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The Rose Group for Cross-Cultural Understanding is a non-profit 501(c)(3) entity with the mission to promote understanding and goodwill between the United States and China through media exchanges and cultural presentations. The organization has these major undertakings since inception in 2003:
The First Five-Years, 2003-2008
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Successfully initiated and facilitated the exchange between Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in New York and the Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication in Beijing. |
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Form an alliance of universities, film and media communities, and government agencies in both the United States and China to promote understanding through feature, documentary, and student-produced films by providing proper cultural and historical contexts as well as interaction with audiences. |
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Launched our annual short film competition, China-American Film Festival (CAFFC*), to encourage filmmakers to seek and tell stories in a cross-cultural context to reflect the diversity in our culture as well as the common humanity we all share. |
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We took an American delegation of our competition winners, film scholars, and a representative from the American Film Institute (AFI) to Beijing in April/May 2005 to participate in the prestigious Beijing Student Film Festival (BSFF) that involves students from one hundred elite universities across China. In addition, five American feature films were chosen by BSFF to be screened at the festival. Our members provided synopsis for each film, engaged in question and answer sessions after the screenings, as well as took part in panel discussions about film and culture. |
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We stage annually a week-long ChinaFest held in Richmond, Virginia since 2005. Chinese films, filmmakers, scholars, and artists are invited to university campuses to engage the students for dialogues and discourses about China. Screenings, panel discussion, lectures, and exhibitions are opened to the general public as well. Interactive activities, such as Mandarin oratory contest for non-heritage speakers, China-travel-photo-narrative contest, and Chinese-inspired dishes using Virginian produces have been staged to encourage the American interpretation of Chinese culture.
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| *changed into ChinaFest in 2008 |
The Second Five -Years, 2009-2014
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A booklet “ Learning and Thinking about China” that offers an overview about China and its culture was published in 2006 as a public service, free of charge to our audiences and sponsors. The second-edition was made available to all Humanities teachers in the 1791 public schools across the Commonwealth of Virginia in 2009.
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In 2010-2012, we helped Virginia Film Office, with its Governor’s trade mission to China, to make contact with CCTV. CCTV has since produced a three-part documentary film about Virginia’s history, current economy and sights of interest, and Chinese in Virginia. The documentary films have been broadcast to Chinese domestic viewers numbered in hundreds of millions.
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During 2012-2013, we produced a documentary film about Traditional Chinese Medicine ( TCM ), “The Secret of Healing, The Science of Traditional Chinese Medicine “ , with segments on the Principles of TCM, Acupuncture & Treatment, Herbs & Herbal Medicine, Food Therapy & Preventive Measures, Challenges & Opportunities.
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In 2014, we co-produced a English edition of the abridged version of the Chinese film by Kuangchi Program Service in Taipei, and Jiangsu Broadcasting Corp. in Nanjing, “Giuseppe Castiglione in China, Imperial Painter, Humble Servant”
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In the Years of 2015-2020
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During 2013-2015, we facilitated the first tour of China by Richmond Ballet which included performance in Beijing, Shanghai and two other cities.
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During 2016-2018, we facilitated the first tour of early American patent models from Hagley Museum and Library to China. “The Spirit of Invention” was a collaborative effort with Tsinghua School of Arts and Design, opened at Tsinghua Art Museum in late April, then to National Museum of China for two months where it attracted close to one million viewers. It then traveled to Wuhan.
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Our ChinaFest Family Day at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts ( VMFA ) has become the signature event in Central Virginia, with attendance grown to 10,000 on that one day alone. The activities on the campus of University of Richmond has been expanded from lecture, Chinese film screenings to more student-initiated activities, such as Ping Pong tournament, Lion Dance at the Student Dining Room featuring Chinese cuisine, and other China-related events.
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To celebrate the Asia Week in November 2019, we co-sponsored a three-part podcast with International Education at the University of Richmond, “ The Chinese in American History, How Afon G. Moy, Mayling Soong and Bruce Lee Changed the Narrative About China” . The podcast was produced by the historians at the “Back Story”, a syndicated program at Virginia Humanities, formerly known as the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.
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Currently, we are helping filmmaker Pamela Tom to take her award-winning film “Tyrus” to China in 2020, in honor of Tyrus’ 110th birthday anniversary. Tyrus Wong was instrumental in changing the look of Disney’s “ Bambi “ and the animation style since.
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