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I like to think that when you Google "Iris Chang" and see that the first hit is her personal website, I had a little something to do with that.... Early in one of our conversations, the topic of unreliable technology came up and Iris Chang mentioned that Google-ing herself did not result in her website being listed as the first hit or even on the first page of results. She was quite irked by that. I put her in touch with a Google muckety-muck, and soon thereafter I got a thank-you call from Chang.
Sitting in my virtual inbox is a note from that same Google-buddy who had just heard the news -- "everything about it is so sad," he writes. Because now when you type in www.irischang.net, the screen goes black except for the stark white words, "In Memory of Iris Chang, 1968 - 2004."
Just last week, it used to be a portal into a lively interactive site, highlighting the accomplishments, thoughts and hopes of a vibrant young woman committed to giving voice to those who had been unjustly treated by their fellow man. Ironically, that overwhelming empathy for such human suffering -- the empathy that made her a gifted storyteller -- is perhaps what tragically killed her.
I never met Chang in person. I wrote a review of what is now her final book, The Chinese in America: A Narrative History, for the Christian Science...