Iris Chang - Author.

Contact:Yen Cheong
212-366-2275
yen.cheong@us.penguingroup.com

Kimberly Taylor
212-366-2224
kimberly.taylor@us.penguingroup.com

From the Best-Selling Author of The Rape Of Nanking Comes the Story of One of America’s Largest Ethnic Groups

THE CHINESE IN AMERICA
A NARRATIVE HISTORY

By IRIS CHANG

“If you are hungry for the history of the American experience, THE CHINESE IN AMERICA is a must-read. We are fortunate to have the incomparable Iris Chang tell this important and timely story.”
—James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers

“In this richly detailed book, Iris Chang skillfully weaves together the broad historical panorama of Chinese migration with fascinating case studies of individual Chinese immigrants and the lives they made for themselves in the United States. I know of no better introduction to this multilayered and emotionally charged story.”
—Jonathan Spence, author of The Search for Modern China

“… a solid addition in a far-from-exhausted field.”
—Kirkus

Iris Chang made headlines in 1997 with the publication of The Rape of Nanking—a meticulously researched and brilliantly rendered examination of the sacking of that great city by Japanese soldiers during World War II. Many readers of The Rape of Nanking responded to its themes of the fight for justice and the assertion of cultural identity—themes Chang expands upon in her new book, THE CHINESE IN AMERICA: A Narrative History (Viking; On-sale Date: April 28, 2003; 512 pages; $29.95).

Chang, the daughter Chinese immigrants, has written an extraordinary narrative that encompasses the history of one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States, an epic story that spans 150 years. She explores not only the initial wave of Chinese men who migrated to America in the 1800s to build the railroads, but also the second wave in the 1950s and ’60s of intellectuals fleeing Communist China, and finally the third wave in the last decades of the 20th century of people seeking better lives for themselves and their families.

Buffeted between the exclusionary immigration acts and an outpouring of good will precipitated by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Chinese in America have faced immense hardships but have also achieved great success. Chang explores the stories of these individuals—the laborers’ whose initiative made possible the laying of railroad track across precipitous mountain ranges; the immigrants who were detained, sometimes for years, at San Francisco’s Angel Island; the cooks who (inadvertently) invented chop suey and chow mein, and many, many more.

Chang challenges commonly held—and sometimes incorrect—notions to reveal the breadth of the Chinese experience in this country. Often stereotyped as a passive group, Chang shows how the Chinese in America actually have a long history of activism, from a week-long strike by Chinese railroad workers in the 1800s to the joint efforts of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Red Guard Party and the Black Panthers in the 1960s. Chang also discusses the unique position of the small and little-known Chinese community in the Deep South, where for generations they have delicately straddled the racial divide. Perhaps more unknown still is the frequency of intermarriage between Chinese men and women of all ethnic groups in the 19th century. In fact, a popular play of the time mocked Chinese-Irish unions.

In THE CHINESE IN AMERICA, Chang takes a fresh look at what it means to be an American and draws a complex portrait of the many accomplishments of the Chinese in their adopted country—it is a saga of raw human tenacity and a testament to the determination of a people to forge an identity and destiny in a strange land.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Iris Chang, author of Thread of the Silkworm and The Rape of Nanking, is the recipient of the MacArthur Foundation’s Program on Peace and International Cooperation Award and the Woman of the Year Award from the Organization of Chinese Americans. She lives in California.

THE CHINESE IN AMERICA: A Narrative History
By Iris Chang
ISBN: 0-670-03123-2
Imprint: Viking
On-sale Date: April 28, 2003 Pages: 512
Price: $29.95

Also available from Penguin Books:
The Rape of Nanking Penguin; November 1998; ISBN 0140277447; $14.95

For more information or to arrange an interview with the author, contact:
Yen Cheong, Senior Publicist
212-366-2275 ph / 212-366-2952 fax / yen.cheong@us.penguingroup.com

or Kimberly Taylor
212-366-2224 ph / 212-366-2952 fax / kimberly.taylor@us.penguingroup.com

Please visit our web site at www.penguin.com or irischang.net.

Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children’s trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Berkley Books, Dutton, Frederick Warne, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, Grosset & Dunlap, New American Library, Penguin, Philomel, Riverhead Books and Viking, among others. The Penguin Group is part of Pearson plc, the international media company.