Diana Chang

Diana Chang (Chinese: 張粲芳; 1924 – February 19, 2009) was a Chinese American novelist and poet.[1] She is best known for her novel The Frontiers of Love, one of the earliest novels by an Asian American woman. She is considered to be the first American-born Chinese to publish a novel in the United States.[2]

Diana Chang
Born1924 (1924)
New York
DiedFebruary 19, 2009(2009-02-19) (aged 84–85)
Pennsylvania
OccupationNovelist
NationalityChinese, Japanese, American
GenreNovel, poetry
Notable worksThe Frontiers of Love
Literature portal

Biography

Early life

Chang was born in New York City to a Chinese father and Eurasian mother, but spent her youngest years in China, including Beijing, Nanjing, and Shanghai.[2] She attended high school in New York, and graduated cum laude from Barnard College in 1949 where she majored in English, focusing on British and American Poets.[3] While an undergraduate at Barnard, Chang had 3 of her poems published by Poetry Magazine, including her work "At The Window." After graduation, she worked as a book editor at three reputable publishing houses (Avon Books, Bobbs-Merill, A. A. Wyn).[1][4] She also worked as the editor for the PEN-sponsored journal American Pen and as a creative writing teacher at Barnard.[2]

Literary work

Chang's best known work is The Frontiers of Love. Her work has more recently been read in terms of postmodernity and hybridity.[2] Although critical work on Chang has increased since the republication of Frontiers, critics have preferred to examine her Asian-themed works; her "white" novels are only recently getting attention.[2] While at Barnard College, Chang published her poem, Mood in Modern Poetry Association's Poetry.[3][5]

Published works

Novels
  • The Frontiers of Love, (1956, reissued 1974)
  • A Woman of Thirty (1959)
  • A Passion for Life (1961)
  • The Only Game in Town (1963)
  • Eye to Eye (1974)
  • A Perfect Love (1978)

Poetry
  • Saying Yes (Unknown)
  • The Horizon is Definitely Speaking (1982)
  • What Matisse is After (1984)
  • Earth Water Light (1991)

Awards

See also
  • List of Asian American writers

References
  1. "Diana Chang Papers". www.stonybrook.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  2. Roh-Spaulding, Carol (2000). "Diana Chang (1934– )". In Nelson, Emmanuel Sampath (ed.). Asian American Novelists: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 38–43. ISBN 978-03-1330-911-3.
  3. "Barnard Archives".
  4. Hamalian, Leo (December 1995). "A MELUS Interview: Diana Chang". Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States. 20 (4): 29–43. doi:10.2307/467888. JSTOR 467888.
  5. Chang, Diana (November 1946). "Three Poems". Poetry Foundation. Poetry. Retrieved 2019-11-23.

Further reading
  • Baringer, Sandra. "'The Hybrids and the Cosmopolitans': Race, Gender, and Masochism in Diana Chang's The Frontiers of Love" pp. 107–21 IN: Brennan, Jonathan (ed. and introd.); Mixed Race Literature. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP; 2002.
  • Fink, Thomas; "Chang's 'Plunging into View'" Explicator, 1997 Spring; 55 (3): 175–77.
  • Grice, Helena. "Diana Chang" pp. 30–35 IN: Madsen, Deborah L. (ed. and introd.); Asian American Writers. Detroit, MI: Gale; 2005.
  • Grice, Helena. "Face-ing/De-Face-ing Racism: Physiognomy as Ethnic Marker in Early Eurasian/Amerasian Women's Texts" pp. 255–70 IN: Lee, Josephine (ed.); Lim, Imogene L. (ed.); Matsukawa, Yuko (ed.); Re/Collecting Early Asian America: Essays in Cultural History. Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP; 2002.
  • Ling, Amy; "Writer in the Hyphenated Condition: Diana Chang" MELUS, 1980 Winter; 7 (4): 69–83.
  • Spaulding, Carol Vivian; Blue-Eyed Asians: Eurasianism in the Work of Edith Eaton/Sui Sin Far, Winnifred Eaton/Onoto Watanna, and Diana Chang. Dissertation Abstracts International, Section A: The Humanities and Social Sciences, 1997 Jan; 57 (7): 3024–25. U of Iowa, 1996.
  • Wu, Wei-hsiung Kitty; Cultural Ideology and Aesthetic Choices: A Study of Three Works by Chinese-American Women—Diana Chang, Bette Bao Lord, and Maxine H. Kingston.' Dissertation Abstracts International, 1990 June; 50 (12): 3956A.
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