Posted on 12/02/2004 10:35:32 AM PST by SteveH
Noted Author Iris Chang Dies
Was 2004 Commencement Speaker
By Cassia Clinton
Staff Writer
Cal State Hayward honorary alumna and bestselling author Iris Chang was found dead last week from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in a remote area outside of Los Gatos, said police. She was 36. Chang was awarded an honorary doctorate when she served as the keynote speaker at the CSUH commencement ceremony in June. In her speech, she challenged graduates to “Believe in the power of one.”
“Your path to freedom lies in your belief in the power of one person to make a difference,” she said. “Do not surrender that power to others. Do not drop out of the race before it even starts. Never, ever ask others for permission to follow your dreams, or to do what you know, in your heart of hearts, is right for you.”
Chang was an accomplished writer and speaker, authoring the first English full-length account of the Japanese occupation of China in the late 1930s. Her controversial best-selling novel, “The Rape of Nanking,” chronicled the torture and slaughter of the Chinese by the Japanese Imperial Army. Chang called the atrocity “clearly one of the worst instances of wartime violence afflicted upon a civilian population,” during a National Public Radio interview in 1994.
A New Jersey native, Chang was born in 1968 and raised in Champaign-Urbana, Ill. Chang graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
After working briefly as a reporter for The Associated Press and The Chicago Tribune, Chang returned to school. This time she studied at John Hopkins University where she received a master’s degree in writing. Chang’s first novel, “The Thread of the Silkworm,” was written when she was 25 years old and told the story of Tsien Hsue-shen, the Chinese- born physicist who was denied citizenship in the United States, deported and then went on to develop China’s missile program.
“The Rape of Nanking,” was published in 1997 and was her most famous work.
Her most recent novel, “The Chinese in America: A Narrative History,” was published last year and tells the history of Chinese immigrants, their decedents and the hardships they endured as a minority in America. Chang recently was hospitalized for a breakdown during a trip she took to research material for her latest novel about U.S. prisoners of war.
Close friend and fellow activist Ignatius Ding told the San Francisco Chronicle that he had noticed that Chang’s projects had begun to take a toll on her emotional well-being.
"She saw all the dark side of human history... that image just haunted her all the time. She cried a lot. She was just so depressed about the unfortunate past," said Ding, who heads the Global Alliance for Preserving the History of World War II in Asia.
According to officials from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department, Chang was found by a commuter on Nov. 9 on a remote private road near California Highway 17 between San Jose and Santa Crus.
She is survived by her parents, Shau-Jin and Ying-Ying Chang, her brother Michael Chang, her husband Bretton Lee Douglas and their 2-year old son Christopher.
"Iris Chang was found dead last week from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in a remote area outside of Los Gatos, said police. She was 36. Chang was awarded an honorary doctorate when she served as the keynote speaker at the CSUH commencement ceremony in June. In her speech, she challenged graduates to “Believe in the power of one...bullet."
Thanks for the CSU-Hayward/Iris Chang post
Agreed. However unlikely it may seem, anything's possible.
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How sad. I saw her talking about her book once. She seemed to be a very likeable woman. A lot of very dfficult and sad research went into it.
Not funny
A good quote.
Ms Chang ruffled quite a few features but there are other personal factors as noted in the story.
Let me apologize, if you found my humor distasteful. I was overcome by the irony of what she taught versus how she selfishly choose to leave this world.
I would agree there is an irony to it. It is just that her work was so good and it is such a shame that she was so unbalanced in her mind that she would feel the need to end her life. Her death is a real loss to the historical community
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