*[[![Outside the David Strong Building at the University of Victoria.](/attachments/2011/01/24/07/4107320110124070301117.jpg)](/batch.download.php?aid=8503271)Outside the David Strong Building at the University of Victoria.](http://photos.tow.com/1085700591dXLxZ-L.jpg) *Rae talks with Galen about visiting China in 2008. *We give our presentation at the University of Victoria. *Professor Shelly Chan introduces us to our screening at the University of Victoria. *Going over our screening map and all of the places we’ve shown Autumn Gem. *Attendees listen during the Q&A session. *Questions and answers from the crowd. *Attendees at our Autumn Gem screening at the University of Victoria. *A question was raised about contacting scholars in Japan and China to talk about Qiu Jin. *With the co-sponsors of our UVic screening.