WHEN
Thursday, November 14, 2019
12:00am - 8:30am
WHERE
Li Ka Shing Learning and Knowledge Center, Room LK 120
291 Campus Drive, Stanford
All Tigers are invited to an evening with Gordon Chang ’70. Gordon will discuss his latest book, “Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad.”
NOTES FROM THE EVENT (photos below)
Professor Gordon Chang ’70 provided a gripping account of the Chinese men’s lived experiences working for the Central Pacific Railroad. Over 20,000 overseas Southern Chinese men built the railroad tracks that connected Promontory Point, Utah with the Pacific Ocean. Sadly, nearly 10% of those brave men died while building these tracks. Gordon’s research and book brings to life this forgotten group of brave men who were essential in developing the West over 150 years ago.
Over 70 people attended. Included among the attendees was one of Gordon’s classmates, Bill Neidig ’70. Gordon and Bill were happy to see each other and both looked forward to their 50th Reunion next year.
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Hello Bay Area Tigers!
Ghosts of Gold Mountain is a groundbreaking, breathtaking history of the Chinese workers who built the Transcontinental Railroad, helping to forge modern America only to disappear into the shadows of history.
WHEN
Thursday, November 14th 2019 6:30-7:00 pm Registration and Networking 7:00-8:30 pm Book Discussion
WHERE
Stanford University Li Ka Shing Learning and Knowledge Center Room LK 120 291 Campus Drive, Stanford, 94305 Maps and directions: http://med.stanford.edu/school/contacts/maps.html
All alumni, students, and family members are welcome! Seating is limited.
Register here: https://forms.gle/8zrok7pSgTALuoYcA
QUESTIONS
Contact co-organizers: Chris Loh ’86 chrisloh888@gmail.com, Brent Yamashita ‘94 brent.yamashita@dlapiper.com, Chris Chin ‘91 thechins@gmail.com, Evan Kratzer ‘16 evan.kratzer@gmail.com, Keith Weng ’91 ksoc@keithweng.com, Minerva Yeung *96, minerva.yeung@gmail.com, Vicki Takeuchi Wynne ‘74, vwynne@comcast.net, or Vitus Lau ’79 prince79@gmail.com.
Book Reviews:
“Gordon Chang leaves no boulder unturned, nor tunnel unexplored, as he brings vital detail to the lives of the Chinese railroad workers: ‘ghosts’ who are no longer missing in history, thanks to his meticulous research. After a hundred and fifty years, this book sets the record straight.” — Helen Zia, author of Last Boat out of Shanghai
“Ghosts of Gold Mountain is a treasure trove of stories, and of exciting scholarship that answers questions many of us have asked for decades. In this profound and inspiring book, Chang reveals at last how the West was truly won: by Railroad Chinese who literally united these American states.” — David Henry Hwang, author of the Tony Award-winning play M. Butterfly
“Gripping . . . Chang has accomplished the seemingly impossible . . . He has written a remarkably rich, human, and compelling story of the railroad Chinese.” — Peter Cozzens, Wall Street Journal
“The lived experience of the Railroad Chinese has long been elusive . . . Chang’s book is a moving effort to recover their stories and honor their indispensable contribution to the building of modern America.” — New York Times
All alumni, students, and their guests are welcome but seating is limited so please register early.
Register here: https://forms.gle/8zrok7pSgTALuoYcA
Gordon’s book will be available for purchase and signing.
Sponsored by the Asian American Alumni Association of Princeton (A4P), the Princeton Club of Northern California (PCNC), and Stanford Asian Pacific American Alumni Club (SAPAAC).
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More about Gordon:
Gordon Chang, who is the Olive H. Palmer Professor in Humanities, has been deeply involved in the betterment of undergraduate education at Stanford, including teaching courses within Introductory Seminars, Sophomore College, Stanford in Washington and the Haas Center for Public Service. He served on the Thinking Matters Governance Board, which is responsible for developing and overseeing the Thinking Matters curriculum.
Chang served as faculty-in-residence for the former Bing Overseas Studies program in Beijing. He has mentored many undergraduate researchers, including at the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis, a pioneering research hub where participants apply digital tools and methods to create new knowledge in interdisciplinary humanistic inquiry.
Chang also served on the committee that considered the establishment of ethnic studies at Stanford, which resulted in the formation of the Interdepartmental Program in Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity, which offers undergraduates the opportunity to major or minor in Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity; Asian American Studies; Chicana/o, Latina/o Studies; Jewish Studies and Native American Studies.
Chang served as a founding director of the Asian American Studies program and as a director of the Center for East Asian Studies in the School of Humanities and Sciences. He served on faculty advisory groups for several interdisciplinary programs and was a resident fellow in Castaño, part of the Gerhard Casper Quad.
He is a member of the Faculty Senate, the centerpiece of academic governance at Stanford.
Gordon Chang, who received a bachelor’s degree in history from Princeton University, earned a doctorate in history from Stanford.
His research and teaching focus on historical connections between race and ethnicity in America with a particular focus on trans-Pacific relations, especially the interconnections between East Asia and America. This spring, he will be publishing two books on the history of Chinese railroad workers in North America: The Chinese and the Iron Road: Building the Transcontinental (Stanford University Press) and Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).
Chang is the author of several books, including Friends and Enemies: The United States, China, and the Soviet Union, 1948-1972 (1990), Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970 (2008), and Fateful Ties: A History of America’s Preoccupation with China (2015).
He pursues ongoing research in the fields of Asian American history, U.S. diplomacy, the Cold War, and U.S.-China relations past and present.
Chang received the Kahn-Van Slyke Award for Graduate Mentoring from the History Department in 2014. He received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies in 1999-2000, and from the Stanford Humanities Center in 1993-94, 2002-03 and 2010-2011.
Additional information available here.