Lia Chang: “Post 9/11”: Commemorative Display at Library of Congress Asian Reading Room

Flag and the clothesline Photo by Lia Chang

From August 30 through September 15, 2011, a “Post 9/11”: Commemorative Display will be on view in the Library of Congress’ Asian Division Reading Room, located in Room L J 150 of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street S.E., Washington, D.C. The hours of the Library of Congress’ Asian Division Reading Room are 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Shell of the World Trade Center Photo by Lia Chang

The “Post 9/11”: Commemorative Display at the Library of Congress’ Asian Division Reading Room includes a VIP letter of condolence to America from the Dalai Lama, news coverage from various front pages of Asian periodicals, books on 9/11 written in various Asian languages, poetry, commemorative events memorializing the tragedy as in the Tibetan sunrise prayer service on behalf of the victims and families, and “Portraits of New York Chinatown after 9/11,” photographs drawn from the Lia Chang Photography Collection.

Lia Chang with her portraits of New York Chinatown after 9/11 display in the Asian Division Reading Room of the Library of Congress in the Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington D.C. on September 10, 2011. Photo by Reme Grefalda

"9/11 /My Forty First Birthday: Notes for the Poem That I Will Not Write" a compilation of emails written during 9/11 among members of a literary community in Manhattan during the tragedy. (by Eileen R. Tabios)

Key to the Post 9/11 Commemorative is the poetry component, including one poem titled, “9/11 /My Forty First Birthday: Notes for the Poem That I Will Not Write” a compilation of emails written during 9/11 among members of a literary community in Manhattan during the tragedy. (by Eileen R. Tabios)

Wall of missing Gouverneur Healthcare Services after 9-11. Photo by Lia Chang

Wall of the missing Gouverneur Healthcare Services after 9-11. Photo by Lia Chang

Selections from the Lia Chang Photography Collection include the shell of the World Trade Center and 12 other images that illustrate how New York’s Chinatown, located just ten blocks from Ground Zero, was the largest residential area affected by 9/11. For eight days following the attack on 9/11, Chinatown south of Canal Street was a “frozen zone” in which all vehicular and non-residential pedestrian traffic was prohibited; and, for nearly two months, Chinatown residents and businesses were effectively isolated by the loss of telephone service.

Phone lines went down in Chinatown after the World Trade Center towers collapsed. Verizon provided portable phone centers for people to stay connected. Photo by Lia Chang

The images include walls of the missing at Gouverneur Healthcare Services in Chinatown, memorials in New York Chinatown’s Chatham Square and the FDNY Firehouse in Chinatown, portable phone banks provided by Verizon, and idle workers with no business.

Memorial at the FDNY Firestation in Chinatown after 9-11 photo by Lia Chang

Memorial in Chatham Square after 9-11 Photo by Lia Chang

Sponsored by the Library of Congress’ Asian Division, the “Post 9/11”: Commemorative Display and the Lia Chang Portfolio “Portraits of New York Chinatown after 9/11,” is being held in conjunction with the “Asian American Literary Review Special Issue “Post 9/11” book talk on September 8, from 1:00pm -2:30pm in the Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress, Asian Division Foyer L J 149 in Washington D.C. The program will be followed by a book signing.

Memorial in Chatham Square after 9-11photo by Lia Chang

Memorial in the shadow of Confucius Plaza after 9-11Photo by Lia Chang

The Library of Congress is a central repository for all types of Asian publications that are not broadly available at other locations in the United States. Initiated in 1869 with a gift of 10 works in 934 volumes offered to the United States by the Emperor of China, the Library’s Asian collection of more than 2 million items is the largest and most comprehensive outside of Asia. For more information about the division and its holdings, go to www.loc.gov/rr/asian/.

Business Slows in Chinatown after 9-11. Photo by Lia Chang

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs and exhibitions. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at http://www.loc.gov and via interactive exhibitions on a personalized website at myLOC.gov.

Business Slows in Chinatown After 9-11 Photo by Lia Chang

August 30 – September 15, 2011
Lia Chang Photography Collection: Portraits of New York Chinatown After 9/11
Library of Congress
Asian Division Reading Room
Thomas Jefferson Building
10 First Street S.E., Room LJ 150
Washington, D.C.
8:30am-4:30pm

Business slows in Chinatown after 9-11 Photo by Lia Chang

Business Slows in Chinatown After 9-11 Photo by Lia Chang

Other Articles on Library of Congress Displays
Coming to America through The Angel Island Immigration Station
Up Close and Personal with Rick Shiomi, Award-winning Playwright & Artistic Director of Mu Performing Arts
Extended through 8/23- “In Rehearsal” Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at Library of Congress Featuring Robert Lee and Leon Ko’s Heading East Starring BD Wong, Thom Sesma as Scar in The Lion King Las Vegas
Broadwayworld.com Photo Flash: Library of Congress’ IN REHEARSAL Exhibit
broadwayworld.com: Chinglish in Rehearsal
Photos: Playwright David Henry Hwang in rehearsal at the Goodman Theatre for World Premiere of Chinglish
David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish is Broadway Bound this Fall; Goodman Theatre Photo Feature
Photos: Christmas in June w/ Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri’s “Bakwas Bumbug” at The Wild Project in NY
My portrait of “Thom Sesma’s Makeup Transformation into Scar in The Lion King” on view in HHC’s New York City: IN FOCUS, Vol. 2
Multimedia: Exclusive photos and video of Disney’s The Lion King Las Vegas -In the Makeup Chair with Thom Sesma
Photo Call: BD Wong and the Cast of Heading East at the Asia Society

Other Articles by Lia Chang:
Celebrating my mom – AN ACTIVE VISION: BEVERLY UMEHARA…LABOR ACTIVIST…1945-1999
Andy Warhol, Romare Bearden, Alexander Calder, Lia Chang in Art & Healing Exhibit at Snug Harbor on SI
My Empire State Building at Dusk on view in HHC’s “Art and Healing-Healthy for the Holidays” Art Exhibit
Lia Chang’s Botanical Beauties Portrait Commission at School of Nursing at Kings County Hospital Center
RED opening reception at Gouverneur Healthcare Services
<Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.

Lia Chang Photo by Brianne Michelle Photography

Lia Chang is an actor, performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multimedia journalist. As a photographer and videographer, Chang has been documenting her colleagues and contemporaries in the arts, fashion and journalism since making her stage debut as Liat in the National Tour of South Pacific, with Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden. Chang was featured as Joy in the Signature Theater Company’s revival of Sam Shepard’s 1965 Obie award winning play, Chicago directed by Joseph Chaikin at the Public Theater. Off Broadway credits include: Jeff Weiss’ Obie Award winning Hot Keys (Naked Angels), Raunchy Asian Women (Ohio Theatre), The Confirmation (The Vineyard), Behind Closed Doors (MCC), Power Play (Billie Holiday Theatre), Two Gentlemen of Verona, Underground Soap, and Famine Plays (Cucaracha Theatre). She has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. Chang currently plays Nurse Lia on “One Life to Live”.

Chang’s portraits and performance photos have appeared in Vanity Fair, Gourmet, German Elle, Women’s Wear Daily, The Paris Review, TV Guide, Daily Variety, Interior Design, American Theatre, Broadwayworld.com, Life & Style, OUT, New York Magazine, InStyle, Timeout.com, Villagevoice.com, Playbill.com, Theatermania.com, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post.

Selections of Chang’s archive of Asian Pacific Americans in the arts, fashion, journalism, politics and space are now in the newly created LIA CHANG THEATER PORTFOLIO in the ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN PERFORMING ARTS COLLECTION housed in the Library of Congress Asian Division’s Asian American Pacific Islander Collection. Photographs by Lia Chang are in the permanent collections of the Angel Island Immigration Station, Asian American Federation of New York (AAFNY), the Chinese Historical Society of America (CHSA) in San Francisco, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA), the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation Art Collection and the New York Historical Society.

A former syndicated arts and entertainment columnist for KYODO News, Chang is the New York Bureau Chief for AsianConnections.com. She writes about culture, style and Asian American issues for a variety of publications and this Backstage Pass with Lia Chang blog. She is a National Tropical Botanical Garden Environmental Journalism Fellow, a Scripps Howard New Media Fellow at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, a Visual Journalism Fellow at the Poynter Institute for New Media and a Western Knight Fellow at USC’s Annenberg College of Communications for Specialized Journalism on Entertainment Journalism in the Digital Age. She is the recipient of the Asian American Journalists Association 2001 National Award for New Media and the Organization of Chinese Americans 2000 Chinese American Journalist Award. Avenue Magazine named her one of the “One Hundred Most Influential Asian Americans” in 1997. She is featured in Joann Faung Jean Lee’s book “Asian American actors: oral histories from stage, screen, and television”.