THANK YOU for 

MAKING HISTORY happen! 

Funding for MAKING HISTORY: The Story of Su Beng ended at $16,730, which is over 111% of the funding goal! I am so thrilled and amazed that funding actually went well past $16,000. 

With the extra funding a new computer will be purchased for Su Beng as a Lunar New Year gift from ALL of the contributors to the MAKING HISTORY campaign

I've noticed this need in the past when we've done some calls via Skype. I remember that his computer was old and we had a few technical issues during our Skype calls. With improved picture and sound quality it will be much easier for him to do Skype calls!

If you haven't already done so, PLEASE keep in touch and SIGN UP to receive updates here: http://eepurl.com/Iayab

By joining this list you will only be emailed when there is some major news regarding:

1) Fulfillment of the Making History: The Story of Su Beng crowdfunding campaign "perks" 

2) Special events related to Su Beng or his Biographer, Felicia Lin

3) The release of Su Beng's English biography

For updates on my trip to Taiwan and ongoing project to document the life of Su Beng please VISIT: www.aboutsubeng.com

This is just the beginning of the journey Thank you for being a part of this and for making it happen!

Sincerely,

Felicia Lin

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What is this project about?

This project is about documenting the life story of Su Beng, which I believe is an allegory of the struggle of Taiwan.  Su Beng is a nonagenarian Taiwan independence activist, former undercover Chinese Communist agent, would be assassin of Chiang Kai-shek, historian and author of the book, TAIWAN’S 400 YEARS OF HISTORY. This encyclopedic, 2000 page plus book, which took about 18 years to write, is the one of the first most comprehensive books on this topic. It has and still continues to influence generations of Taiwanese activists.

When I first heard all these tales of Su Beng, I was intrigued. I wondered what would motivate a man like this and I decided that I wanted to meet him. What began as a simple idea to tell a story based on the life of Su Beng, has grown into a project to document his life. Soon I came to understand that for him everything stems from the desire to make a difference in the world and to work for the greater good. His life’s work has been about the fight for social justice for the people of Taiwan through education, awareness and activism. Now nearly 95, Su Beng still maintains a very busy speaking schedule. 

*Chinese subtitles are available for the pitch video above. Press play and then

I’ve been working on this project since 2004 

From the beginning I was fortunate to have the advice and foresight of others who recommended that I audio and video record my interviews with Su Beng. Over time my video footage expanded as I realized the power of film to tell a story. When I left Taiwan in 2007 and returned to New York, I faced a few obstacles, namely: 

1) the task of translating our interviews (from the mix of Taiwanese, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese that Su Beng speaks) into English 

2) figuring out what do to with the hours and hours of video footage that I’d recorded and collected 

3) understanding how the publishing industry works

I dealt with these three items by: 

1) personally doing the translation of interviews myself with the help of several native Taiwanese speakers

2) toying with the thought of learning video editing, but concluding that this is not where my strengths and talents lie, so I have just continued to video record Su Beng on mini-DV format (now much of this footage still needs to be digitized) 

3) attending writing conferences and enrolling in a class on how to write a book proposal for a work of nonfiction. I’ve also begun researching and compiling a list of agents to query about my book proposal

I’ve had a lot of stops and starts along the way, but now I am committed to pushing this through to the finish line.

My main focus is to finish writing the biography of Su Beng. Everything else collected is secondary and will support the biography. I started off writing the biography in first person from Su Beng’s point of view, but I now believe that writing it in third person will make his story more accessible to a broader audience. This means that a great deal more research is going to have to be done in order to provide readers with greater historical facts and context, and different points of view. 

In order to move the biography to completion, I have decided that I must create the opportunity and make the time to do this in Taiwan. 

Why do I need to raise $15,000?

Everything that I have done thus far since 2004 has not required a major outlay of cash because I have used my personal resources. The main expense that I will have now is the cost of my airfare from New York to Taipei, and three months of living expenses. The next major expense is the cost of digitizing video footage recorded on mini-DV tapes. As one of the incentives of this campaign, Robin Adams will be working with me to create a short documentary film about Su Beng. Going forward, I’d like to stop recording on mini-DVD tapes, which will eliminate the cost and additional step of digitizing footage. So I also will need to purchase a new digital video camera.

And finally, I'll have to cover the costs of fulfilling the crowdfunding campaign perks. This includes the actual cost of purchasing certain items and packaging and shipping them. Here are just a few of them:

$20 Perk: A piece of history

Description: replica 11"X17" poster of the TAIWAN'S 400 YEAR HISTORY book cover signed by Su Beng

$30 Perk: Songs by Su Beng

Description: Audio CD titled TAIWAN WANTS INDEPENDENCE- songs by Su Beng

Track 1: Taiwan Nationalism

Track 2: Taiwan Independence Army Marching Song

$40 Perk: T-shirt of Courage

Description: This t-shirt was  specifically designed for Su Beng by Freddy Lim (of the band Chthonic). The Chinese characters on this t-shirt 大人大種 can be loosely translated as: a man of extraordinary courage.

What if I raise OVER $15,000?

I realize that three months is a pretty aggressive timeline since the biography is about 30 chapters long. Working on one chapter a week would work out to 30 weeks or seven and a half months. If I am able to raise up to $20,000 I could stay in Taipei for up to six months. Any additional funds raised beyond the initial goal also means that I will have more funds to pay for the cost of digitizing mini-DV video footage, i.e. the more funds, the more hours I will be able to digitize. I'll also need to purchase storage/back up space for the video footage and a new audio digital recorder. If enough additional funds are raised, I’d like to make the ebook of the newly revised English version of Taiwan’s 400 Year History available in print. 

How else can you help? Make and in-kind donation!

*To make an in-kind donation please contact me at: subeng.biographer[at]gmail.com

My two major expenses are airfare, and 3 months of accommodations in Taipei, so instead of a monetary donation you can make an in-kind donation such as:

1) a discounted flight ticket from New York to Taipei

2) sponsored accommodations for the entire duration or a short portion of my stay in Taipei 

3) suggestions for low cost housing options in Taipei

FINALLY, you can help simply by spreading the word and sharing this with others who you think would support my cause.

What will be the outcome of this crowdfunding campaign?

• A revised ebook of the English version of TAIWAN'S 400 YEAR HISTORY, which was first published in 1986 and is not out of print will be available

• A mini-ebook, called THE ACCIDENTAL BIOGRAPHER about Felicia’s personal experience as Su Beng Biographer will be written by Felicia Lin 

• A short video documentary about Su Beng will be created by Felicia Lin and Robin C. Adams
  

• Completion of research needed for the biography of Su Beng which will be published in a year's time

When will the biography of Su Beng get published?

Realistically, I cannot promise that the entire biography will be completed in the time that I spend in Taiwan. However my plan is that upon returning to New York from Taiwan, I will give myself one year to shop around the new book proposal to traditional publishers. During that time I will concurrently work on completing a manuscript for the biography. So if I can’t get a book deal within a year, my promise is to then consider self-publishing the biography.

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這是有關於什麼的計畫呢？ (What is this project about?)

這個計畫是有關紀錄史明的人生故事，也是一部有關台灣人奮鬥的歷史故事。史明是一位高齡96歲的台灣獨立運動者、前中國共產黨臥底、暗殺過蔣介石、歷史學家、也是“台灣四百年歷史”的作者－一本歷經18年完成、2000多頁講述台灣歷史第一本也是最完整的史書之一。直到現在，它仍然持續影響世世代代的台灣獨立運動者。

為什麼我需要募款美金15,000元? (Why do I need to raise $15,000?)

從2004 年至今，所有我做的一切事情，現金並不是我最主要的支出，因為我必須使用我個人的資源。目前我想我最主要的花費是從紐約到台北的機票錢，和三個月在台的生活費。第二大的花費主要是我需要數位化存在DV錄影機裡的影片。我從事這項運動的誘因之一是我和Robin Adams 將會製作一段有關史明的短篇紀錄片。未來，我將停止使用DVD帶來記錄，因為我想這將會減少花費並且減低有關額外影片的數位化。所以我想我將需要購買一台新的數位相機。最後，我將提供您所捐獻的同等價值的品項給您並負責把它們打包並寄送到您手上。