Dear friends,

After almost 13 months of the Buckeye Funder campaign for my milestone birthday campaign, I am happy to let you know that I have finally reached the goal of raising US$60,000 (actually, the final amount raised was US$60,001!). Coincidentally, the $30,001.00 was raised from 60 donors since December 12, 2022.

I want to thank you for your generous support and donation for helping me reach the final goal!! As you know, I kicked off my milestone birthday campaign on December 14, 2022 and had hoped to wrap up the campaign on December 13, 2023 with another party to celebrate the completion of the campaign; however, I had a very busy December with work events so had to delay the wrap up by almost a month. I did host a special program on my birthday in 2023 at work when Asia Society Hong Kong Center hosted Prof Amy Chua of Yale University. You will know Amy as the Tiger Mom, author of the Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother published over a decade ago. I was able to persuade Amy to be part of this OHIO picture with my fellow HK Buckeyes, Elaine Chan and Daniel Leung.

(Elaine Chan, Amy Chau, Daniel Leung and Alice Mong)

With this campaign, I have been working with Dr. Karl Whittington, Associate Professor and Department Chair, Department of History of Art at Ohio State to identity our first intern from the Ohio State Art History Department to start the international internship at Asia Society Hong Kong Center this Spring. I am delighted that Allie Mickle will be joining us at ASHK from March until May of 2024. Allie is a Ph D candidate in the History of Art Department and will be obtaining her Ph D in 2024. In fact, we just received confirmation today from the HK Immigration Office that her work visa for HK has just been approved. Allie will be here in HK during the busy month of March which is known as Art month when global art connoisseurs, curators and museum professionals will be here for the Art Basel Hong Kong and Art Central art fairs as well as the Hong Kong International Cultural Summit 2024. I hope that Allie will be the first of many interns coming from Ohio State.

Again my deepest gratitude for your support of this campaign. We really couldn’t have done it without you. I want to thank Jo Chim, filmmaker of One Small Visit whose film has inspired me to show the film in Hong Kong and DC. I also want to especially thank the Buckeye Clubs of Hong Kong and DC for their support. My heart felt thanks to: Daniel & Elaine, Melissa, Christine Chen, Christine Crawford, Kathy Estrada, Jeannie, Akiko, Edith, Derek, Lakshmi, Harold & Bridget, Kin-min, Susan, Cindy, Eugenie, Chad, Donna, Juan, Lisa, Janice, Mandy, Corey, Anthony, Al, Karen, Kathy Chase, Andrea, Kyle, Samantha, Joe & Penny, Briget Chan, Penelope, Pam, Aaron, Jason, Joe, Makiko, Luke, Mehrnouch, Sonali, Andrew Grieve, Renee, Anla, Fufang, Sabrina, Todd, Julie, Bryan and Matt!

My final thanks is to my 2 wonderful mentors which this campaign is dedicated to. Nora, thank you for your continued friendship and guidance. Ronnie, thank you for your wisdom and matching of the campaign.

Go Bucks!

Warmest regards,

Alice

Not exactly the result we would like to see at the end of the morning when the game clock hits 00:00, but no matter what, we are thankful that out local Buckeyes were having a great time at Asia Society the evening before THE GAME. Special thanks to Alice Mong for sponsoring us this annual flagship event once again, Phoebe You and Rachel Yu from Ohio State China Gateway for updating us with campus news, and last but not least, Simpson Wong from 香港老美 老香港的美學印記  for his book sharing session. As President Joel Man put it, this is "the most education Thanksgiving Dinner I have ever had!"

I want to thank those of you who attended the May 22 screening of One Small Visit in Washington DC for Asian American Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month.  I particularly want to thank fellow Buckeyes Christina Chen, Jeannie Mong, Melissa Wasser and the OSU Alumni Association of Washington, DC & Nimesh Patel and Akin Gump for making the DC screening possible.  My thanks also go to filmmaker Jo Chim for Zooming in from Hong Kong for the talk back.  Congrats also to Jo for showing the film at NATO in early May.

At the screening, some of you told me that you had read the Washington Post article from Oct. 15, 2022 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/15/neil-armstrong-film-family/) regarding this film and was glad to finally see the film.  I hope to continue showing this film as part of my fundraiser this year.  Hopefully the next stops will be New York City (August or September) and in Columbus to fellow Alumni Association members when I will be back to Columbus for the next OSUAA board meeting so please stay tuned for future screenings and other activities and events. 

As of this week, we have now surpassed the US$10,000 mark!  With over 40 of you supporting this fundraiser from Ohio, Virginia, Georgia, UK, Hong Kong and Switzerland.  I am so grateful for your support.
The message of One Small Visit is about Ohio kindness and also about an Asian family’s immigration journey which resonated so much with me as my family immigrated to the US from Taiwan exactly 50 years ago. Fundraising for this fellowship to bring an OSU student to intern in HK is my way of paying it forward. 
A few weeks ago while I was back in Columbus for the May meeting of the OSUAA board meeting, I was able to meet up with Pam Kreber who interviewed me for my internship at International Trade Division, Ohio Dept of Development in the Winter of 1986.  Thank you Pam and Nora for giving me that internship which started my career!  
Go Bucks!
Alice

I want to thank those of you who attended the private encore screening of One Small Visit at the Miller Theatre of Asia Society HK Center on May 3, also Ohio State’s Day of Giving!  We had almost 70 people in attendance and want to thank especially the HK Buckeyes such as Daniel, Elaine, Joe, Corey and Jason.  My heartfelt gratitude goes to Christine (former HK Buckeye, now in Switzerland) and Liana for getting so many of your friends to the screening!  It was great to see so many friends that I have not seen for so long due to the pandemic.   After the screening, the producer, writer and director of OSV Jo Chim joined us for a post-screening talk via Zoom.  Jo joined us from LA where it was 4 am--What a trooper!

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Screening: 6:30pm – 7:00pm

Post Screening Talk: 7:00-8:00 pm 

Suggested donation: HK$100 

Venue:  Asia Society Hong Kong Center/Miller Theatre

Dear HK Buckeyes and friends of Alice,

For those who attended my Dec. 14 birthday bash, thank you for being there and your support of the launch of my Buckeye Fundraiser which aims to raise funds to help support an international fellowship for an OSU student in Hong Kong.  As you may know May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (https://asianpacificheritage.gov/about/) so I am hosting a private viewing of One Small Visit, a 30-minute short film, made by Chinese Canadian filmmaker/actress Jo Chim who is based in Hong Kong.  After the screening of the short film, we will be joined by Jo for a closer look on how she made this film during Covid and how this very special film, based on a true story, came into being.  We hosted the showing of OSV at ASHK’s Jockey Club Hall to a packed audience on March 15, 2023.  For those of you who missed the March 15 screening, feel free to join us on May 3.

 I am hosting this special private screening to continue with my year-long Buckeye Funder crowdfunding campaign where I hope to raise fund to bring an Ohio State student to Hong Kong for an internship at Asia Society HK Center.

If you would like to join the screening, you can rsvp to my office at jwu@asiasociety.org.hk.  Buckeyes and non-Buckeyes are welcome!  Please feel free to share this invite.

 One Small Visit is an award winning 30-minute film about the true story of an immigrant Indian family who unexpectedly passes through the tiny Ohio hometown of Neil Armstrong in the wake of the '69 moon landing and the civil rights movement and ends up on the Armstrong doorstep.

 OSV premiered at the LA Shortsfest where it took the Best Foreign Film prize and recently streamed on the Academy Screening Room, in Oscar consideration for Live Action Short.

 It continues to be on the film festival circuit and special screenings, including past ones at the Short Film Corner at Cannes, NASA Headquarters, The Kennedy Center, the Armstrong Museum, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum,  the  Dar Museum in Kuwait and the Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF).  At the CIFF, OSV received the Audience Choice Award.

Here's a trailer for the film:

 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15096008/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Here’s a link to my Buckeye Funder website: https://buckeyefunder.osu.edu/project/34963

Your support is greatly appreciated!  See you at ASHK on May 3 which is also Ohio State’s Day of Giving.

Go Bucks!

Regards,

S. Alice Mong, ’86

Check out campaign kick off photos from December 2022:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/197926096@N08/albums/72177720306599518/