TWO weeks have elapsed and I am still haunted by heartfelt sorrow after the shocking death of Chinese American historian Iris Chang earlier this month. My pain is shared by Chinese all over the world.

The Chinese believe good writing is eternal. Therefore, authors?works should be the best memorial to their lives.

Praised by late historian Stephen Ambrose as “maybe the best young historian we’ve got, because she understands that to communicate history, you’ve got to tell the story in an interesting way,?through her extraordinary books, Chang successfully erected a memorial to be admired by generations of Chinese to come. Suffering from clinical depression, she committed suicide at the age of 36.

Devoting herself to writing at 25 Chang published three books, “Thread of the Silkworm,?“The Rape of Nanking?and “The Chinese in America,?all of them successful, which is unusual for authors at such a young age. Of particular note are the latter two, with “The Rape of Nanking,?becoming a bestseller.

In a note to her family, Chang asked to be remembered as the person she was before she became ill ?“engaged with life, committed to her causes, her writing and her family.? Such an impression is not hard to conjure for anyone who has been touched by her writing.

A brief review of her two major works helps clarify what an achievement it is when someone fulfills their talent for literature.

Nanjing Massacre

“On her single strength, Chang accomplished for all of us an obligation which had not been fulfilled in 60 years. And she had undertaken the inner torture and suffering echoed by all Chinese hearts,?said a memorial article in the People’s Daily.

In 1997, on the 60th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, one of the most brutal events in human history, Chang published “The Rape of Nanking,?which examined the slaughter, rape and torture of hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians by Japanese soldiers in the former capital of China in 1937. As the first, full-length English-language narrative of the atrocities to reach a wide audience, the book soon became an international bestseller which sold around half a million copies, according to her agent.

“For a long time, in the West, people only knew the genocide of European Jews by the Nazis during the Second World War, and were quite ignorant of the brutal massacre of Chinese civilians by the Japanese Army. Therefore, the atrocities committed by the Japanese military were not adequately condemned by the international community. One key reason for this surprising ignorance was the lack of historical accounts of the Japanese army’s invasion of China available in mainstream Western society,?Zhu Chengshan, curator of the Memorial Hall to Victims of the Nanjing Massacre, was quoted as saying by xinhuanet.com.

“For Chang’s parents and child, they lost a dear daughter and mother; for Chinese, we lost an upright compatriot and friend; and for the whole world, gone is an eminent figure who dared to speak out and help others access the truth.? Although translated into a number of foreign languages, “The Rape of Nanking?was never published in Japan, a country that still refuses to make an official apology to China for its appalling war crimes.

“I think the right-wing attacks on Japanese publishing houses have sent a chill across the entire industry,?said Chang in 2001. After the book was published, Chang constantly received threatening letters and phone calls from right-wing Japanese, which forced her to change telephone numbers frequently and not hold interviews at home or release information concerning her husband and child.

In the book on which the Philadelphia Inquirer commented “Animals do not behave the way the Japanese troops of the Imperial Army behaved,?Chang wrote: “An estimated

20,000-80,000 Chinese women were raped. Many soldiers went beyond rape to disembowel women, slice off their breasts, nail them alive to walls. Fathers were forced to rape their daughters and sons their mothers as other family members watched.

“Not only did live burials, castration, the carving of organs and the roasting of people become routine, but more diabolical tortures were practised.? Over 300,000 civilians were slaughtered in the massacre.

Chinese in America

To many Chinese who have tried to obtain a US visa, the long, complicated and even confused procedure often turns out to be a humiliating experience. One cannot help but wonder whether the Chinese are so unpopular and harmful a people to make them deserving of such scrutiny, lest they take advantage of another, much more prosperous nation?

“The Chinese in America - A Narrative History?is a book that tries to explain, with a backbone of historical fact, how much Chinese have contributed, sacrificed and achieved in “a strange land to help build their adopted country, and, often against great obstacles, to find success?in the past 150-plus years.

As an American born Chinese with immigrant parents from Taiwan who are both university professors, Iris Chang was fascinated by “the idea of exploring the history of my people.? “I believed I had a personal obligation to write an honest history of Chinese American, to dispel the offensive stereotypes that had long permeated the US news and entertainment media,?Chang wrote in the introduction to the book.

As one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the US, Chinese have always been searching for a better life in America backed by virtues inherited from their native land.

“I discovered that the Chinese in general brought distinctive culture traits to America ?such as reverence for education, hard work, thriftiness, entrepreneurship, and family loyalty ?which helped many achieve rapid success in their adopted country,?Chang wrote. “The great irony of the Chinese American experience has been that success can be as dangerous as failure: whenever the ethnic Chinese visibly excelled ?whether as menial labourers, scholars, or businessmen ?efforts arose simultaneously to depict their contributions not as a boon to white America but as a threat.? This brilliant book helped turn my daily commute on the metro into an entirely pleasurable experience. Not long after I finished reading it, in Spain this September, shoes produced by Chinese manufactures were burned, not because of their poor quality, but because highly competitive Chinese business people offended local manufacturers. This immediately reminded me of an 1878 racist lithograph seen in the book with the caption, “A Picture for Employers. Why They can live on 40 cents a day. And They can’t.?Chang explained: “During the economic depression of the 1870s, white workers began to blame Chinese competition for the high rate of unemployment. As anti-Chinese feeling grew, the American media depicted Chinese immigrants as opium addicts and rat-eaters, crowded together on bunk beds to save money.? But Chinese blood did not mean Chang thought of herself as more Chinese than American.

In the book’s last chapter, “An uncertain future,?Chang wrote: “I can only close this book with a fervent hope: that readers will recognize the story of my people ?the Chinese in the United States ?not as a foreign story, but a quintessentially American one. From the moment the Chinese set foot on American soil, their dreams have been American dreams. They scrambled for gold in the dirt of California. They aspired to own their land and businesses, and fought to have their children educated in American schools alongside other American children. Like most immigrant groups, they came here fleeing war and famine, persecution and poverty. And like the descendants of other immigrant groups, their children have come to call the United States home.?