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When Bill Moyers' series Becoming American: the Chinese Experience premieres on PBS, author Iris Chang -- like millions of other viewers -- promises she will be tuned in and for good reason. In the same vein as Moyers' special, she has written a new book entitled The Chinese in America (Viking Press) which is informative, thought-provoking and entertaining. It helps illustrate that this large community is now part of American history.
While touring the country to publicize and to lecture about her New York Times bestselling book, The Rape of Nanking, the Silicon Valley writer was inspired to chronicle and update the story of Americans of Chinese descent. She spent three years researching and writing this book.
"Visiting 70 cities across North America and meeting these people," she notes, "I was fascinated by their stories. I felt that there was this tremendous need for such a book, because there has been the perception that the Chinese have not been fully American. They're looked upon as being foreigners or maybe an unassimilable race. I found out how rich and dynamic the Chinese American community is."
Shattering a long-held perception, Chang reveals that Chinese Americans have...