Iris Chang

Historian

30 Quotes

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

There isn't much discussion of ruling class in America even in Boston, probably one of the most class-conscious cities in the country?

Whatever is not commonly seen is condemned as alien.

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

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

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

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.

When you take something extremely broad, then it is not a work of expansion or work of compression. It's hard because you have to decide what to throw out.

I have certainly amassed many historical research gathering skills.

They probably do have an Asian Barbie.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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