Every life, a treasure.
Every story, a love.

Every family, your identity.
Every community, our wisdom.

A video-first Capture Platform connecting one Story Teller to one Story Keeper.

Treasures Bowl connects generations, whoever you are, in a reciprocal friendship and video archive that's fun and meaningful.

We start before window closes

Next 5 years

70M Alive today, born 1940 or earlier

2 wks A language disappears

Take the Survey · Closes Sept 20 Get Involved Meet the Founder ↓

Why Now?

A window closing daily

A multigenerational family sharing a meal together

Only 1% of the world's population lives past 85. This generation — WWII survivors, witnesses of decolonization, first-generation diaspora — holds irreplaceable lived memory, rarely recorded: the grandmother who ran a market stall, the grandfather who rebuilt after the war. We have five years to reach the 70 million who are still here.

By video — capturing voice, gesture, and pause — since more than 80% of people over 85 have some hearing loss. And urgency: a living language disappears every two weeks.

We start with the Chinese diaspora — an estimated 70 million people worldwide, and a community our founding team can reach — and invite every other diaspora and community group to join as Bowl Circles.

Our focus is those born in 1940 or earlier — the generation at greatest risk of being lost. Story Tellers born through 1950 are warmly welcome too, widening the circle while we race to reach the oldest first.

What is Treasures Bowl?

What if every person’s wisdom could be passed on? Treasures Bowl removes what stands in the way — language, hearing, distance — pairing a Story Teller with a Story Keeper for one real video conversation that grows into a living archive for future generations.

Each conversation is guided by vetting and prompts that make sharing safe and easy, on a device-agnostic Capture Platform that rewards the Story Keeper's time. All content is consent-only, revocable throughout, and owned by the Story Teller and Story Keeper.

A Story Keeper interviewing a Story Teller in a Yunnan village

聽

In Chinese tradition, the character for “to listen” is composed of ear, eyes, undivided attention, and heart — true listening happens only when all four align.

How a Connection Happens

This is the Singapore Prototype Trial — to be tested and refined.

Identify

Objective and value — pay in, or receive.

Match & connect

In person, Singapore pilot.

Interact

Guided prompts, video or audio — with Story Teller's consent.

Depth ladder: five senses → historical events → personal reflections → humorous/kind legacy momento.
Reciprocal vulnerability: the Story Keeper answers first, briefly, before asking.

Co-create Video Clip — 30–90 seconds, published to the Share Platform.

Actualize

“Best Bowl” — compete for a prize for best Video Clip.
“Pass the Bowl” — nominate another Story Keeper for a vibrant community.
“Treasures Bowl Jam” — perform show of visual montage and soundscape music.

Why Treasures Bowl

Treasures for the Person. Treasures for the World.

We capture video, not journals.

Authentic stories carry clear truth. Treasures Bowl builds the pathway to wisdom through one-to-one, live video — because more than 80% of people over 85 live with some hearing loss, and expression carries meaning audio alone loses.

We train each Story Keeper to practice presence.

Patient observation builds emotional resilience. Guided prompts also surface the ancestral foods and habits that carried a family’s wellbeing across generations.

We are for the Common Folk — and we pass the bowl.

Unlike self-serve tools or general-purpose archives, Treasures Bowl is built to bridge dialect and culture, not just capture whatever language happens to be spoken — inclusively, for every diaspora and generation. It’s designed to offer real livelihood for the Story Tellers, Story Keepers, and communities who fill it.

We’re building an archive, not just a keepsake.

Treasures Bowl’s Share Platform will hold the breadth of ancestral wisdom for living consciously alongside the natural world — across genders, ages, and cultures, East and West.

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Where Treasures Bowl Sits

From card decks to national archives, most approaches sit at one end or the other. Treasures Bowl is built where facilitated, trained listening meets a collective, licensable archive.

Consumer / retail-funded Family / per-project-funded Philanthropy-funded Government-funded ★Hybrid — testing (Treasures Bowl)

Now – December 2026

The Singapore Prototype Scoop

This Singapore trial is our template for a viable social enterprise that leverages AI for Good — testing, in real time, the friction between Story Teller and Story Keeper, the tech that might ease it, and the model that sustains it all. Together, we’re building toward an ecosystem that’s simple, accessible, and fun.

72,800 Singapore citizens aged 85 and older

300 Stories, our pilot goal

Singapore Snapshot

72,800 citizens aged 85 and older call Singapore home today. Nearly 6 in 10 speak a Chinese dialect — Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese — as their home language, one their own grandchildren often can’t speak back. And 6 in 10 already live under the same roof as their children: the Story Keeper is often a few steps away, not a plane ride.

Prototype Scoop Timeline

Now through September 20 — Community survey open, help shape the pilot. September 22 — Focus Group #1. Late October — Focus Group #2. October to December — Pilot MVP to collect up to 300 stories. November — Pilot live interactive video and sound show.

Dates are directional and will evolve as the pilot progresses.

For Volunteers who want to Prototype

Story by Family · TB Kin

Ask Your Grandma About Her Grandma

Any family relation, self-guided, no intermediary. A grandchild or great-grandchild is a priority.

Start with Your Own Family

Story by Community · TB Youth

Ask Your Elders About Their Elders

Non-relative. Age 19 and below. Connected and vetted through a school, senior home, or community partner. We are testing incentives, including “Best Bowl” prizes.

Join as a Community Story Keeper

Story by Community · TB Friend

Volunteer to Listen

Non-relative. Age 20 and above. Mission driven. Institution-vouched. No incentive.

Join as a Community Friend

For Partners who want to Expand Treasures Bowl

Corporate Sponsors

Sponsor the Bowl Jam

Named sponsorship of Treasures Bowl Jam’s visual montage and live soundscape show.

Discuss Sponsorship

Philanthropic Partners

Fund the Mission

Grants, in-kind support, and sponsorship — for funders who want these stories preserved.

Explore Partnership

Technology Partners

Build the Tools

From archive infrastructure to wearable translation and hearing-assist devices — help us build the technology that lets every Story Teller be heard, in their own words, their own tongue.

Explore Technology Partnership

TB Bowl Circle

Anchor a Community

Bring Treasures Bowl to your own community once our Singapore Pilot concludes. New ‘Bowl Circle’ terms confirmed post-Scoop.

Express Interest

Founder

Mother and daughter connecting — precious and fun. ✦There once was an ahma 阿妈 with tattles,
Of healing food and typhoon rattles,
Her grandkid pressed ‘record’,
Videoed wisdom, not bored,
Now her laughs become family chattels.

April Swando Hu 🔗

Founder & Executive Chair · 不忘初心

Oldest sister of five · mother of four · Yale University BSc Electrical Engineering · Stanford MBA · Certified Integral Coach · Chair, Yale International Alliance · Founder, Zigen Fund · 5× Edu-Tech Entrepreneur

Why I Started Treasures Bowl

My mother is 87. I’ve spent ten years trying to finish a book and a film about her and her generation of friends, part of the Chinese diaspora in America. I’m still trying. That effort became the seed for Treasures Bowl, a way to capture these stories before they’re gone, easily, for every family, not just mine.

April with her mother, stepfather, and brother

April with an elder from her mother's generation

Origin of Name

I chose Treasures Bowl 聚寶盆 for its folklore: long ago, the Jade Emperor kept it at the center of his Heavenly Palace, until the mischievous Monkey King kicked it down to Earth — where it went on to enable countless kind deeds by multiplying any good thing placed inside it.

“Listen to the reed, how it tells a tale, complaining of separation.”

بشنو از نی چون حکایت می‌کند · از جدایی‌ها شکایت می‌کند

— Rumi, Masnavi, Book I

“Know the strength of the masculine, but keep the gentleness of the feminine — and become the valley stream of the world.”

知其雄,守其雌,為天下溪。

— Laozi, Tao Te Ching · 老子,《道德經》

Join the Founding Team

Actively recruiting a Founding CEO, Fractional CFO (financial model, IP structure), and CTO — all mission-aligned, result-bearing roles.

Enquire About Roles

Reach Out