This collection has no restrictions, but box 30 and box 33 are closed for further processing.
This collection is located onsite.
The William Yukon Chang papers contains a variety of materials that document Chang's life and career.The collection holds many of Chang's China Press columns and a scrapbook that Chang made using clippings from the Ching Chow comics published by the News Syndicate Co. Inc. The collection documents Chang's personal life with its extensive holding of photographs and scrapbooks related to his family and life in Honolulu, Shanghai, and New York. There are also rare photos of the Tang family in different parts of China, as well as yearbooks and scrapbooks that pertain to May Tang's travels and schooling in the United States.The collection's CAT series consists of every issue of the newspaper (except February 1965), voluminous correspondence, photographs and subscribers index, and advertisement printing plates, checks and receipts. The collection's newspaper and magazine clippings, organizational memorandums, meeting minutes, and reports, journals, business directories, and photographs offer insights into Chinese American life and social service and activism in post-World War II Lower East Side. The papers also includes community studies and reports on issues such as education, housing, juvenile delinquency, mental health and substance abuse.
Series I: Chinese-American Times (CAT), 1955-2005
This series includes a complete set of the CAT newspaper (except the November 1960 and February 1965 issues), photos that were used in the paper, and CAT subscribers' index, printing plates, and financial documents. This series also contains the editor's correspondence with subscribers and writers for the paper.
Series II: Writings and Research Files, 1920-2008
Files include Chang's China Press columns and other published and unpublished writings, research notes, collected newspapers and magazines that cover topics including Chinatown, Asian American history, the Lower East Side, China, and the Pacific War, Chin Chow comic clippings, and published novels, poems and textbooks.
Series III: Community and Professional Activities, 1940-2010
This series contains Chang's letters from working as a secretary for the Tsung Tsin Benevolent Association, journals from the Soo Yuen Benevolent Association, and reports, publications, and correspondence from the Two Bridges education programs. The series also includes Chang's correspondence with and photos and publications from various community groups and organizations, including the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, Lower Eastside Neighborhood Association, Hamilton-Madison House and Chatham Green Cooperative.The last two subseries contain yellow pages of New York City, tourist guides, restaurant menus and books on education.
Series IV: Personal Life, 1930-2007
This series includes many volumes of photo albums that document William Chang and May Tang's early life and schooling and travels with their family and friends. It also contains transcripts, education certificates, and school directories from Chang and Tang's undergraduate and graduate schools. There are also voluminous correspondence with family and friends and scrapbooks with photos, receipts, and telegrams that document the Chang family's everyday life in Shanghai, Honolulu, Minnesota and New York City.
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
This collection has no restrictions, but box 30 and box 33 are closed for further processing.
This collection is located onsite.
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material from the collection must be requested from the Curator of Manuscripts/University Archivist, Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML). The RBML approves permission to publish that which it physically owns; the responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Reproductions may be made for research purposes.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); William Yukon Chang Papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
The Museum of Chinese in America holds a related collection of Willian Yukon Chang materials.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
Purchase, 2018.
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
This collection was processed by Hongdeng Gao. Finding aid written by Hongdeng Gao in October 2019.
William Yukon Chang was the founder and editor of "Chinese-American Times", a Chinese American paper that published completely in English. A Chinese American from Hawai'i, Chang graduated from St. John's University in Shanghai. After college, he worked for the Republic of China's news agency and the popular English-language China Press. As the Chinese civil war raged, Chang returned to the U.S. and earned an M.A. in education from New York University. He married Tang Kou Mei, the first daughter of the Nationalist general Tang Enbo and an exchange student at St. Mary's College, Winona in 1952 and raised three daughters, Dallas, Marina and Priscilla. He began publishing the CAT (as it became known) in 1955. By focusing on community betterment and staying politically neutral, William Yukon Chang kept his newspaper going until the early 1970s. By that point, many in the English-speaking second generation had moved out of New York City, as so many people did during this period. Because of the Immigration Act of 1965, thousands of new Chinese immigrants–at the time mostly from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia–were making New York their home, but they sought Chinese-language papers rather than English ones. And by the early 1970s, Chang had been writing, editing, and publishing the paper for almost two decades, so he eventually decided to end the CAT's run. While running the newspaper, Chang also served in local social and civic groups, including Tsung Tsin Benevolent Association, the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council, Hamilton-Madison House, and Manhattan Borough President's Planning Board No.1.
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