Series

Oral history interview with Chang-Shee Chang

• 2019-10-18 (Creation)

1.69 gigabytes; 1 audio file (WAV, 2 hr., 38 min., 2 sec.)

This oral history interview with Chang-Shee Chang was conducted by Dora Totoian on October 18, 2019. Sankar Raman was also present and occasionally contributed to the interview questions. The interview was recorded for The Immigrant Story, an organization that documents and archives the stories of immigrants and refugees in the United States. In this interview, Chang discusses his family background and early life in Taiwan during the Sino-Japanese War; speaks about his ethnic and cultural identity; and talks about life during the White Terror period. He discusses his education and social life in Taipei, including his experience studying medicine at National Taiwan University, and speaks about how his feelings about China changed after coming to the United States. He talks about his marriage to Hwei Chang, discusses completing his medical residency in Baltimore, Maryland, and speaks about adjusting to life in the U.S., particularly the food. He talks about the process of becoming a naturalized citizen in 1973, and about his career as a vascular surgeon in Portland, Oregon, beginning in 1974. He speaks about raising a family in the Pacific Northwest. He talks about the origins of his nickname, "George," about incidences of racial discrimination his family experienced in the United States, and about his children and their careers. He closes the interview by discussing his experience with lung cancer and his retirement activities.

Joint copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society and The Immigrant Story. Use is allowed according to the following statement: In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/

• English

Gift of The Immigrant Story, June 2021 (RL2021-057).

An article about Chang-Shee Chang, "Yilan to Portland, a Lucky Life" by Dora Totoian, was based on this interview and published on The Immigrant Story website at https://theimmigrantstory.org/physician/

Preferred citation: Oral history interview with Chang-Shee Chang, by Dora Totoian, SR 12302, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

Finding aid based on DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard), 2nd Edition.

Sarah Stroman

• Taiwan--Social conditions--1945-1975
• Taiwanese Americans--Oregon
• Immigrants--Oregon
• Physicians--Oregon--Portland
• Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945--Campaigns--Taiwan

• Totoian, Dora (Contributor)
• Raman, Sankar (Contributor)
• The Immigrant Story (Hillsboro, Or.) (Subject)

• oral histories (literary works)
• Interviews