Background
Iris Chang was born on March 28, 1968, Princeton, New Jersey, to a family of Taiwan migrants. She spent her childhood in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.
Iris Chang and her book The Rape of Nankin.
1212 W Springfield Ave, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Iris Chang attended University Laboratory High School of Urbana in Illinois and graduated in 1985 with a Computer Science Major.
Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Iris Chang earned a Master's degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1991.
Champaign, IL, USA
Iris Chang earned a Bachelor's degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989.
Iris Chang presents her books.
Iris Chang presents her books.
Iris Chang's portrait.
1212 W Springfield Ave, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Iris Chang attended University Laboratory High School of Urbana in Illinois and graduated in 1985 with a Computer Science Major.
Champaign, IL, USA
Iris Chang earned a Bachelor's degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989.
Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Iris Chang earned a Master's degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1991.
Iris Chang presents her books.
Iris Chang presents her books.
2004
Bretton Douglas - Iris Chang's husband, at her funeral.
Iris Chang's mother, Ying-Ying Chang, stands with her husband - Shau-Jin, in the background.
Shau-Jin Chang, the father of Iris Chang, stands near the statue of his daughter.
The portrait of Christopher Douglas - Iris Chang's son.
(The New York Times bestselling account of one of history'...)
The New York Times bestselling account of one of history's most brutal - and forgotten - massacres, when the Japanese army destroyed China's capital city on the eve of World War II In December 1937, one of the most horrific atrocities in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred. The Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking (what was then the capital of China), and within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were systematically raped, tortured, and murdered. In this seminal work, Iris Chang, whose own grandparents barely escaped the massacre, tells this history from three perspectives: that of the Japanese soldiers, that of the Chinese, and that of a group of Westerners who refused to abandon the city and created a safety zone, which saved almost 300,000 Chinese.
https://www.amazon.com/Rape-Nanking-Forgotten-Holocaust-World/dp/0465068367/?tag=2022091-20
1991
(The definitive biography of Tsien Hsue-Shen, the pioneer ...)
The definitive biography of Tsien Hsue-Shen, the pioneer of the American space age who was mysteriously accused of being a communist, deported to America's continuing chagrin and became the father of the Chinese missile program. 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 the Chinese missile program.
https://www.amazon.com/Thread-Silkworm-Iris-Chang/dp/0465006787/?tag=2022091-20
1995
(In an epic story that spans 150 years and continues to th...)
In an epic story that spans 150 years and continues to the present day, Iris Chang tells of a people’s search for a better life - the determination of the Chinese to forge an identity and a destiny in a strange land and, often against great obstacles, to find success. She chronicles the many accomplishments in America of Chinese immigrants and their descendents: building the infrastructure of their adopted country, fighting racist and exclusionary laws, walking the racial tightrope between black and white, contributing to major scientific and technological advances, expanding the literary canon, and influencing the way we think about racial and ethnic groups. Interweaving political, social, economic, and cultural history, as well as the stories of individuals, Chang offers a bracing view not only of what it means to be Chinese American but also of what it is to be American.
https://www.amazon.com/Chinese-America-Narrative-History/dp/0142004170/?tag=2022091-20
2003
Iris Chang was born on March 28, 1968, Princeton, New Jersey, to a family of Taiwan migrants. She spent her childhood in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.
Iris Chang attended University Laboratory High School of Urbana in Illinois and graduated in 1985 with a Computer Science Major. She later switched to journalism, earning a Bachelor's degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989. Chang also earned a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1991.
Chang worked as a writer. Her first book was the nonfiction Thread of the Silkworm, published in 1995, but critical acclaim came with her second title, The Rape of Nanking. Chang spent two years researching the book after learning from her family that her grandparents survived the 1937 event in which, as the author reported, hundreds of thousands of Chinese were tortured, raped, and murdered by occupying Japanese forces. The book became a bestseller, earned the respect of contemporary historians, and spurred Chang's work as a social and civil rights activist. In 2003, she released The Chinese in America: A Narrative History, but while researching her fourth book, which concerned U.S. prisoners of war in the Philippines during World War II, Chang suffered a profound emotional breakdown. She was hospitalized for several months, but apparently not cured of her depression. Her body was found in her car along a highway near Los Gatos, California, with a gunshot wound to the head, believed to be self-inflicted.
(The New York Times bestselling account of one of history'...)
1991(In an epic story that spans 150 years and continues to th...)
2003(The definitive biography of Tsien Hsue-Shen, the pioneer ...)
1995Iris Chang was deeply shocked by the subject she was doing research on. The Rape of Nankin affected her maternal grandparents and made Chang a socially active person. She demanded an apology and indemnification from the Japanese officials.
Quotations: "When you believe you have a future, you think in terms of generations and years. When you do not, you live not just by the day - but by the minute."
Physical Characteristics: Iris Chang suffered depression, sleep deprivation, and mental breakdown. Side effects of several medications she was taking and mental problems led to her suicide in 2004.
Quotes from others about the person
“She is carrying the torch.” - Ignatius Ding of Cupertino, executive vice president of the Global Alliance for Preserving the History of WWII in Asia
Iris Chang was married to Bretton Douglas on August 17, 1991. She had a son, named Christopher, born in 2002.
