christopher douglas iris chang
Chang said she usually gives three reasons for her unconventional decision to write her daughter's biography: to commemorate Iris, to tell Iris' son, Christopher Douglas, all about the. What happened to Iris Chang's son? Chang said she usually gives three reasons for her unconventional decision to write her daughter's biography: to commemorate Iris, to tell Iris' son, Christopher Douglas, all about the mother he lost at age 2, and to set the record straight about Iris' suicide amid media speculations. But just before Iris left for Kentucky -- the last week of July 2004 -- a family emergency forced the teacher to cancel. "She ventured into a minefield of unexploded ordnance.". It was well- reviewed, though it never sold in great numbers. At 10, she entered a young- author competition and won first place. After dinner Monday night, Iris returned a call to her agent. Home Deep Cleaning . She had worn herself out on a book tour for the paperback release of The Chinese in America and spent some time in a mental health ward in Kentucky in August 2004. The sound of children singing wafted in from the swimming pool nearby. ", During two years of research, Iris made significant historical discoveries. She wore herself out." But all of them wanted the opportunity to talk about the massacre before their deaths. But even before the publication of "The Chinese in America: A Narrative History," Chang had established herself as an invaluable source of information about Asia, human rights, and Asian American history. Then, in high school, Iris became determined to revive the school's literary magazine, and quickly enlisted a staff and a sponsor. She is best known for her best-selling 1997 account of the Nanking Massacre, The Rape of Nanking. ", "Iris truly had no fear. It documents atrocities committed against Chinese by forces of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and includes interviews with victims. This was not her first visit. A local veteran, Arthur Kelly, who was assisting her research helped her check into Norton Psychiatric Hospital in Louisville, where she was diagnosed with reactive psychosis, placed on heavy medication for three days and then released to her parents. She wrote her thesis on "The Poetry of Science." Iris Chang lived and worked in California. She was very depressed." This put her under enormous stress. She said she was confronted by a man who said, "You will NOT continue writing this. " In the final version, she added: "There are aspects of my experience in Louisville that I will never understand. Driving west toward Santa Cruz on Highway 17, she took a turnoff 25 miles from her home and parked on a steep gravel utility road within sight of the highway. Though her work life was not without controversy, she seemed to be a very successful woman, driven by the need to share the dark corners of history with the world. Iris Chang, who has committed suicide aged 36, was one of the most promising historians in America and a vigorous champion of human rights. Just what had happened to Chang was a mystery. "It's baffling to me that the U.S. today has so little knowledge of the four months we held out," Martel told The Chronicle by telephone from his home in Wisconsin. [5] She then embarked on her career as an author and lectured and wrote magazine articles. But there has to be dialogue about how to do that in the long term., In All in My Head, Kamen documents how she learned to slow down and come to terms with a life of chronic pain. [14], R.F. Confirmed cities for the rest of this year include Menlo Park, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Boston. ", Seeing how the survivors lived was as harrowing as hearing their stories. The Memorial Hall, which collects documents, photos, and human remains from the massacre, added both a wing and a bronze statue dedicated to Chang in 2005. "Days before I left for Louisville I had a deep foreboding about my safety. They attended lectures but Iris gave fewer talks; she was still recovering from the book tour. "She was very tired," her mother said. Her second book, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II (1997),[9] was published on the 60th anniversary of the Nanking Massacre and was motivated in part by her own grandparents' stories about their escape from the massacre. He framed it and hung it on a wall in his home. For reviews of the book, visit irischang.net/news/index.php. . Married 41 years, the Changs are a handsome, gracious couple. But some scholars felt that she was a little too involved with her subject matter. Through a third party, the colonel declined to be interviewed. Please forgive me. But the nanny spoke only Mandarin. Chang also experienced several miscarriages all said to influence the onset of bipolar disorder. Iris Shun-Ru Chang was born March 28, 1968, in Princeton Hospital, on the university campus in New Jersey where her parents were doing postdoctoral work. The nanny was the only person aware that Iris had been up for three days with no sleep. . Iris Chang, you had done a lot to fully expose the Nanjing Massacre happened 70 years ago. "These people wanted their story told for a long, long time, and they knew that because Iris had success as an author, she'd be able to do a very good job," Brett said. (One of the most engaging chapters in Kamens book concerns Changs unlikelybut successfulbid to become a homecoming princess.) It's a shame these atrocities had to be happened in the hands of Japanese. In 1992, at 24, she received a $15,000 award from the MacArthur Foundation, which helped fund the project. Iris Chang, a best-selling author who chronicled the Japanese occupation of China and the history of Chinese immigrants in the United . Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking, ended her life with a pistol on November 9, 2004. ", Rabiner became worried, too. Chang said she usually gives three reasons for her unconventional decision to write her daughter's biography: to commemorate Iris, to tell Iris' son Christopher Douglas all about the mother he lost at age 2, and to set the record straight about Iris' suicide amid media speculations. He was misled by Iris. "During the massacre some had received physical injuries so severe they had been prevented from making a decent living for decades. Best of Chicago 2021About the Chicago ReaderReader Staff Reader CareersFreelance InformationContact UsBecome a memberDonate, AdvertiseSubmit/promote your eventFind the PaperSubscribeShop the Reader StoreContests/Giveaways/Promotions. Paula Kamen digs deep into the ambitious life and tragic death of her most successful friend. This kind of "black powder" is unstable and unsafe indoors, so he insisted she first take the can outside. They met again at Taiwan University -- and yet again when each won a science scholarship to Harvard in 1962. "She contacted people who'd been lost for years, dug up records that nobody ever knew existed. As she wrote in the Salon piece, Kamen spoke to Chang by phone a few days before her death and was shocked to hear her normally upbeat friendwhose penchant for hours-long conversations could be exhaustingsound sad and totally drained. Chang ended the conversation by asking Kamen, should anything happen to her, to let people know what she was like before. I got more response [from the Salon piece] than any other articles Ive written combined, Kamen says. Please reload the page and try again. "It is a scary, dangerous and terrifyingly confusing time. "We sat down and started talking, and we had a lot to say. . I know that my actions will transfer some of this pain to others, indeed those who love me the most. She had been sad for several months, but she didn't seem in an acute phase. Iris insisted she had already passed. He left China in 1935 to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I believe my detention at Norton Hospital was the government's attempt to discredit me. I promise not to hurt myself. "She's very systematic -- you see, every poem has a date on it. The first was short, titled "Statement of Iris Chang." Meanwhile, Iris was one of a dozen journalism undergraduates chosen for an accelerated Associated Press training program. We always had to argue all the exceptions she could think of. "But as I was leaving, she got apathetic again. After her death, she became the subject of tributes from fellow writers. "She didn't like the idea that she was taking medicine," her father said. Kuang's debut novel, The Poppy War, is dedicated to Iris Chang. Later, Iris told interviewers that, as a child, "it was hard for me to even visualize how bad it was, because the stories seemed almost mythical -- people being chopped into pieces, the Yangtze River running red with blood. She had suffered from years of depression and constant sleep deprivation since her bestseller - full title The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War Two - was published in 1997. She was 36. Liz Mangelsdorf / The Chronicle. Soon she exceeded the dreams of every student in the program by getting a book contract from a major publisher while still in school. "No, no! She was easily hurt, though sometimes she didn't show it. Normally, Iris never did interviews alone. [13], Chang's visibility as a public figure increased with her final work, The Chinese in America. from dust we come to dust we return quran. That's why she was such a powerful role model for so many Chinese Americans. Robert Spencer / The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT. In her international bestseller, "The Rape of Nanking," Chang examined one of the most tragic chapters of World War II: the mass execution of soldiers and theslaughter, rape and torture oftens of tens of thousands of Chinese civilians by Japanese soldiers in the former capital of China. Iris Shun-Ru Chang (March 28, 1968 - November 9, 2004) was an American author and journalist. Iris and her brother went to University High -- known as Uni High -- on the campus where their parents taught. Those close to Iris had always seen her ups and downs as part of the natural cycle of a brilliant person with intense drive, passionate commitment and a capacity for hard work. Though Iris had previously suffered what her parents called "down" periods after bouts of intense exertion, the lows were never as extreme as what befell her in Kentucky. ", After studying the final results of the Santa Clara Country medical examiner's report, Baker closed his investigation March 1, 2005. Similar situation to my own. A report from the San Francisco Chronicle stated that news of her suicide had a strong impact on survivors of the Nanking Massacre and the Chinese community in general.[20]. Months earlier, Iris had seized on a letter in her "book ideas" file about a Midwestern pocket of Bataan survivors, all members of two tank battalions. The book with both Chang's and Rhodes' names on its cover has sold more copies than expected and received positive reviews, including one in the Wall Street Journal, since its launch in May. The book hit the stores at Christmas, a tough selling season for serious nonfiction. "Every time we set a rule, she always tried to find some way to get around it. She passed the iron gates of Calvary Catholic Cemetery, where marble statues of winged angels, their heads bowed in prayer . This is why we offer the book compilations in this website. Johns Hopkins University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Children: Christopher: Spouse: Bretton Douglas Related Document. A reassuring presence, he stood at the kitchen counter, fixing a sandwich for lunch. he cried. More at IMDbPro Contact info Agent info Resume Add to list Known for The Onedin Line 7.6 TV Series Samuel Onedin 1977-1980 32 eps Early Travellers in North America TV Series Anthony Trollope 1992 4 eps Crown Court 7.2 After a breakdown five months ago, Chang had been. So she went back to bed and I watched her until she fell asleep.". Blood covered her clothes. It happens every day of the week, and people just don't know it because people don't talk about it.". I can never shake my belief that I was being recruited, and later persecuted, by forces more powerful than I could have imagined. But Douglas finally told Kamen that Christopher had been born with the help of a surrogate mother. Chang said she never took any antidepressants when devastated by Iris' death. She lived in San Jose, California in the final years of her life.[6][7]. "She appeared to have done research." Newsweek ran an excerpt, and soon Iris was a familiar face on TV news shows. The coroner's report, dated Dec. 23, 2004, stated: "Based on the medical investigator's report and the autopsy findings, Iris Chang, a 36-year-old Asian female, died from a self-inflicted intra-oral gunshot wound. In 2017, the Iris Chang Memorial Hall was built in Huai'an, China. She was 36. Later, he would tell police that she "seemed distracted or aloof.". It may be true that Iris Chang committed suicide. Finally, the group stood to sing a halting but heartfelt rendition of "Amazing Grace.". My sincere condolences to Mr. Douglas and to young Christopher. The Rape of Nanking, about the 1937 massacre of as many as 350,000 soldiers and civilians by Japans imperial army, had been denounced by the Japanese ambassador to the U.S., and caricatures of Chang appeared in right-wing Japanese newspapers. As a duo played traditional Chinese music, a group of nearly 100 gathered at the Millbrae headquarters of the Chinese-language daily the World Journal. ", Rabiner believes that neither the subject matter of her work nor the intensity of her work habits precipitated Iris' manic-depressive symptoms. ", That night, Iris and Brett followed their routine and went to sleep around midnight. Kamen coined the phrase to Iris Chang it years before her friends death. Minnie Vautrin, also an alum of U. of I. in Urbana-Champaign, was a missionary and educator who saved thousands of Chinese lives during the Japanese occupation. The Rape of Nanking placed her in great demand as a speaker and as an interview subject, and, more broadly, as a spokesperson for the viewpoint that the Japanese government had not done enough to compensate victims of their invasion of China. Days before I left for Louisville I had a deep foreboding about my safety. "Yes!" My friends and I would joke about the obituary assignments at a paper being the stiffs page. I could never picture her having any kind of irony like that about her work., Kamen herself says that diving into the darker reaches of Changs life was frightening at first. christopher douglas iris chang; christopher douglas iris chang. She would talk about her achievements openly, and people saw her as putting them down or bragging, when it was really that she believed there was enough success to go around., A Canadian documentary about Chang is in the works and two statues honoring her have been erected since her deathone at Stanford, the other at a memorial to the Nanking massacre in whats now called Nanjing, where another woman from Illinois is honored. and Cal Tech, Tsien became a professor at both universities and a brilliant space age pioneer. The views expressed in this post are the author's own. After the ambassador spoke of events in Nanking, Iris turned to the moderator and said: "I didn't hear an apology. But Rabiner had been looking for someone conversant in the sciences and in Mandarin to write a biography of Hsue-Shen Tsien. Such "black powder" firearms, popular with Civil War re-enactors, require skill to load and fire. After the release from the hospital, she continued to suffer from depression and experienced the side effects of several medications she was taking. much beloved author of the books: "The Chinese in America" and "The Rape of Nanking" After the interview, they kept up an active correspondence. "There is no way that a family member could sort out all the details, let alone their own feelings, because they're connected to the person," Dr. Brett soon grew concerned that Iris was overextended. Kamen says that despite her worldliness, Chang never developed the distancing filters that aid many journalists. But Kamens book, unlike, say, Truth & Beauty, novelist Ann Patchetts controversial memoir of her thorny friendship with the late writer Lucy Grealy, relies very little upon navel-gazing rumination. After leaving Reed's Sport Shop at noon on Monday, Nov. 8, Iris tried to load the revolver she had just purchased. Some became overwrought with emotion during the interviews and broke down into tears. NANKING-02/B/19JULY98/SC/TK=IRIS Chang autographing "Rape of Nanking" Sunday at the Treasure Island exhibit. Their mothers helped to plan the wedding. "She got used to the fact that there is a Web site called 'Iris Chang and Her Lies.' The lead balls must be individually prepared, packed with gunpowder and topped with a percussive cap. She was a journalism graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana and worked briefly as a reporter in Chicago before winning a graduate fellowship to the writing seminars program at The Johns Hopkins University. Event on 11/19/04 in Los Altos Hills Eric Luse / The Chronicle Ran on: 11-20-2004 About the suicide of her own daughter, Chang believed it was probably the side effects of psychiatric medication that led Iris to end her life. Iris Shun-Ru Chang was born March 28, 1968, in Princeton Hospital, on the university campus in New Jersey where her parents were doing postdoctoral work. I know that my actions will transfer some of this pain to others, indeed those who love me the most. She believed her phone was tapped. "When I was obsessed about Iris, my husband and my son suggested taking me to see a therapist, but I said no," said Chang. Iris Chang net worth is $1.6 Million Iris Chang Wiki: Salary, Married, Wedding, Spouse, Family Iris Shun-Ru Chang (March 28, 1968 - November 9, 2004) was an American historian and journalist. She wasnt a jealous personality. As the coffin was lowered into the ground, the black-clad tribe of mourners formed a line. Services; Expertise; Our Clients; Book Deep Cleaning . We've seen staged suicides and we've seen homicides. Instead it offers the same meticulous attention to detail and thorough immersion in primary sources that distinguishes Changs exhaustively researched books, Thread of the Silkworm (1995), about an accused Chinese spy; The Rape of Nanking, published in 1997 to mark the massacres 60th anniversary; and the 2003 narrative history The Chinese in America. Thread of the Silkworm. "She would go into a town -- and with Tony Meldahl's help, it was even better. But just in time, Iris changed the subject, prompting him to tell a lighter story. "There was a time earlier, in September, when we were worried, but she seemed to come out of that. [19], When you believe you have a future, you think in terms of generations and years. ", Despite support from esteemed historians and journalists, including Stephen Ambrose and George Will, some judged Iris' version of history too subjective. "She had so many bookings, she could easily be on the road for 2 1/2 weeks before coming back home. So she took a little bit and then she stopped -- and it shouldn't be stopped like that. She knew that in California, she could purchase a relic immediately and avoid the 10-day waiting period necessary with other guns. The author, who committed suicide nearly 10 years later, saw a graphic photo exhibition of the 1937 Japanese attack on Nanking civilians and felt an urge to publicize the almost-buried atrocity to the world, according to her mother, Ying-Ying Chang. Mom was a self hating, mentally ill Asian woman married to a gangly white nerd. Chang, 36 . 1837 brunswick rifle Sixteen years later, and five days after her death, Brett sat in the living room of the San Jose town home they shared, surrounded by family photos. "They had a big fight," he said. And then there's the issue of the model minority. Iris Shun-Ru Chang (March 28, 1968 - November 9, 2004) was an American journalist, author of historical books and political activist. 2006. According to the police report, Iris phoned a local gunsmith, an antique firearms specialist who did business from his home. "Why did he have to toy with me like that?" "We spoke for two hours, from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m.," Rabiner said. theguardian.com. Chang has written for numerous publications, such as the New York Times, Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times, and has been featured by countless radio, television and print media, including Nightline, the Jim Lehrer News Hour, Charlie Rose, Good Morning America, C-Span's Booknotes, and the front cover of Reader's Digest. Thinking the driver must be asleep, he got out of his car and banged on the hood. They married in 1964, and each earned a doctorate from Harvard in 1967. In 2019, Iris Chang Park was inaugurated in the Rincon district of San Jose.[22]. For Asian Americans to write nonfiction about Asia or Asian America was relatively new. Iris was "shocked and depressed" to see their living conditions in Nanking. At the end of the three days, I was making silly little jokes and she was laughing. It was just after nine on a November morning in 2004 and he had spotted a female driver who was either asleep or in trouble. "She couldn't eat or drink. "And then we stretched it to six, and then 'The Rape of Nanking' hit the best-seller list and she was out promoting it for almost two years. While on the ship home, she tried repeatedly to leap overboard. "When somebody like Iris makes up their mind that they're going to commit suicide, they're going to do it. She didn't just ask what had happened, she asked what they had felt. Let go, We all said, 'Take a break.' Brett devised a "20-Point Plan to Make Iris Well," listing such remedies as going to the beach; calling friends; eating well (on her desk, she kept a book titled "How Food Affects Your Mood" next to her Franklin Planner); and getting exercise. "Iris was much in demand and gave many talks," Brett recalled, adding with a laugh, "she was schmoozing the whole time." Pearl Harbor was still smoldering when Japanese planes bombed the Philippines' Bataan Peninsula, where Martel was stationed with a National Guard tank battalion. @TheJohnRylands. Brett's father, Ken Douglas, had flown out to keep his son company. "I walked around in shock," she later wrote. [20], On November 9, 2004, at about 9 a.m., Chang was found dead in the driver's seat of her Oldsmobile Alero car by a Santa Clara Valley Water District employee on a rural road south of Los Gatos, California and west of State Route 17, in Santa Clara County. Then, after 15 years of extraordinary achievement and major contributions to American military defense, he was branded a Communist and deported to China where he revolutionized the Chinese missile program and developed the Silkworm missile that later threatened American armed forces. Box. The views expressed here are the author's own. Upon his return to China, Tsien developed the Dongfeng missile program, and later the Silkworm missile, which was used by the Iraqi military during its war on Iran and against the United States-led coalitions during the Persian Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The parents of Iris Chang sit close together, their faces drawn. Mom died, dad attempted to raise the . File photo of Iris Chang and her husband Brett Douglas with Hillary Rodham Clinton. You're not on a moving train. Lo explained. I was worried. She bought Derek Humphrys book on suicide, Final Exit, and sent boxes of her papers to three different archivesat the University of California at Santa Barbara, Stanford, and the U. of I.leaving Kamen a mountain of carefully organized materials to go through. She told him she had an old revolver that was unsafe to shoot. By now, Brett had taken a job with a Santa Barbara engineering firm. Now, it becomes our treasure. Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). Speculation that she may have been killed by Japanese ultranationalists continued to turn up on Web logs and Internet chat rooms. She was initially a computer science major, but switched to journalism, earning a bachelor's degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989. Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, is a mood disorder that affects one in every 70 people. Her first, Thread of the Silkworm (Basic Books, 1995)[8] tells the life story of the Chinese professor, Hsue-Shen Tsien (or Qian Xuesen) during the Red Scare in the 1950s. Hoping to practice shooting, she asked the gunsmith to go with her to a nearby indoor firing range. Chang's son, Christopher (born with the help of a surrogate mother), has been diagnosed as autistic specifically Asperger's disorder, a mild form. I said, 'You need to go to bed.' She would just laugh.". "The boys came together to say, 'Crisis! "She should not have gone.". Memorial service at Gate of Heaven Cemetary for IRIS CHANG I didn't know if I'd hear from her again." A groundswell of interest in the Chinese American community had quickly spread to booksellers and the broader reading public. "Iris was really good at putting her best face forward, even when she was totally exhausted, so I didn't really perceive that there was a real problem," Brett said. Chang grew up hearing stories about the Nanking massacre, from which her maternal grandparents managed to escape. Andrew Nickolds obituary. "He reminded me to eat and to take a walk when I was writing all day, forgetting everything else.". I didn't really care if I made a cent from it. Iris Shun-Ru Chang was born on March 28, 1968, in Princeton, N.J. She grew up in Champaign-Urbana, Ill., where her father, a physicist, and her mother, a microbiologist, taught at the University . "To see her on TV, defending 'Rape of Nanking' so fiercely and so fearlessly -- I just sat down, stopped, in awe," said Helen Zia, author of "Asian-American Dreams: Emergence of an American People" and co-author, with Wen-Ho Lee, of "My Country Versus Me: The First-Hand Account by the Los Alamos Scientist Who Was Falsely Accused. On a cloudy Monday morning in early November, author Iris Chang, 36, drove her white 1999 Oldsmobile Alero down Alum Rock Avenue toward the green foothills of East San Jose. On the day of Iris Chang's death, word spread quickly over news wires and the Internet. She called this the most important lesson to be learned from the tragedy of Nanking. Homicide detectives would eventually determine that Iris had loaded all six chambers of the gun, placed the barrel between her lips, and fired. "But this time, I had assumed she was sleeping all day after working all night. Next to it, now, is a copy of Iris' obituary. "But gradually, she became very depressed," said her father, adding that her doctor in California prescribed an additional medication, an antidepressant. Scope and Contents note One compact sound cassette. "There are a fair number of people who don't take kindly to what she wrote in 'The Rape of Nanking,' " Brett said, "so she's always been very, very private about our family life. But this time, "she appeared unhappy," the manager told investigators. The Police Department drafted a missing person's report. We need people to be covering atrocities and mental illness and genocide. iris changs family Most of the calls were from women, said Betty Hong, executive director of the Oakland clinic. ", Between trips to the Midwest, Iris conducted yet another book tour. "The Chinese in America: A Narrative History" was published by Viking in 2003. What made it much easier is that we did have a wonderful nanny to help. "There's a book I must do," she said. in champaign- urbana- 1985 courtesy mr and mrs chang, CHANG_rs1.jpg Author Iris Chang speaks at a panel at the twelfth annual conference of the Committee of 100, at the Waldorf-Astoria, in New York, Saturday, April 26, 2003. It is far better that you remember me as I was -- in my heyday as a best-selling author -- than the wild-eyed wreck who returned from Louisville . Chang's first book, "Thread of the Silkworm," a critically acclaimed and engrossing study of how Cold War hysteria influenced American foreign policy, tells the ironic story of Dr. Tsien Hsue-shen (). The Rape of Nanking remained on the New York Times Bestseller list for 10 weeks. "She would just say, matter-of-factly, 'Japan is lying and here's why.' Classical AF dissonance between pride in her culture and inability to integrate. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. She was best known for her best-selling 1997 account of the Nanking Massacre, The Rape of Nanking. Looking back, Chang said she thinks Iris was just a workaholic who needed a break, and should have slept and eaten more, instead of taking psychiatric drugs. Between eulogies, a guitarist played "Let It Be." On a cloudy Monday morning in early November, author Iris Chang, 36, drove her white 1999 Oldsmobile Alero down Alum Rock Avenue toward the green foothills of East San Jose. I told her that I wanted her to call me the next night and every night after that until she worked out the details. She walked through the whooshing automatic doors and turned right. "There is an aspect of paranoia in the majority of suicides," Baker said. First she thought it would be a couple of weeks" before she improved, "but we tried to convince her that it would be several months, because that is what the doctors said. Insights to Your College Admissions Success, Charity Concert for Earthquake Victims of Turkey and Syria by Pueri Quartet, Celebrate International Woman's Day Event, Snow Rings Silicon Valley: Photos Of The Week, CA Storms Leave Residents Snowed In, As More Extreme Weather Comes, Snow Shuts Down Yosemite National Park Indefinitely, Rescue Of High School Basketball Player Highlights Risk Of Cardiac Arrest In Sports, Cupertino Area Pets Who Need A Home: Meet Mila & More. [10] Based on the book, an American documentary film, Nanking, was released in 2007. Her mother said, "She was always publishing something. Iris Chang always outdid Paula Kamen. And that really took its toll on her, too.". "It's amazing when you watch Iris do research," Brett said. Though troubling to realize, those things that protect us most -- faith, family, health, financial stability -- are often powerless against mental illness.