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Category Archives: Resources
The Power of the Press: Part 1– May Day Lo
A blog in support of FINDING KUKAN’s 10K in 10weeks “Keep This Film Alive Campaign”.
In the Lily Wu detective novels by Juanita Sheridan one of the colorful sidekicks is a female reporter named Steve (Stephanie Dugan) who funnels information to her two amateur detective friends Lily and Janice. Since many of her fictional characters are based on real life people, I wondered if Sheridan based Steve on some of the ballsy female reporters who were breaking into newsrooms in the 1930s. So my ears pricked when I heard that Li Ling-Ai had a journalist friend in the 30s and 40s named May Day Lo. Yes, that is her real name, and no she was not even born in May.
May Day Lo at the University of Missouri (photo courtesy Susan Cummings)
In the mid 1930s May Day Lo made history by being one of the first Asian American women hired to report for a major daily newspaper. The progressive Honolulu Star-Bulletin hired Lo and Ah Jook Ku after they graduated from the University of Missouri Journalism School. May Day Lo also broke ground at Journalism School by being the first “exchange student” accepted there (remember, Hawaii was still a territory and not officially part of the United States).
How does a girl from Hilo get to Missouri in 1933?
Notably, in 2010 when the Asian American Journalists Association put together a list of pioneering Asian journalists, a majority of them were from Hawaii. AAJA historian Chris Chow commented, “Hawaii was more open to multiculturalism. There was recognition that this is an important market and you’d better well serve them (Asian-Americans) if you want to make any money.”
Back in the 30’s, the Star Bulletin seemed to cover stories about local Asians more comprehensively than the rival Honolulu Advertiser. And May Day Lo’s byline was on several early articles written about Li Ling-Ai, including the one that probably prompted Advertiser reporter Rey Scott to call Li Ling-Ai into his office for an interview on that fateful night in 1937 when plans for making KUKAN were first hatched.
Reporter May Day Lo gives front page coverage to fellow Chinese American pioneer — Li Ling-Ai (aka Gladys Li)
I love knowing that a petite Chinese woman who was raised by a reverend in Hilo was the first exchange student at the prestigious University of Missouri School of Journalism and that the power of her pen brought attention to another pioneering Chinese young woman in a way that changed her life forever. I wanted to find out more about May Day Lo, especially when I found an intriguing letter from her to Li Ling-Ai:
July 31, 1941,
Dear Li Ling Ai,
Now that I am home again, it all seems like a dream that I met you and all the others in New York and had such a wonderful time…. Please give my Aloha to Mrs. James Young, Rey Scott and Mr. Ripley when you see them.
May Day Lo had been in New York right around the time when KUKAN premiered at the World Theater just off Broadway! She had met both Rey Scott and Robert Ripley – two key players in Li Ling-Ai’s life at the time. Could May Day hold clues to some of the unsolved mysteries surrounding KUKAN?
Unfortunately May Day had died in a tragic car accident in 1986. May Lee Chung, editor of the ACUW publication that documents so many pioneering Chinese women’s lives (see other posts about this “Orange Bible”), could remember clearly the circumstances of May Day’s death. But she did not know what had become of May Day’s only child David, someone who might be able to tell me more. The trail remained cold until the Power of the Press struck again in 2011. Stay tuned…
Support our 10K in 10 Weeks campaign by clicking the red button.
(As of 9/6/13 we have raised $5,025 and have $4,975 more to raise by 10/15/13)
April 25, 2013 — Major Archival Discovery Starts with a Party
It was my husband Paul who convinced me that I should have a fundraising party. So last October I got many volunteers together to throw one. Terry Lehman Olival helped by sending press releases to the local media and got the attention of Star-Advertiser reporter Mike Gordon.
Mellanie Lee, Debra Zeleznick, Robin Lung and Terry Olival at “A Night in Old Shanghai” fundraiser
“That might be the coolest story I’ve heard in a long time,” Mike said, and promised to write an article on it. The more Mike found out, the more he wanted to know. His article grew and grew. My fundraising party came and went; my Kickstarter campaign came and went.
Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporter Mike Gordon signs his support fpr KUKAN with a “K”
Finally the opus turned up – a 3‑page spread on the film, complete with color pictures, showed up in the Sunday newspaper and drew response from people as far away as Kentucky!
Mike Gordon’s article “Reel Obsession” appears in the November 18, 2012 Honolulu Star-Advertiser
DeSoto Brown, curator at the Bishop Museum, also read Mike’s article and something clicked. He remembered a donation of lantern slides made to the museum by Betty Li, Li Ling-Ai’s older physician sister, back in the 80’s. In fact the slides were marked as being related to KUKAN! Early in my research I had read that KUKAN’s director Rey Scott lectured with a group of slides, but no one in his family remembered seeing them or hearing anything about them. I had given up on finding them.
Lantern slides of 1937 Nanking taken by Rey Scott during pre-production for KUKAN
So I was on pins and needles last week when I finally connected with DeSoto at the Bishop Museum and had a chance to examine the slides myself. They didn’t disappoint — 97 images of 1937 Nanking, including some with Rey and Betty Li, brought Rey’s first trip to China to life for me in a thrilling way and helped answer some of the mysteries that had been plaguing me for years.
1937 Nanking bomb shelter. Dr. Betty Li and Rey Scott (far right) with Betty’s son Andrew Li
Bishop Museum curator DeSoto Brown becomes a fellow investigator on FINDING KUKAN
December 13, 2012 — Seeing The Light
Today having just arrived home after a long trip, I decided to take a break from doing the laundry and catching up on emails to open up a box from Grendel Books on 18 Ireland Street — even the address sounded magical. I found a beautifully wrapped little book, padded in bubble wrap and tissue paper as if it was a precious object. It was a small little paperback that fellow filmmaker Stephanie Castillo recommended I read and that I had ordered before my trip.
Bringing poetry into the filmmaking process.
Some passages in the first few pages felt as though the author were talking directly to me — addressing my fear of never catching up with things, my guilt at laying aside bill paying to discover a little gift. I’m sure the whole book is full of wise little gems and I will refer to it often. Here are a couple:
” If you are too choosey about the spaces you visit, you may miss Inspiration Point.”
“Every film is a voyage into the unknown. You set out for great India and arrive at a very small island in the Caribbean.…I have never begun a film, however well prepared, that did not prove to have a life of its own and lead me to a region where I did not expect to go. What safaris! What narrow escapes! The maps can lead directly to quicksands and the jaws of dragons. Yet sometimes the end of the trail may be quite near King Solomon’s mine.”
Thanks to Stephanie Castillo (veteran Kauai filmmaker) for recommending I read this. It comes at a time when I feel a little buffeted by the winds and, having just given up my part-time job, facing a future full of unknowns. It’s heartening to know that it’s part of a process every filmmaker faces.
September 25, 2012 — 7 Tips for Nervous Public Speakers
I am about to embark on one of my least favorite occupations — Public Speaking. Although I jumped at the chance to get more exposure for my film by presenting FINDING KUKAN at several upcoming events, I am not a natural speaker. In fact making any kind of announcement to a room full of strangers normally makes me break out in hot flashes that are NOT menopausal-related.
So I’ve been collecting public speaking tips from friends and colleagues. I thought I’d share some of the best ones here.
Could this tip apply out in the garden too?
1) Picture the audience wearing just their underwear (I know this is supposed to make you feel less intimidated, but I’m afraid I might just break out laughing and never recover).
Businessmen manage to look serious even in their long johns
Miss Fancypants the retro underwear maker shows that women know how to have more fun, even in their underwear.
2) Practice your speech in front of a mirror (could be dangerous depending on your self-image)
Overcoming a negative self-image is a part of the battle.
- I need to take lessons from my cats.
3) Act like a Diva, you’ll sound better. (A hint from my wonderful singing instructor Blossom Lam Hoffman)
- The talented cartoonist Dorie Ratzlaff illustrates my Diva problem.
4) Warm up your voice with a Carol Burnett Tarzan call. (Another hint from my singing instructor)
5) Use lots of visuals so the audience doesn’t focus too much on you. (But be careful of visual overload and the LSD effect).
Visual overload in the brain might look like this.
6) Ask for divine intervention and just wing it.
- What I imagine Divine Intervention might look like. (photo by Hei Astrid)
7) Go online and get some practical tips from the pros.
In the next month or two I will probably try out most of these. I’ll report back which ones worked best for me. What do you do when put in front of a crowd?
September 15, 2012 — A Fresh Take on Fundraising
Writing grant applications is a lonely business, and receiving rejection letters from granting foundations is depressing to say the least. Don’t mistake me. Grant monies have been very helpful to this project. And since we need more grants to get this film finished, we will continue to apply for them and be overjoyed if/when we get them. However, sitting back and wiating to hear if some unknown panel of judges will deem your project worthy of X,Y,Z’s support, can leave a filmmaker feeling powerless and dejected. What to do?
Kickstarter — makes grassroots fundraising online possible
Several months ago I decided to take a part of fundraising into my own hands with the help of KICKSTARTER — an online crowdsourcing platform that creative types from first-time inventors to veteran filmmakers like Charlie Kaufman have been using to raise funds for their projects. The idea is that even with small donations, you can raise a decent chunk of money if enough people get behind you. As someone who was raised to be independent and stand on my own, it feels uncomfortable to ask for help, especially monetary help. But as soon as I started telling people about my plans, Voila! a major shift occured in the energy around my film. I soon had offers of help from friends, colleagues and complete strangers who got excited about getting involved in a creative project and helping it come to fruition. Here are some of the amazing volunteers who’ve joined TEAM KUKAN recently.
Anna Guerin, Debbie Buccigrossi, Robin Lung, Pam tong, Maggie Barrett, and Terry Olival at a fundraising summit for FINDING KUKAN
There are many more people not pictured who have offered goods, services and morale support. Suddenly fundraising doesn’t feel like a lonely, depressing business anymore. It’s still not easy. It’s been challenging, time-consuming, and stressful at times. It’s also a little scary. The way Kickstarter works is that if you don’t raise ALL of your goal you get NOTHING. So I expect the Kickstarter campaign (scheduled to run from Sept 29-Nov 17) will run me more than a little ragged before it’s all through. I also expect it will be an exhilirating ride that many new friends will join me on. I hope you’ll be one of them.
Sign K to Support KUKAN on KICKSTARTER!
Here is a sneak peek at a couple of premiums we are offering to our Kickstarter pledgers.
Collectible Full-color Posters for FINDING KUKAN are just a couple of our amazing Kickstarter premiums.
(Images courtesy of Hollwood Chinese Collection & Michelle Scott Art)
Want to join the effort? Kickstarter is administered through Amazon. If you shop on Amazon, donating is easy. If you’ve never shopped on Amazon, consider setting up an account to make the Kickstarter donation process go smoothly. Hate the idea of doing anything financial on the internet? Don’t worry, we are giving people the old-fashioned option of putting a check in snail mail too!
We love to find presents in the mail too!
So what am I learning on my latest fundraising venture? To FACE MY FEAR, EMBRACE NEW FRIENDS, and HAVE FAITH that things will work out. Have experience fundraising on Kickstarter? Please share by commenting.
December 2, 2011 — Gifts From the Blogosphere
There’s nothing like having a cold over the holidays to make you feel sorry for yourself. It’s that old dejected feeling that creeps in as the box of kleenex gets emptied. Now that I’ve recovered, I’m having some belated Thanksgiving thoughts, tallying up the windfalls that have come my way over the past year — many by way of the internet and blogosphere. Recently I made an internet connection with blogger Durian Dave, who turned out to be a very generous like-minded soul with an incredible visual archive and wealth of knowledge about old Chinese films and film actresses. See his blog and Tumblr for hours of entertaining and eye-opening articles and photos. David advanced my KUKAN research tremendously by sending a bunch of choice KUKAN related items to me, including this vintage lobby card.
Lobby card for the 1941 Oscar-winning documentary KUKAN
Besides displaying gorgeous color and imagery, the card had an intriguing embossed stamp on the bottom of it: “STATENS FILMCENSUR 1947–48.” David suspects that the stamp refers to Sweden’s censorship board. If he’s right, that means KUKAN screened all the way in Sweden! So if any of you Swedish film collectors come across 16mm Kodachrome color footage of China that appears to be from 1939 or 1940, let me know! We’re still looking for good partial prints to help with the KUKAN restoration.
My next post will feature the fabulous photo of a jet-setting Li Ling-Ai that Durian Dave dug up as well as info about a couple of other groundbreaking Chinese American females working behind the camera. Why not now you might ask. Hey, I’m still recovering!
