Iris Chang on her book, The Chinese in America: A Narrative History

1 min readMar 17, 2021

Interviewed by Daniel C. Tsang

In 2003 I had the chance to talk with Iris Chang, best known for previously delving into The Rape of Nanking. She also wrote Thread of the Silkworm.

We discussed on KUCI’s Subversity Show on 10 June 2003 how she came about to do a book on the Chinese in the U.S., published by Viking, and why she thought it is important to document sources. She discusses using the US National Archives (a “treasure”) in her works.

Little did I know then the enthusiastic voice I and the listening audience heard would soon be silenced. No doubt tormented by the darkness that would envelope her having interviewed the Nanking survivors earlier, she would take her own life the following year.

I am glad, however, her voice in our interview is preserved here for posterity.

2003 interview: audio is now converted from RealAudio to mp3:

https://www.kuci.org/podcastfiles/600/Sv030610%20(1).mp3

Iris Chang on her book, The Chinese in America: A Narrative History

Written by Daniel C. Tsang