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The Chinese in America
A Narrative History
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The Chinese in America
A Narrative History

By Iris Chang
Illustrated by Nancy Resnick

2003, 496 pages, Paperback.
Book Description From the Back Cover
Author's Description
Comments From the Back Cover
Miscellaneous Comments on the Book
About the Author

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Book Description From the Back Cover

Bestselling author Iris Chang takes on her largest subject yet in The Chinese in America, the extraordinary history of one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the United States. In an epic story that spans 150 years and continues to the present day, Iris Chang tells of a people's search for a better life and the determination of the Chinese to forge an identity and a destiny in a strange land and, often against great obstacles, to find success.

In the course of her narrative, Chang chronicles the many accomplishments of Chinese immigrants and their descendents in America: building the transcontinental railroad, working on southern plantations after the Civil War, fighting racist and exclusionary laws, walking the racial tightrope between black and white, contributing to major scientific and technological advances, expanding the literary canon, and influencing the way we think about racial and ethnic groups. At the heart of her book are the stories of individuals - the activists, workers, entrepreneurs, politicians, scientists, writers, and families whose lives, struggles, and victories have shaped and been shaped by this history.

Interweaving political, social, economic, and cultural history, as well as the stories of individuals, Chang offers a bracing view not only of what it means to be Chinese American, but also of what it is to be American.

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Author's Description

The story of the Chinese in America is the story of a journey, from one of the world's oldest civilizations to one of its newest. The United States was still a very young country when the Chinese began arriving in significant numbers, and the wide-ranging contributions of these immigrants to the building of their adopted country have made it what it is today.

This book essentially tells two stories. The first explains why at certain times in China's history certain Chinese made the very hard and frightening decision to leave the country of their ancestors and the company of their own people to make a new life for themselves in the United States.

The second story examines what happened to these Chinese emigrets once they got here. Did they struggle to find their place in the United States? Did they succeed? And if so, how much more difficult was their struggle because of the racism and xenophobia of other Americans? What were the dominant patterns of assimilation? It would be expected that the first-arriving generations of Chinese, like the first generations of other immigrant groups, would resist the assimilation of their children. But to what degree, and how successfully?

This is just the beginning of the stories...

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Comments From the Back Cover

"A thought-provoking overview of how the Chinese have been an integral part of American history...An exemplary achievement."
- The Christian Science Monitor

"Richly detailed...I know of no better introduction to this multi-layered and emotionally charged story."
-Jonathan D. Spence, Sterling Professor of History,
Yale University, and author of The Search for Modern China

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Miscellaneous Comments on the Book

"Informative, thought-provoking and entertaining."
- Asian Week

"Meticulously researched...A gripping account that holds the reader's attention from beginning to end."
- Nien Cheng, author of Life and Death in Shanghai

A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year

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About the Author

IRIS SHUN-RU CHANG is the author of the international bestseller The Rape of Nanking. After graduating with a degree in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, she worked briefly as a reporter in Chicago before winning a graduate fellowship to the writing seminars program at The Johns Hopkins University. Her first book, Thread of the Silkworm, told the story of Tsien Hsue-shen, father of the People's Repulic of China's missile program. Iris Chang is the recipient of numerous honors, including the John T. and Catherine D. MacArthur Foundation's Program on Peace and International Cooperation Award, the Woman of the Year Award from the Organization of Chinese Americans, and an honorary doctorate from the College of Wooster in Ohio. Her work has appeared in many publications such as Newsweek, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. She lived with her family in San Jose, CA, until depression tragically claimed her promising life on November 9, 2004 at age 36.

Irrefutably, Iris Chang won many battles in her fight for justice. But as she began to manifest symptoms of bipolar illness, she perceived them as a failure of will. Such harsh logic, symptomatic of the disease, rendered her unable to extend her own magnificent compassion to herself.

In the end, the war she could not win raged internally.

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