Remembering The Woman Who Could Not Forget

Ying Ying Chang writes with courage and poignancy about the life and death of her famous daughter, Iris Chang. The basic facts are these. Born in Princeton, New Jersey, the daughter of Chinese immigrants from Taiwan, Iris became a writer.  First commissioned to write the biography of Tsien Hsue-Shen, the brilliant Chinese scientist who was deported from the United States during the McCarthy era and who later became the father of the Chinese missile program, Iris honed her research and writing skills with her first book, Thread of the Silkworm.  Her second book, The Rape of Nanking, became a bestseller on the New York Times Bestsellers List and Iris achieved international acclaim as an author, a lecturer, and an activist by the age of 29.

Her third book, The Chinese in America, was first published in 2003 and, while on a book tour the following year to publicize the book, Iris fell ill with exhaustion and depression. She took her own life with a handgun in November 2004 at the age of 36.

Ying Ying fills in this basic outline in her book, The Woman Who Could Not Forget, with vibrant flashes of color and subtle shades and hues in her loving portrait of the artist.

Iris was raised in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, a mid-sized college town where her father, Shau-Jin Chang, was a professor of physics and her mother Ying Ying was a research scientist.

Lovingly nurtured by her doting, well-educated parents, Iris and her younger brother Michael had a bicultural upbringing with valued, prophetic interactions with grandparents from both sides.

Ying Ying shared stories of conversations at the dinner table, tales of their family’s and China’s history and culture, projects of hatching silkworms, making a gingerbread house for Iris’ birthday party, and the many trials and tribulations of Iris’ teenage and young adult years.

Having kept all mementos of her daughter, Ying Ying shares with us emails, cards, retirement speeches, etc. that clearly depict not just a dutiful daughter but a loving, compassionate one as well. The closeness and emotional bond between mother and daughter is a beautiful part of this story.

Ying Ying writes with unflinching honesty. She describes the family’s rejoicing at Iris’ many triumphs as The Rape of Nanking ascended the New York Times Bestsellers List, as Iris was the featured speaker at many events, as she won many awards, and as she achieved financial success with a huge advance for her third book.

Ying Ying also describes her moments of deepest sorrow. She fearlessly opens her book in Chapter One by describing a night of panic after they had discovered Iris’ suicide note and how they were later informed of her death.

She writes: “Shau-Jin and I collapsed onto the carpet of our living room, and I found myself falling into an endless black tunnel.” She cries out in anguish: “How could you kill yourself?”, “How could you desert Christopher, me, and your father?”, and “How can I live the rest of my life without you?”

In the Bay area, we can proudly claim Iris Chang as a local daughter. She lived in Sunnyvale and San Jose.  It was in Cupertino that she received early support for  The Rape of Nanking, from the local chapter of the Global Alliance for Preserving the History of World War II in Asia. She died outside Los Gatos and is buried in the Gates of Heaven Cemetery in Los Altos.
 
Ying Ying has written an amazing book about her daughter. With a background in science (she has a Ph. D. in biochemistry from Harvard University), no previous writing experience, and writing in her second language without the help of a ghostwriter, Ying Ying has produced a book that is a fitting tribute to her daughter.

Ying Ying will be at a book signing at the Cupertino Public Library on August 27, 2011 from 1 to 3 p.m..  Her other August and September book signing events are shown below:
 
Saturday, August 27, 1-3 pm
Cupertino Public Library
10800 Torre Avenue
Cupertino, CA 95014
(408) 446 1677 ext 3312
www.santaclaracountylib.org

Thursday, Sept. 8, 7:00 pm
Kepler's Bookstore
1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Store: 650 324 4321
www.keplers.com
 
Saturday, Sept. 24, 2:30-4:00 pm
Chinatown branch of San Francisco Public Library
1135 Powell Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
Tel: 415 355 2888