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.
Iris Chang

Almost all people have this potential for evil, which would be unleashed only under certain dangerous social circumstances.
Iris Chang

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.
Iris Chang

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

I have certainly amassed many historical research gathering skills.
Iris Chang

I have to finish this book tour of almost 30 cities.
Iris Chang

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.
Iris Chang

I received an honorary doctorate for my work. Maybe one of these works is considered the equivalent of a Ph.D.
Iris Chang

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.
Iris Chang

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


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.
Iris Chang

It's a wonderful thing to see a segment of our population that is open and eager to learn more about Chinese culture. It has filtered into the mainstream. You see credit-card ads on TV with white couples and Chinese babies.
Iris Chang

It's much more difficult to work on a broad subject than on a specific one, because even if it's hard to find the information, if you look hard enough for something specific you will find it, and you will discover things that you wouldn't have thought of before.
Iris Chang

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

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.
Iris Chang

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

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.
Iris Chang

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.
Iris Chang

The whole story of the comfort women, the system of forced sexual slavery, the medical experiments of Unit 731, is not something that is in the US psyche. That is changing because many books are coming out.
Iris Chang

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