Monday, December 31, 2012

Monday Muse: Qiu Jin Documentary

Described as China's first women's rights activist, Qiu Jin (1875-1907) is the subject of the feature-length film Autumn Gem, written, directed, and co-produced (with husband Adam Tow) by Rae Chang, a San Francisco Bay Area artist and graphic designer. The film was first shown in 2009 and continues to be screened around the United States (go here for listings).

Qiu Jin also was a poet; she wrote about flowers, the seasons, friendship, solitude and loneliness, women's domestic lives, marriage, heroic females, remembrance of the past. Some examples of her poetry are included in the resources cited below.

Here's the documentary's trailer:


The documentary is available on DVD.

Of Interest


"Hong Kong Feature Film on Qiu Jin To Be Released" (At this link, you'll find the trailer for The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake, 2011)

Patricia Caspers, "Hearing Voices: Women Versing Life Presents Qiu Jin", Ploughshares Blog, July 24, 2012 (This article includes some of Qiu Jin's poetry.)


Lingzhen Wang, "Woman, Writer, Martyr: Qiu Jin's Life and Autobiographical Work at the End of the Qing Dynasty", Chapter 1 in Personal Matters: Autobiographical Practice in Twentieth-Century China (Stanford University Press, 2004), Googlebooks (This chapter, portions of which may be read at the Googlebooks link, includes information about Qiu Jin's poetry.)

1 comment:

Louise Gallagher said...

I love how you celebrate artists and art and the creative path.


Happy New Year!