Topic: Remembering Vincent Chin: 35 Years of Asian American Civil Rights Activism

Speaker: Helen Zia

Time: 3:00 -5:00 pm, April 17 (Monday), 2017

Place: Seminar Hall, BFSU Library (3rd Fl.)

About the Lecture

Does Vincent Chin’s Case still matter? What is the legacy of the case? What major changes and development have Asian American civil rights and activism gone through since 1982? What major challenges are Asian American activists facing now, especially after the 2016 Elections? Then Helen can talk for 80 minutes (with images, slides and short video clippings) and save the remaining time for Q&A.

About the Speaker

Helen Zia is an award-winning author, journalist, activist and Fulbright Scholar. She is the author ofAsian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People, about the contemporary struggles of Asian American communities to be full participants in American democracy.  A finalist for the prestigious Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize, she is also co-author, with Wen Ho Lee, ofMy Country Versus Me, which reveals what happened to the Los Alamos scientist who was falsely accused of being a spy for China in the “worst case since the Rosenbergs.” Ms. Zia is the former Executive Editor of Ms. Magazine and board chair of the Women’s Media Center, and her award-winning articles, essays and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, books and anthologies.

The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Helen Zia has been outspoken on social justice issues, ranging from women’s rights and countering hate violence and homophobia. Ms. Zia testified before the US Commission on Civil Rights in 1997 about inaccurate and biased news coverage of Asian Americans during an investigation on campaign finance. She traveled to Beijing in 1995 to cover the UN Fourth World Congress on Women. Her work on the landmark 1980s civil rights campaign against anti-Asian violence is documented in the Academy Award-nominated film, “Who Killed Vincent Chin?”

Helen Zia is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of British Columbia. She holds an honorary Doctor of Law from the Law School of the City University of New York. She was the first recipient of the Suzanne Ahn Journalism Award for Civil Rights and Social Justice.  She is a graduate of Princeton University’s first coeducational class. Ms. Zia left medical school after completing two years, to work as a construction laborer, an autoworker, and a community organizer, after which she discovered her life’s work as a writer.