Iris Chang Quotes

It is very difficult to hang onto the relics of history.

I may attempt a novel. I think that no matter what you write, it requires being honest with oneself, and you have to pull yourself out of the whirlwind of daily life.

For some reason, I seem to be bothered whenever I see acts of injustice and assaults on people’s civil liberties. I imagine what I write in the future will follow in that vein. Whether it’s fiction or non-fiction.

There isn’t much in the way of pure communist spirit, because the whole nation seems to be engaged in capitalistic enterprises. Much of the country still operates under government control.

Somebody who was born in this country who visited China would later face difficulty getting back in to the USA. We have to keep in mind that the struggles of the Chinese against these exclusion laws really laid down the foundations of civil rights law.

I don’t mind solitude. I love talking to other people, but I do need my space.

After working as a journalist I went to a writing program at Johns Hopkins. It was interesting because it was neither journalistic nor historical, but it emphasized writing style, and afterwards I was asked to write my first book.

Often, what you see in the media is driven by economic forces.

They probably do have an Asian Barbie.

Of course, in the United States, which at the time was a very young country, there were also class distinctions. They weren’t as pronounced, but they quickly evolved as well.

Racism is always there underneath, but usually it is exploited in these times of economic crisis, and it’s hard to find out when one slides into another.

If the conditions were right there could be great acceptance. Often it is only when they pose an economic or political threat that it turns really ugly.

Now, most of the new immigrants coming to this country are from Asia as opposed to Europe.

Whatever is not commonly seen is condemned as alien.

It was clear that the special interest groups in California really wanted the Chinese to be shut out of the country, because that was where the racial tension was the greatest.

There are now hundreds of thousands of new engineers that are being trained in China. If people start finding themselves losing their jobs, not to the Chinese here but because China has become such a dominant force – then there could very well be a backlash.

When the Chinese first came to San Francisco, they were actually welcomed by the mayor and they had special ceremonies for them-again this is when their colony was very small, only a few Chinese.

We have to keep in mind that it’s not just about the numbers of people who died; it’s also the manner which many of these victims met their deaths.

The worst… was what the Pakistani soldiers did to the Bengali women after their failed rebellion.