The daughter of two mainland-born university professors who immigrated from Taiwan, Chang was born in Princeton, New Jersey and was raised in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, where she attended University Laboratory High School of Urbana, Illinois and graduated in 1985. She earned a bachelor's degree in Journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989, a master's degree in Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, and later worked as a New York Times stringer from Urbana-Champaign, in which capacity she wrote six front-page articles over the course of
新浪博客
The daughter of two mainland-born university professors who immigrated from Taiwan, Chang was born in Princeton, New Jersey and was raised in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, where she attended University Laboratory High School of Urbana, Illinois and graduated in 1985. She earned a bachelor's degree in Journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989, a master's degree in Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, and later worked as a New York Times stringer from Urbana-Champaign, in which capacity she wrote six front-page articles over the course of
one year.[1] After brief stints at the Associated Press and the
Chicago Tribune, she began her career as a writer, and also
lectured and wrote articles for various magazines.
She married Bretton Douglas, whom she had met in college, and had one son, Christopher, who was 2 years old at the time of her death. She lived in San Jose, California in the final years of her life.
Chang wrote three books that document the experiences of Asians and Chinese Americans in history.
Her first book, titled Thread of the Silkworm (1995),[2] tells the life story of the Chinese professor, Dr. Tsien Hsue-shen during the Red Scare in the 1950s. Although Tsien was one of the founders of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and helped the military of the United States debrief scientists from Nazi Germany for many years, he was suddenly falsely accused of being a spy, a member of the Communist Party USA, and placed under house arrest from 1950 to 1955. Dr. Tsien Hsue-shen left for the People's Republic of China in September of 1955 aboard the merchant ship President Cleveland. Upon his return to China, Tsien developed the Dongfeng missile program, and later the Silkworm missile, which ironically would later be used against the United States during the Persian Gulf War and the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.
The Rape of Nanking, Chang's most famous workHer second book, The Rape of Nanking (1997),[3] was published on the 60th anniversary of the Nanking Massacre, and was motivated in part by her own grandparents' stories about their escape from the massacre. It documents atrocities committed against Chinese by forces of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and includes interviews with victims. The book attracted both praise from some quarters for exposing the details of the atrocity, and criticism from others because of alleged inaccuracies. After publication of the book, she campaigned to persuade the Government of Japan to apologise for its troops' wartime conduct and to pay compensation. The work was the first popular English language work to deal exclusively on the atrocity itself, and remained on the New York Times Bestseller list for months. Based on this book, a documentary film, Nanking, will be released in 2007.
Her third book, The Chinese in America (2003),[4] is a history of Chinese-Americans which argues that Chinese Americans were treated as outsiders. Consistent with the style of her earlier works, the book relies heavily on personal accounts, drawing its strong emotional content from each of their stories. She writes: 'The America of today would not be the same America without the achievements of its ethnic Chinese. Scratch the surface of every American celebrity of Chinese heritage and you will find that, no matter how stellar their achievements, no matter how great their contribution to U.S. society, virtually all of them have had their identities questioned at one point or another.'
Success as an author propelled Iris Chang into becoming a public figure. The Rape of Nanking placed her in great demand as a speaker and as an interview subject, and, more broadly, as a spokesperson for an entire viewpoint that the Japanese government had not done enough to compensate victims of their invasion of China. This became a political issue in the United States shortly after the book was published; Chang was one of the major advocates of a Congressional resolution proposed in 1997 to have the Japanese government apologize for war crimes, and met with First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1999 to discuss the issue.[5] In one often mentioned incident (as the The Times of London reported it):
she confronted the Japanese Ambassador to the United States on television, demanded an apology and expressed her dissatisfaction with his mere acknowledgement 'that really unfortunate things happened, acts of violence were committed by members of the Japanese military'. 'It is because of these types of wording and the vagueness of such expressions that Chinese people, I think, are infuriated,' was her reaction. [6]
Iris Chang's visibility as a public figure increased with her final work The Chinese in America, where she argued that Chinese Americans were treated as outsiders.
After her death she became the subject of tributes from fellow writers. Mo Hayder dedicated a novel to her. Reporter Richard Rongstad eulogized her as 'Iris Chang lit a flame and passed it to others and we should not allow that flame to be extinguished.'
Chang suffered a nervous breakdown in August 2004, which her family and doctors attribute in part to constant sleep deprivation. At the time, she was several months into research for her fourth book, about the Bataan Death March, while simultaneously promoting The Chinese in America. While on route to Harrodsburg, Kentucky, where she planned to gain access to a 'time capsule' of audio recordings from servicemen, she suffered an extreme bout of depression that left her unable to leave her hotel room in Louisville. A local veteran who was assisting her research helped her check into Norton Psychiatric Hospital in Louisville, where she was diagnosed with reactive psychosis, placed on medication for three days and then released to her parents. After the release from the hospital, she still suffered from depression and was considered at risk for developing bipolar disorder.[7]
Chang's family and doctors attribute this condition in part to constant sleep deprivation. Chang was also reportedly deeply disturbed by much of the subject matter of her research. Her work in Nanjing left her physically weak, according to one of her co-researchers.[8]
On Tuesday, November 9, 2004 at about 9 a.m., Chang was found dead in her car by a county water district employee on a rural road south of Los Gatos and west of California State Route 17, in Santa Clara County. Investigators concluded that Chang had shot herself through the mouth with a revolver. At the time of her death she had been taking the medications Depakote and Risperdal to stabilize her mood.[7]
She left behind three suicide notes each dated Monday, November 8, 2004. 'Statement of Iris Chang' stated:
I promise to get up and get out of the house every morning. I will stop by to visit my parents then go for a long walk. I will follow the doctor's orders for medications. I promise not to hurt myself. I promise not to visit Web sites that talk about suicide.[7]
The next note was a draft of the third:
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. It is far better that you remember me as I was -- in my heyday as a best-selling author -- than the wild-eyed wreck who returned from Louisville... Each breath is becoming difficult for me to take -- the anxiety can be compared to drowning in an open sea. I know that my actions will transfer some of this pain to others, indeed those who love me the most. Please forgive me. Forgive me because I cannot forgive myself.
She married Bretton Douglas, whom she had met in college, and had one son, Christopher, who was 2 years old at the time of her death. She lived in San Jose, California in the final years of her life.
Chang wrote three books that document the experiences of Asians and Chinese Americans in history.
Her first book, titled Thread of the Silkworm (1995),[2] tells the life story of the Chinese professor, Dr. Tsien Hsue-shen during the Red Scare in the 1950s. Although Tsien was one of the founders of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and helped the military of the United States debrief scientists from Nazi Germany for many years, he was suddenly falsely accused of being a spy, a member of the Communist Party USA, and placed under house arrest from 1950 to 1955. Dr. Tsien Hsue-shen left for the People's Republic of China in September of 1955 aboard the merchant ship President Cleveland. Upon his return to China, Tsien developed the Dongfeng missile program, and later the Silkworm missile, which ironically would later be used against the United States during the Persian Gulf War and the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.
The Rape of Nanking, Chang's most famous workHer second book, The Rape of Nanking (1997),[3] was published on the 60th anniversary of the Nanking Massacre, and was motivated in part by her own grandparents' stories about their escape from the massacre. It documents atrocities committed against Chinese by forces of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and includes interviews with victims. The book attracted both praise from some quarters for exposing the details of the atrocity, and criticism from others because of alleged inaccuracies. After publication of the book, she campaigned to persuade the Government of Japan to apologise for its troops' wartime conduct and to pay compensation. The work was the first popular English language work to deal exclusively on the atrocity itself, and remained on the New York Times Bestseller list for months. Based on this book, a documentary film, Nanking, will be released in 2007.
Her third book, The Chinese in America (2003),[4] is a history of Chinese-Americans which argues that Chinese Americans were treated as outsiders. Consistent with the style of her earlier works, the book relies heavily on personal accounts, drawing its strong emotional content from each of their stories. She writes: 'The America of today would not be the same America without the achievements of its ethnic Chinese. Scratch the surface of every American celebrity of Chinese heritage and you will find that, no matter how stellar their achievements, no matter how great their contribution to U.S. society, virtually all of them have had their identities questioned at one point or another.'
Success as an author propelled Iris Chang into becoming a public figure. The Rape of Nanking placed her in great demand as a speaker and as an interview subject, and, more broadly, as a spokesperson for an entire viewpoint that the Japanese government had not done enough to compensate victims of their invasion of China. This became a political issue in the United States shortly after the book was published; Chang was one of the major advocates of a Congressional resolution proposed in 1997 to have the Japanese government apologize for war crimes, and met with First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1999 to discuss the issue.[5] In one often mentioned incident (as the The Times of London reported it):
she confronted the Japanese Ambassador to the United States on television, demanded an apology and expressed her dissatisfaction with his mere acknowledgement 'that really unfortunate things happened, acts of violence were committed by members of the Japanese military'. 'It is because of these types of wording and the vagueness of such expressions that Chinese people, I think, are infuriated,' was her reaction. [6]
Iris Chang's visibility as a public figure increased with her final work The Chinese in America, where she argued that Chinese Americans were treated as outsiders.
After her death she became the subject of tributes from fellow writers. Mo Hayder dedicated a novel to her. Reporter Richard Rongstad eulogized her as 'Iris Chang lit a flame and passed it to others and we should not allow that flame to be extinguished.'
Chang suffered a nervous breakdown in August 2004, which her family and doctors attribute in part to constant sleep deprivation. At the time, she was several months into research for her fourth book, about the Bataan Death March, while simultaneously promoting The Chinese in America. While on route to Harrodsburg, Kentucky, where she planned to gain access to a 'time capsule' of audio recordings from servicemen, she suffered an extreme bout of depression that left her unable to leave her hotel room in Louisville. A local veteran who was assisting her research helped her check into Norton Psychiatric Hospital in Louisville, where she was diagnosed with reactive psychosis, placed on medication for three days and then released to her parents. After the release from the hospital, she still suffered from depression and was considered at risk for developing bipolar disorder.[7]
Chang's family and doctors attribute this condition in part to constant sleep deprivation. Chang was also reportedly deeply disturbed by much of the subject matter of her research. Her work in Nanjing left her physically weak, according to one of her co-researchers.[8]
On Tuesday, November 9, 2004 at about 9 a.m., Chang was found dead in her car by a county water district employee on a rural road south of Los Gatos and west of California State Route 17, in Santa Clara County. Investigators concluded that Chang had shot herself through the mouth with a revolver. At the time of her death she had been taking the medications Depakote and Risperdal to stabilize her mood.[7]
She left behind three suicide notes each dated Monday, November 8, 2004. 'Statement of Iris Chang' stated:
I promise to get up and get out of the house every morning. I will stop by to visit my parents then go for a long walk. I will follow the doctor's orders for medications. I promise not to hurt myself. I promise not to visit Web sites that talk about suicide.[7]
The next note was a draft of the third:
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. It is far better that you remember me as I was -- in my heyday as a best-selling author -- than the wild-eyed wreck who returned from Louisville... Each breath is becoming difficult for me to take -- the anxiety can be compared to drowning in an open sea. I know that my actions will transfer some of this pain to others, indeed those who love me the most. Please forgive me. Forgive me because I cannot forgive myself.