Only Won – The Lyrical Engineer

I had to say goodbye to my dad, Charles Chiu. We celebrated his life well this past weekend and the Air Force honored him in the best way for his decades of service. I miss him already and I think I always will. I’m grateful we can honor his memory through our film, Far East Deep South.

You can read his full obituary there on his official memorial page and feel free to leave a comment or memory there.

New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) will host an in-person Standing in Solidarity event on May 6, 2024, in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month.

Standing in Solidarity is NJPAC’s ongoing series of social justice conversations, often paired with a PSEG True Diversity Film Seriesscreening.

The event includes a screening at 6PM of the documentary Far East Deep South, a PSEG True Diversity Film about Chinese-American settlers in the Mississippi Delta and their kinship with their Black neighbors. A panel conversation with the film’s producer and other thought leaders follows at 7PM.

The program is produced by NJPAC and the New Jersey Chapter of Ascend, the largest global network advancing Pan-Asian professionals in the workplace and corporate boardrooms.

“I hope Far East Deep South, and our conversation after the screening, will help people see that we have more in common than we have been told, and these commonalities should unite us while our uniqueness should help us grow together,” says Baldwin Chiu, a panelist, producer of Far East Deep South and co-founder of Giant Flashlight Media.

In addition to Chiu, the panelists include Jack Tchen, historian, curator, and writer at Rutgers University–Newark, and Jennifer Rasing, Research Scientist and Leader of the Pan Asian Network (PAN) People & Business Resource group at Bristol Myers Squibb.

“This powerful panel event will show what people have in common to unite us,” says Sandip Mehta, Co-President, Ascend New Jersey Chapter, and Director, Global Pricing at Merck. “The AAPI network has a long history of building bridges in our communities.” 

The conversion will be moderated by Michael K. Hyun, Vice President Procurement & Deputy General Counsel, at PSEG.

“We’re fortunate that great films can move us, connect us to each other, educate and open up new paths for dialogue and understanding — the film Far East Deep South is certainly no exception,” says Hyun. “It’s a beautiful and deeply personal story of immigration, race and the American identity. Our discussion is timely and I expect it to be extremely powerful.”

“Far East Deep South is a beautiful love story of family and community that resonates,” says Donna Walker-Kuhne, Senior Advisor, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, at NJPAC. “Baldwin Chiu’s forebearers are models of perseverance in the face of xenophobia, racism and economic hardship. They teach us valuable lessons on how to be good neighbors with people different from us.” 

To RSVP and for more information visit Standing in Solidarity.

I’m thrilled to announce that Far East Deep South is now part of the collection of films available for streaming on Tubi, the leading ad-supported video streaming service in the U.S. Not only can viewers now watch Far East Deep South free on Tubi’s website but they can also watch our documentary on numerous TV platforms including Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Amazon Fire via the Tubi app. See this list of Tubi supported devices. 

According to Tubi CEO Anjali Sud, “Tubi is now watched as much as a top 5 cable network, as audiences continue to embrace our digital-first, 100% free streaming experience.”

Currently, Tubi has over 74 million monthly active users and also has a presence outside of the U.S. Audiences in Canada, Australia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and Panama.

GRAMMY Museum Mississippi hosted a free Family Day event celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage on Sunday, Sep. 10, and Monday, Sept. 11 for the first time ever! The event featured free admission to GRAMMY Museum Mississippi, a screening of our award-winning documentary film Far East Deep South, and a Backstage Pass education program with myself and Larissa Lam. We also welcomed special guests, DJ Orbit and Lil’ Won to the stage.

This free Family Day event was sponsored in part by the Mississippi Arts Commission, Delta Arts Alliance, Needle Specialty Products Corp., The Asian American Foundation (TAAF), The King’s Daughters and Sons Circle Number 2, and the Maddox Foundation.

For more information on special programming at GRAMMY Museum Mississippi, visit grammymuseumms.org.

We’re excited to share the history of Asians in America with the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC with a special screening of Far East Deep South and post-film discussion with us and some local leaders. For those who’ve seen our film, you know that a Bible figures prominently in our story. We’re grateful for the wonderful discussion on racial healing and representation after our screening moderated by Walter Kim, president of the National Association for Evangelicals featuring panelists pastor and author Derek Grier and Museum of the Bible curator, Jeff Kloha.

Starting August 6th, 2022, that Bible will be on loan for an exhibit at the Museum of the Bible for six months. The museum is a beautiful, state-of-the-art institution and we’re thrilled to share our story with a whole new audience.

It was our dream that the Bible and other artifacts from Mississippi would travel on loan to museums around the country so more people would learn of this history. The pandemic delayed those dreams but we are so glad they are finally coming to fruition. We hope this will be the start of many partnerships with museums across the U.S.

Here’s an updated sneak peek at the exhibit: