Publications
My publications include a scholarly monograph, research reports, general interest articles, and short biographies. I particularly enjoy working with individuals and institutions to develop suitable writing styles and formats.
A Scholarly Monograph
In Tracking the Yellow Peril, I aimed to publish a monograph for scholars interested in researching the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s Chinese Exclusion Files at the National Archives. At the same time, I wanted my research to facilitate genealogical research. Click on the image at left to see the book's preface.
Research Reports
For the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, I wrote a 90-page synthesis, China’s Technology Sector, for use by the U.S. defense community. This audience required succinct analyses and summaries with maps and charts. China’s Technology Sector is one of the most requested country reports in the series. To see the table of contents, click here.
I
particularly enjoyed writing for the Journal of Women’s History,
providing examples from the National Archives’ materials on how best to
use original sources. To ensure that I addressed the needs of academic
researchers, scholars in both Chinese history and women’s studies
reviewed drafts of my article. Click on the
thumbnail at right to see this article.
General Interest Articles
"China and Democracy" provided a glimpse of scholarly activities
at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. Because the Center was
established to “bridge the gap between thinkers and doers,” I aimed to chronicle
the interactions of China scholars and policymakers. To see a copy of
"China and Democracy" in the May-June, 2004 edition of
The Library of Congress Information Bulletin, click
here.
Chicago
History requires an engaging style for general, well-educated readers.
"Women of Chinatown" turned out to be particularly important for the Chicago Chinatown
community, which, at the time, had begun to formulate plans for a historical
museum. After this article was published, the city of Chicago established
two monuments to honor the achievements of two of the women I wrote about.
Click on the thumbnail at left to access this article.
Short Biographies
As a recipient of a substantial National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
grant, the Chicago Area Women's History Conference (CAWHC), now
known as the Chicago Area Women's History Council, was stringent in its
requirement that each “fact” have three verifiable sources. This was
particularly important in my case, as I was writing biographies of women in
Chicago’s Chinatown based on oral interviews. At one point, I even visited Rosehill Cemetery to verify the birth and death dates of Dr. Margaret Lin! Click
here to access one of the CAWHG entries.
One of the greatest challenges of my writing career was working with a 90
year-old Chinese woman on her biography. Her life spanned the Chinese
civil war, the Sino-Japanese War, Mao Zedong's ascendancy, the Great Leap Forward,
the Cultural Revolution, the Tangshan
earthquake and China’s eventual opening to the West. I devised a literary
technique to engage and carry the reader through nearly 100 years of
history…in ten pages! Click
here to view the
result.
