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Volume 13, Issue #2. Published on Decmber 8, 2004
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Photo Penguin Books LTD.
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"Chinese in America" was Iris Chang's third published book.
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Communities Mourn Asian American Author
Iris Chang's gold mountains.
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Harim Martinez & Jodie Xiao
Asian Pacific Review
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A life’s work began in grade school for Iris Chang when she visited the library looking for anything about the Nanking massacre. Finding nothing, she wondered why no one had written about such a gory incident.
Two decades later, she corrected that problem.
After earning a degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Chang’s formal career began when she was hired by the Chicago Tribune and Associated Press. Later, she won a graduate fellowship to Johns Hopkins.
“Thread of the Silkworm” was Chang’s first book. It was critically acclaimed for its engrossing study of Cold War hysteria and the ironic tale of Dr. Tsien Hsue-shen. Born in China, but U.S. educated at M.I.T. and Cal Tech, Tsien was a noted professor and engineer.
He was instrumental in the founding of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and helping the U.S. military debrief Nazi scientists. During the McCarthy era, he was falsely branded a Communist and spy. Tsien was subsequently deported to China. He continued his work and went on to revolutionize the Chinese missile program.
During the first Gulf War, it was Tsien’s Silkworm missile, which would endanger U.S. warships.
Chang’s portfolio also includes notables as the New York Times, Newsweek, and the Los Angeles Times. She was featured in a gambit of media outlets including Nightline, the Jim Lehrer News Hour, Good Morning America and the cover of Reader’s Digest.
Her third book, published last year, “The Chinese in America: A Narrative History,” spans more than 150 years and delves into Chinese immigration and their descendants in the United States.
Widely acclaimed, it chronicles the intriguing history of those who sacrificed everything in search of opportunities at the almost mystical “gold mountain,” California.
Overcoming cultural barriers, prejudices and discrimination, they left their mark on American culture.
Ever searching truth, Chang expressed of her book as a message for readers that “history has to be continually updated and rewritten by future generations. This is by no means the last word on the Chinese in America. This is my personal interpretation of the 150-year epic history of Chinese in this country.”
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