Memorial Tribute to Professor Lucie Cheng to be held at UCLA on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 from 4-6 p.m. at the UCLA Faculty Center
http://www.soc.ucla.edu/in-memoriam-lucie-cheng
The UCLA Asian American Studies Center and Department of Sociology will host a memorial tribute for the late Professor Lucie Cheng on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 from 4-6 pm at the UCLA Faculty Center.
We wish to invite those who were professionally and personally associated with, as well as the many admirers of, Professor Cheng to join us in this tribute. RSVP would be appreciated by April 13 to Ann Chau (achau@aasc.ucla.edu or 310-825-2974) or Erika Chau Klein (chau@soc.ucla.edu or 310-825-1513).
Professor Emerita Lucie Cheng passed away January 27, 2010 in Taipei, Taiwan. Lucie made significant research contributions to the study of Chinese Americans, the globalization of women’s paid employment, the migration of highly trained workers to the U.S., deconstructing the image of Asians as the model minority, and the history of Asian immigrants in the U.S. Her 1979 article in Signs, "Free, Indentured, and Enslaved: Chinese Prostitutes in 19th Century America" is widely considered a classic that helped to shape sociological thinking on gender and immigration.
Lucie joined the UCLA Department of Sociology in 1970 after earning her PhD from the University of Hawaii. She served as Director of the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA from 1972 to 1987, the founding Director of the Center for Pacific Rim Studies at UCLA (begun in 1985), and the Chair of the Asia and Asian American Section of the American Sociological Association from 1991 to 1994. After retiring from UCLA, she was Founding Dean at the Graduate School for Social Transformation Studies, Shih Hsin University, Taipei – begun in 1997.
The Hong Kong born scholar was also an important mediator in U.S./China relations and Taiwan/PRC relations, including engineering a strong bond between UCLA and China when relations first thawed in the early 1970s. In fact, her personal relationship with Chou En Lai facilitated the thaw.
Other public contributions included publishing two newspapers in Taiwan and serving as an international advisor to Ms Magazine. Lucie was the youngest daughter of Cheng She-Wo, founder of the Lipao Newspaper, which Lucie took over in 1991. In 2006 she established the Cheng She-Wo Institute for Chinese Journalism at Shih Hsin University, an archive dedicated to the history of journalism in China.
According to Don Nakanishi, Director of the Asian American Studies Center, “She was, without question, one of the most significant pioneering social scientists and program leaders in the field of Asian American Studies at UCLA and globally. Until very recently, Lucie had been very brave and strong willed in fighting bone cancer for the past few years. She was pursuing her usual full academic and research schedule at Shih Hsin University and publishing a newspaper and magazine. She continued to travel around the world, to be of constant good cheer making time for friends and always up for a good meal.”
UCLA Asian American Studies Center Pays Tribute to Lucie Cheng, Pioneering Transpacific Scholar
Lucie’s Faculty Webpage: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/cheng/
Memorial page compiled by Lucie’s students: http://www.luciememory.org/
