Best-selling author of The Rape of Nanking, took her life early on the morning of November 9, 2004.
　　
　　Ms. Chang was born in Princeton, New Jersey and grew up in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. She earned a degree in journalism from the University of Illinois and a Masters in Science Writing at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. She worked at the Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune before devoting herself exclusively to her own writing.
　　
　　Chang was only twenty-three years old when she published her first book. Relying upon her fluency in Mandarin, she researched in both the US and China the life of Tsien Hsue-shen, the brilliant Chinese-born physicist who helped pioneer the American space age, only to be driven from the space program and the United States by McCarthy-era paranoia. The book was published to wide critical acclaim in November 1995, including a front-page Washington Post Book World review (see attached reviews).
　　
　　Chang became part of a generation of young Americans of Chinese descent organizing in America to protest Chinese government action at Tiananmen Square. This group discovered they shared something else--their parents had all spoken of an event in Chinese history that was more horrific than anything these young people could imagine. The parents referred to it as "The Rape of Nanking." Yet none of them could find books in the library for the general interest reader to tell them anything more about the event. Chang decided to research that story and write that book herself.
　　
　　"This is a book I really had to write," she said in an interview. "I wrote it out of a sense of rage. I didnt really care if I made a cent from it. It was important to me that the world knew what happened in Nanking back in 1937."
　　
　　While doing her research, she learned that a German member of the Nazi Party, living in Nanking at the time of the Rape had kept a previously unpublished diary. She tracked down his heirs, and the diary became a key part of the historical record of that event, confirming the horrific stories told by the Chinese.
　　
　　The Rape of Nanking became an international best seller, remaining on The New York Times best-seller list for many months. The columnist George Will wrote of her book: "Something beautiful, an act of justice, is occurring in America today concerning something ugly that happened long ago and far away. Because of Changs book, the second Rape of Nanking is ending."
　　
　　After reading her book, the late historian Stephen Ambrose described Chang as "Maybe the best young historian weve got, because she understands that to communicate history, youve got to tell the story in an interesting way."
　　
　　For thousands of young Americans students of Chinese descent, Chang became a role model, lecturing to college, university, and general-interest audiences in 65 cities. Her book continues to be required reading in many courses on human rights and World War II history.
　　
　　Her third book, The Chinese in America, described the determination of Chinese immigrants to take their place in America. Because of her deep interest in human rights, she paid special attention to the many groundbreaking legal cases successfully brought by Chinese Americans against racist and exclusionary laws. Many of these victories remain on the books to this day.
　　
　　Jonathan Spence, the Sterling Professor History at Yale University wrote of The Chinese in America: "I know of no better introduction to this multilayered and emotionally-charged story."
　　
　　Chang had begun research on a fourth book that was to focus on the experiences of the men who fought in the US tank battalions in the Bataan Peninsula and their subsequent imprisonment by the Japanese for the duration of World War II. During a research trip, she suffered a breakdown and had to be hospitalized.
　　
　　Chang was an activist in favor of holding governments and politicians tightly responsible for their actions. She advocated a color-blind society, and she gave generously of her time to the causes she believed in. She was also unstinting in helping other young writers get started on their writing careers.
　　
　　In August 1991, Chang married Brett Douglas. The couple have lived in California since their marriage. On August 31, 2002, Christopher Douglas, their son, was born.
　　
　　She is survived by her husband Brett Douglas, her son, Christopher Douglas, her parents, Shau-Jin and Ying-Ying Chang, and her brother Michael Chang.
　　
　　After her release from the hospital, Chang continued to battle depression. In a note to her family she asked to be remembered as the woman she was before her illness, engaged with life, committed to her causes, her writing, and her family.