Iris Chang

Iris Shun-Ru Chang (Traditional Chinese: 張純如, Simplified Chinese: 张纯如; Pinyin: Zhāng Chúnrú; March 28, 1968–November 9, 2004) was a freelance Chinese American historian and journalist. She was best known for her popular but controversial account of the Nanjing Massacre, The Rape of Nanking. She committed suicide in 2004 after suffering from depression.

Works

Though not a trained historian, Chang wrote three notable works that document the experiences of Asians and Chinese Americans in history.

Related Topics:
Asian - Chinese American

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Her first book, titled Thread of the Silkworm (1995), 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 U.S military debrief Nazi scientists for many years, he was suddenly falsely accused of being a spy, Communist Party member, 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 return to China, Tsien developed the Dongfeng missile program, and later the Silkworm missile, which would endanger U.S. warships during the Persian Gulf War. The USS Missouri was attacked by two Iraqi Silkworm missiles in February of 1991, but only debris hit the Missouri as two Sea Dart missiles fired from the HMS Gloucester took out the Silkworms. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the US, a Silkworm missile was fired at Kuwait.

Related Topics:
Thread of the Silkworm - Chinese - Tsien Hsue-shen - Red Scare - 1950s - NASA - Jet Propulsion Laboratory - 1950 - People's Republic of China - Dongfeng missile - Silkworm missile - Persian Gulf War - February - 1991

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Her second book, the best selling The Rape of Nanking (1997), documents the massacre of Chinese by Japanese soldiers during World War II, and includes interviews with victims. The book attracted both praise from some quarters and criticism from others of alleged inaccuracies. After publication of the book, she campaigned to persuade the Japanese government to apologise for its troops' wartime conduct and to pay compensation. Finally, The Chinese in America (2003) describes the overall history of Chinese immigrants.

Related Topics:
The Rape of Nanking - 1997 - Japanese - World War II - The Chinese in America - 2003

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The book was published on the 60th anniversary of The Rape of Nanking, and was motivated in part by her own grandparent's stories about their escape from the massacre. The work is best known for its focus on oral history, and was the first popular English work to deal exclusively on the atrocity itself. It was a New York Times Bestseller and remained on the list for months. It won praise particularly for the accounts of the massacre and atrocities, including mass rape, which occurred.

Related Topics:
The Rape of Nanking - Oral history - New York Times Bestseller

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The controversy surrounding the work is an extension of controversy surrounding the Japanese denials of the massacre generally, and Iris Chang's working methods. Several reviewers criticised her tone and her belief that a conspiracy of silence surrounded research. Historian Robert Entenmann stated "Chang seems unable to differentiate between some members of the ultranationalist fringe and other Japanese." Many reviews criticised the historical background on Japan as being inaccurate and simplistic, or failing to use the appropriate terms for historical eras.

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Chang's defenders point out that many of the sources cited in criticising the work made errors larger than Chang was accused of - for example one common source was Hata Ikuhito and his work "The Nanking Atrocities: Fact and Fable" published in 1998, which contained an implausibly low estimate of fatalities. http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/reviewswc3.htm#6

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Her third work The Chinese in America would not achieve the same level of noteriety. While favorably reviewed, some writers friendly to her work such as Adrienne Mong would note, "at times, it seems she glosses over some of the more significant general events..."

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