Ying-Ying Chang [張盈盈] – Author | Mother of Iris Chang [張純如]

Professor Ying-Ying Chang (張盈盈) was born in China's wartime capital, Chungking, in 1940 and moved to Taiwan with her parents to escape from the Communists during the 1949 civil war. She grew up in the island and graduated from National Taiwan University in 1962. Ying-Ying came to the U.S. for graduate studies and received her Ph. D. in Biological Chemistry from Harvard University in 1967. She married Dr. Shau-Jin Chang (紹進), a Harvard physicist in 1964.

After two years post-doctoral work at Princeton University, in 1969, Ying-Ying and her husband started a teaching and research career spanning for more than three decades at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, with Ying-Ying in the Department of Microbiology and Shau-Jin in Department of Physics. In 2002, they moved to San Jose, California after retiring from the University and live there ever since.

Ying-Ying has published a number of scientific papers in journals, such as Science, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Bacteriology, Proceedings of National Academy of Science U. S. A.


about iris chang 

Their first child, the late celebrity author Iris Chang (張純如), was born in Princeton, New Jersey in 1968. In 1997, Iris published her best known international bestseller " The Rape of Nanking, The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II."

After Iris' untimely death in 2004, Ying-Ying and Shau-Jin have channeled their energy into the preservation of the history of World War II in Asia. They co-founded the Iris Chang Memorial Fund in 2006 to honor their beloved daughter.

In the past several years, Ying-Ying and Shau-Jin have been invited by numerous groups and organizations in North America and China to speak and take part in activities related to their daughter's work and the Sino-Japanese war history.

Ying-Ying and her husband love travel and hiking. "The Woman Who Could Not Forget: Iris Chang Before and Beyond The Rape of Nanking" is Ying-Ying's memoir about the life of her beloved daughter.


Articles about Ying-Ying can be found by the links:

The real healing begins for mother of Iris Chang
By San Jose Mercury News columnist, L. A. Chung,
published on January 17, 2007 on Mercury News.

Reflections on Nanking Massacre after 70 years of Denial
In memory of our daughter Iris Chang
By Ying-Ying Chang
In Harvard Asia Pacific Review, Vol. 9, No. 2.
spring 2008

Iris Chang's mother dedicates herself to daughter's vision
By Ken McLaughlin in the San Jose Mercury News
April 1, 2009

More "Iris Chang" information is available at www.irischang.net
 

yy@irischang.net