Iris Shun-Ru Chang (simplified Chinese: 张纯如; traditional Chinese: 張純如; pinyin: Zhāng Chúnrú; March 28, 1968 – November 9, 2004) was an American historian and journalist. She is best known for her best-selling 1997 account of the Nanking Massacre, The Rape of Nanking. She committed suicide on November 9, 2004. Chang is the subject of the 2007 biography, Finding Iris Chang,^[1] and the 2007 documentary film Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking.^[2]

Early life[link]

The daughter of two university professors who emigrated from China, Chang was born in Princeton, New Jersey and 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, during which time she also worked as a New York Times stringer from Urbana-Champaign, and wrote six front-page articles over the course of one year. After brief stints at the Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune she pursued a master's degree in Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.^[3] She then embarked on her career as an author, and lectured and wrote magazine articles. She married Bretton Lee 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.

Works[link]

Chang wrote three books documenting the experiences of Asians and Chinese Americans in history. Her first, Thread of the Silkworm (1995),^[4] tells the life story of the Chinese professor, 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 for many years helped the military of the United States debrief scientists from Nazi Germany, he was suddenly accused of being a spy and a member of the Communist Party USA, and was placed under house arrest from 1950 to 1955. Tsien left for the People's Republic of China in September 1955. Upon his return to China, Tsien developed the Dongfeng missile program, and later the Silkworm missile, which would be used by the Iraqi military during its war on Iran and ironically against the United States-led coalitions during Gulf Wars One and Two.

Her second book, The Rape of Nanking:The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II (1997),^[5] 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 work was the first English-language nonfiction account of the atrocity,^[6] and remained on the New York Times Bestseller list for 10 weeks.^[6] Based on the book, an American documentary film, Nanking, was released in 2007.

The book attracted both praise for exposing the alleged details of the atrocity, and criticism because of bias and inaccuracies. Daqing Yang, a professor at George Washington University, wrote that "the publication of Iris Chang's book in 1997, with its numerous factual errors, handed the conservatives a much needed opportunity to blame the Nanking Massacre on the conspiracy of a second-generation Chinese American journalist." Alvin D Coox, a professor at San Diego State University, said of Chang's book, "As a work of history, Chang's book is flawed, as we have sought to demonstrate. If it is a politically motivated work of partisan propaganda, it is successful to a certain degree. But shouldn't Chang's compassion extend to the healing of old wounds rather than their revival?"^[7] After publication of the book, Chang campaigned to persuade the Japanese government to apologize for its troops' wartime conduct and to pay compensation.

Her third book, The Chinese in America (2003),^[8] is a history of Chinese-Americans that argued that Chinese Americans were treated as perpetual outsiders. Consistent with the style of her earlier works, the book relied heavily on personal accounts, drawing its strong emotional content from their stories. She wrote, "The America of today would not be the same America without the achievements of its ethnic Chinese," and that "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."^[9]

Public notability[link]

Success as an author made Iris Chang into 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 the 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 urge the Japanese government to apologize for war crimes, and she met with First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1999 to discuss the issue.^[10] In one often-mentioned incident (as reported by the The Times of London):

...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.^[11]

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 perpetual 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."

In 2007, the documentary Nanking was dedicated to Chang, as well as the Chinese victims of Nanking.

Depression and death[link]

A bronze statue of Iris Chang at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall in Nanjing

Chang suffered a nervous breakdown in August 2004, which her family, friends and doctors attributed 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 continued to suffer from depression and was considered at risk for developing bipolar disorder.^[12] 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.^[13]

On 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 (California) and west of 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.^[12]

It was later discovered that she had left behind three suicide notes each dated 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.^[12]

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.^[14]

The third note included:

There are aspects of my experience in Louisville that I will never understand. Deep down I suspect that you may have more answers about this than I do. I can never shake my belief that I was being recruited, and later persecuted, by forces more powerful than I could have imagined. Whether it was the CIA or some other organization I will never know. As long as I am alive, these forces will never stop hounding me.

Days before I left for Louisville I had a deep foreboding about my safety. I sensed suddenly threats to my own life: an eerie feeling that I was being followed in the streets, the white van parked outside my house, damaged mail arriving at my P.O. Box. I believe my detention at Norton Hospital was the government's attempt to discredit me.

I had considered running away, but I will never be able to escape from myself and my thoughts. I am doing this because I am too weak to withstand the years of pain and agony ahead.^[14]

Reports said that news of her suicide hit the massacre survivor community in Nanjing hard.^[13] In tribute to Chang, the survivors held a service at the same time as her funeral, held at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Cupertino, California on November 12, 2004, at the victims' memorial hall in Nanjing. In 2005, the victims memorial hall in Nanjing, which collects documents, photos, and human remains from the massacre, added a wing dedicated to Chang.

See also[link]

• John Rabe
• Tsien Hsue-shen
• Massacre of Nanjing
• Nanking (film)
• American born Chinese

Bibliography[link]

• Chang, Iris (1996). Thread of the Silkworm. Basic Books. pp. 352. ISBN 978-0-465-00678-6. 
• Chang, Iris (1997). The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. Basic Books. pp. 290. ISBN 978-0-465-06835-7. 
• Chang, Iris (2004). The Chinese in America. A Narrative History. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-200417-0.  (Nachdruck)

References[link]

External links[link]

• IrisChang.net — the official home page of Iris Chang
• Guide to the Iris Chang Papers at the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives of the University of California at Santa Barbara. The link on this webpage leads to a detailed PDF listing of materials called "GUIDE TO THE IRIS CHANG PAPERS: 1923-2002: [Bulk Dates 1980 - 1995]" (Collection No. CEMA 039: occupying 33.5 linear feet, donated by Iris Chang on July 2, 1995)
• Inventory of the Iris Chang papers at the Hoover Institution Archives of Stanford University. The PDF link leads to the detailed listing called: "Inventory of the Iris Chang papers, 1877-2007" (Collection No. 2004C22: 403 manuscript boxes, 4 cubic foot boxes, 5 oversize boxes, 1 oversize folder, occupying 177.6 linear feet, acquired by the collection posthumously in 2004, with a substantial increment in 2005, and an additional increment in 2011)
• Inventory of the Iris Chang Papers -Alumni Records at the University of Illinois. Clicking the PDF link will lead to the document: "Iris Chang Papers 1937-1938, 1981-1990, 1996-2003" (Collection No. 26/20/122: 17 boxes, 3.4 cubic feet, acquired May 24, 2002). As well there is an additional listing for a second Academic collection for the periods 1937-1938, 1981-1990, 1998 & 2002 (Collection No. 26/20/122, 2.3 cubic feet, 3 boxes)
• Global Alliance for Preserving the History of World War II in Asia — an NGO whose mission was to educate the world about the unrecognized wartime horrors committed by Japan in the Pacific theater
• Booknotes interview with Chang on Rape of Nanking, January 11, 1998.
• "Nightmare in Nanking", an essay by Sue De Pasquale about Chang's book The Rape of Nanking, Humanities and the Arts, John Hopkins Magazine
• Iris Chang radio interview — June 22, 2003 on KQED FM Forum
• Iris Chang The Movie - A feature film following the story of Iris Chang
• Iris Chang Memorial Fund - The fund is committed to carrying out Iris Chang's unfinished dreams and preserving her legacy
• "The Passion of Iris Chang", an interview of Anne Pick and Bill Spahic about their docu-drama ‘Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking.’ about Iris Chang and her book on the Nanking massacre, AOL Entertainment Canada
• Galbraith, Douglas A Winter in China, 2006. A novel examining the western experience in the International Safety Zone during the Nanking Massacre. It made extensive use of Chang's work.
• Finding Iris Chang by Paula Kamen, published 2008
• The Woman Who Could Not Forget - a memoir about Iris Chang by Iris Chang's mother, Ying-Ying Chang, published 2011

Olivia Cheng (Chinese: 鄭文雅, Pinyin: Zheng Wenya), born 14 February 1960, is a Hong Kong based former actress. She won the 1979 Miss Hong Kong Pageant and was also elected "Miss Photogenic." She represented Hong Kong in Miss Universe 1979 in Perth, Western Australia, where she went unplaced but ranked a very respectable 21st place in the preliminary swimsuit competition. Olivia created a controversy when she joined ATV (the arch-rival of TVB, the organiser of the Miss Hong Kong pageant) immediately after crowning her successor in 1980. This incident embarrassed TVB so much that in 1981, TVB decided to sign 1.5-year contracts with all Miss Hong Kong winners so that they had to stay with TVB for at least 6 months after their reign was over.

Subsequently Olivia she was the cover model of the first issue of Playboy magazine's Hong Kong edition, appearing in a topless pictorial inside. More pictures from the same photo session, filmed by Kevin Orpin in Boracay, later appeared as a large format book.

A high jump champion in secondary school, Olivia is known for her sporty and active image. She is a golf pro and teaches golf now.

Filmography[link]

• Blue Lightning (1991) - Ellen Fong
• A Killer's Blues (1990) - Wai
• Trouble Couple (1990) (V)
• Mr. Coconut (1989) - Ping
• The Wild Ones (1989) - Sandy Kwong
• The Happy Bigamist (1987)
• Sapporo Story (1987)
• Millionaire's Express (1986) - Siu-Hon
• The Missed Date (1986) - May
• United We Stand (1986)
• Why Me? (1985) - Koko
• Hong Kong Graffiti (1985) - Susan Yang
• Mr. Virgin (1984)
• Till Death Do We Scare (1982) - Irene Leen
• The Spooky Bunch (1980) (credited as Meng-Har Cheng)

External links[link]

• Olivia Cheng at the Internet Movie Database
• Pictures on Miss Hong Kong website
• Information at misshkbeauties.com

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