The Chinese in America: A Narrative History-轻识

Iris Chang made headlines in 1997 with the publication of The Rape of Nanking-a meticulously researched and brilliantly rendered examination of the sacking of that great city by the Japanese during World War II. Many readers of The Rape of Nanking responded to its themes of the fight for justice and the assertion of cultural identity-themes Chang expands upon in her new book.

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Chang, the daughter of second-wave Chinese immigrants, has written an extraordinary narrative that encompasses the entire history of one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States, an epic story that spans 150 years and continues to the present day. Chang takes a fresh look at what it means to be an American and draws a complex portrait of the many accomplishments of the Chinese in their adopted country, from building the transcontinental railroad to major scientific and technological advances. A sensitive, deeply moving story of individuals whose lives have shaped and been shaped by this history, The Chinese in America is a saga of raw human tenacity and a testament to the determination of a people to forge an identity and destiny in a strange land.

Chang is the author of the best-selling Rape of Nanking (1997), a very disturbing but well-prepared and necessary account of the sacking of that important Chinese city by the Japanese army in the late 1930s. Her writerly acumen is again in evidence in her latest book, which, in her words, tells an epic story--and, indeed, it is shown to be exactly that. Her purview is wide: the immigration of Chinese people to the U.S. from the early nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth. Chinese immigration falls naturally into three waves: those who came here to be laborers during the days of the California gold rush and the building of the transcontinental railroad, those who came to escape the 1949 Communist takeover, and those who came in the 1980s and 1990s as relations between China and the U.S. eased somewhat. The reasons why the Chinese came to the U.S. are only half the story; the other half consists of what they did here and how they were received. But this is not just a bland narration of events. Chang threads personal stories of individuals she came across in her research into her book, making it a much more human account. A final chapter looks at possible future definitions of racial identity. This is history at its most dramatic and relevant, and the book deserves all the attention it undoubtedly will receive.

Brad Hooper

In this outstanding study of the Chinese-American community, the author surpasses even the high level of her bestselling Rape of Nanking. The first significant Chinese immigration to the United States came in the 1850s, when refugees from the Taiping War and rural poverty heard of "the Golden Mountain" across the Pacific. They reached California, and few returned home, but the universally acknowledged hard work of those who stayed and survived founded a great deal more than the restaurants and laundries that formed the commercial core-they founded a new community. Chinese immigrants building the Central Pacific Railroad used their knowledge of explosives to excavate tunnels (and discourage Irish harassment). Chinese workers also married within the Irish community, spread across America and survived even the racist Chinese Exclusion Act of 1880, which lost much of its impact when San Francisco's birth records were destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906 and no one could prove that a person of Chinese descent was not native born. Chang finds 20th-century Chinese-Americans navigating a rocky road between identity and assimilation, surviving new waves of immigrants from a troubled China and more recently from Taiwan and Hong Kong. Many Chinese millionaires maintain homes on both sides of the Pacific, while "parachute children" (Chinese teenagers living independently in America) are a significant phenomenon. And plain old-fashioned racism is not dead-Jerry Yang founded Yahoo!, but scientist Wen Ho Lee was, according to Chang, persecuted as much for being Chinese as for anything else. Chang's even, nuanced and expertly researched narrative evinces deep admiration for Chinese America, with good reason.

Iris Chang, author of Thread of the Silkworm as well as The Rape of Nanking, is the recipient of the MacArthur Foundation's Program on Peace and International Cooperation Award as well as the Woman of the Year Award from the Organization of Chinese Americans.

Height (cm) 24.3 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Width (cm) 16.4

作者簡介

張純如

伊利諾大學厄巴納－香檳分校新聞學學士，曾短暫於芝加哥當過記者，後來獲頒約翰．霍普金斯大學寫作研習計畫獎學金，前往該校深造，取得碩士學位。她的第一本書《蠶絲︰錢學森傳》（Thread of the Silkworm, 1996）為向來有「中華人民共和國導彈之父」的錢學森立傳。第二本著作《被遺忘的大屠殺：1937南京浩劫》（The Rape of Nanking, 1997）是國際暢銷書，該書重新檢視了二戰戰史中最慘無人道的一頁紀錄。《美國華人史》（The Chinese in America, 2003）是她第三本也是最後一本著作，她在書中試圖勾勒出華人在美國留下的150年壯闊史詩。張純如是美國年輕史家中的佼佼者，曾獲得許多殊榮，包括麥克阿瑟基金會的「和平與國際合作計畫」獎、華裔美國人組織（Organization of Chines...

作者簡介

張純如

譯者簡介

陳榮彬

臺大翻譯碩士學程專任助理教授，並長期為臺大臺文所開課，研究興趣主要為文學翻譯以及現代華語小說英譯史。著有《危險的友誼：超譯費茲傑羅與海明威》（南方家園）。曾以《繪畫與眼淚》、《血之祕史》與《我們的河》三度獲得「開卷翻譯類十大好書」獎項。已出版各類翻譯作品五十種，近期譯作有《齊瓦哥事件》、《戰地鐘聲》、《昆蟲誌》與《火藥時代》。曾擔任第四十一屆金鼎獎評審。