Iris Chang

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“There is also an epidemic of infertility in this country. There are more women who have put off child-bearing in favor of their professional lives. For them, the only way they are going to have a family is to adopt from China.”

“They probably do have an Asian Barbie.”

“Often, what you see in the media is driven by economic forces.”

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

“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.”

“When the Chinese first came to San Francisco, they were actually welcomed by the mayor and they had special ceremonies for them-again this is when their colony was very small, only a few Chinese.”

“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.”

“There isn't much in the way of pure communist spirit, because the whole nation seems to be engaged in capitalistic enterprises. Much of the country still operates under government control.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Your first duty as a writer is to write to please yourself. And you have no duty towards anyone else.”

“I have certainly amassed many historical research gathering skills.”