Author Talk: Professor Gordon Chang's War, Race, and Culture
Join us for a virtual book discussion with Stanford Professor Gordon H. Chang, PhD '87, and longtime SAPAAC member on his latest book, War, Race, and Culture: Journeys in Trans-Pacific and Asian American Histories, moderated by Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, BA '92, MA '93, PhD '98, SAPAAC member and professor of history and Asian American Studies at UC Irvine.
Writing history, the systematic effort to understand the human past, is a demanding intellectual endeavor. For historian Gordon Chang, it has also been a personal and moral enterprise intimately connected to his commitment to realizing a better world. This career-spanning anthology brings together significant essays, developing conversations across his broad-ranging research interests and personal history and engaging a range of topics, from diplomatic history and Asian American history to art history.
The book begins with a preface that reflects on the rise of Asian American studies as a field and the author's own scholarly trajectory. Each essay is accompanied by new headnotes that provide context. Essays examine the many ways that race, especially regarding Asian Americans, connects important historical episodes and social issues. Themes of geopolitical conflict, race, and transnational methods link writing produced over several decades, illustrating the arc of an intellectual career and the development of the field of Asian American studies. Ultimately, this book highlights Chang's abiding interest in providing historical context for issues facing Asian Americans, particularly during a time of rising geopolitical tensions and anti-Asian violence.
The book is available for purchase from Stanford University Press. Use the promo code CHANG20 to receive 20% off at checkout: https://www.sup.org/books/history/war-race-and-culture
What people are saying about the book:
"Gordon Chang has given us a profound gift with this collection of essays written across a distinguished career. His major scholarly pursuits in U.S. diplomatic history, Asian American history, and art history may seem unusual in their diversity, but they are tied together by a lifetime of personal and academic interest in China's impact on America and the Chinese in America. The book is a reminder to some, an introduction to others, to the work of an exemplary humanist."
—Mae Ngai, author of The Chinese Question: The Gold Rushes and Global Politics
"In this wide-ranging and beautifully-written collection, Gordon H. Chang makes a powerful case for the intersectionality of War, Race, and Culture, particularly as they impact Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). With invigorating curiosity and brilliant analysis, Chang blends autobiography with politics, art, and history into a unified whole which illuminates our place in the world and gives us new ways to think about the future."
—David Henry Hwang, playwright, author of Yellow Face and M. Butterfly
"Part essay, part memoir, War Race & Culture is packed with hidden histories and the provocative insights of an activist historian who has lived and studied the zig zags of contemporary US-China relations—and disrupts the harmful, false narrative of us vs. them."
—Helen Zia, author of Last Boat out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese who Fled Mao's Revolution
About the Speakers
Gordon H. Chang, PhD '87, is Professor of History and Olive H. Palmer Professor in Humanities at Stanford University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad (2019) and coeditor of The Chinese and the Iron Road: Building the Transcontinental Railroad (Stanford, 2019), among other books.
Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, BA '92, MA '93, PhD '98, is Chancellor’s professor of History and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She also serves as faculty director of the Humanities Center and Associate Dean in the School of Humanities of Research, Faculty Development, and Public Engagement. She received her Ph.D. in U.S. History from Stanford University and she has a forthcoming book, Moving Mountains: Asian American and Pacific Islander Feminisms and the 1977 National Women’s Conference (University of Washington Press). She is also the co-author with Gwendolyn Mink of Fierce and Fearless: Patsy Takemoto Mink, First Woman of Color in Congress (May 2022). You can also check out her comic biography (free for digital download) Civics for All Comics Group (New York City Department of Education, Spring 2024).
