Iris Chang
Born: 1968 in Princeton, New Jersey
Died: 2004 in San Jose, California Pen Name: None Connection to Illinois: Iris was raised in the Champaign-Urbana, Illinois area. She attended University Laboratory High School of Urbana, Illinois; graduating in 1985. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Illinois in 1989. Biography: Chang worked briefly as a reporter for the Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune before completing a graduate degree in writing from the Johns Hopkins University and launching her career as a full-time author and lecturer.Chang had established herself as an invaluable source of information about Asia, human rights, and Asian American history. She wrote three books and died while working on her fourth. A book about the Bataan Death March in World War II. She interviewed surviving American soldiers and many of their stories were so gruesome that Chang had a breakdown. At the time of her death, she had been under a doctor's care and was taking anti-depressants and anti-psychotic drugs. Iris' death prompted her mother, Ying-Ying Chang, to write a memoir about her beloved daughter ''The Woman Who Could Not Forget: Iris Chang Before and Beyond the Rape of Nanking''. It is a glimpse at her daughter, from her home-made childhood newspaper, to her early years as a journalist and later, as a promising young historian, her struggles with her son's autism and her tragic suicide. Talking about her daughter's final days and the anti-psychotic drugs she had been prescribed for stress - they may have been appropriate doses for the Caucasion male test subjects, but entirely too much for small-framed Asian women like her daughter. Posthumously, at least three films, have been produced, about or inspired by Iris' book, ''The Rape of Nanking''. Iris Chang's extensive research documents and papers are housed at the Hoover Institution.
Awards:
Website: http://www.irischang.net
Iris Chang on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=iris+chang
Selected Titles
The Chinese in America : ISBN: 1402571658 OCLC: 57713838 Recorded Books, Prince Frederick, Md. : ℗2005. The suicide of acclaimed author Iris Chang, who has received numerous accolades for her work, has brought considerable attention to this encompassing creation. She employed meticulous research in this epic of Chinese- American history. The Chinese made outstanding achievements in politics, economics, and science. Despite 150 years of repression, their emotionally charged stories reveal their determination to avert racism and exclusionary laws. Their dreams, struggles and triumphs exemplify the spirit of America. |
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The Chinese in America : ISBN: 9781101126875 OCLC: 667589479 Penguin, New York : 2004, ©2003. |
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The rape of Nanking : ISBN: 0965604926 OCLC: 37281852 BasicBooks, New York, NY : ©1997. Details the massacre that took place in December 1937 when the Japanese army overthrew the ancient city of Nanking, China, and raped, tortured, and murdered over 300,000 civilians; examining the atrocity from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers, the Chinese civilians, and the Europeans and Americans who created a safety zone for survivors. |
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The woman who could not forget : ISBN: 9781453217641 OCLC: 769687063 Pegasus : New York : 2011. Iris Chang's best-selling book The Rape of Nanking forever changed the way we view the Second World War in Asia. It all began with a photo of a river choked with the bodies of hundreds of Chinese civilians that shook Iris to her core. Who were these people? Why had this happened and how could their story have been lost to history? She could not shake that image from her head. She could not forget what she had seen. A few short years later, Chang revealed this 'second Holocaust' to the world. But who was this woman that single-handedly swept away years of silence, secrecy and shame? Her mother, Ying-Ying, provides an enlightened and nuanced look at her daughter, from Iris' home-made childhood newspaper, to her early years as a journalist and later, as a promising young historian, her struggles with her son's autism and her tragic suicide. |
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Thread of the silkworm / ISBN: 0786114185 OCLC: 40983188 Blackstone Audio Books, Ashland, OR : ℗1998. The story of Tsien Hsue-shen, the brilliant, enigmatic, Chinese-born scientist who helped pioneer the American space age and, when rejected by the nation he sought to adopt as his own, became the undisputed father of the Chinese missile program. |
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Thread Of The Silkworm. ISBN: 9780786725656 OCLC: 819605466 Basic Books, New York : 2008. The definitive biography of Tsien Hsue-Shen, the pioneer of the American space age who was mysteriously accused of being a communist, deported, and became?to America's continuing chagrin?the father of |