Victoria Moy, ‘Fighting for the Dream: Voices of Chinese American Veterans from WWII to Afghanistan’

When people think of American veterans, individuals of Asian descent rarely come to mind. It’s been all but forgotten that up to 20,000 Chinese Americans (about a quarter of the Chinese American population at the time) served in World War II–the highest ratio of any national grouping. Asian Americans continue to contribute to the U.S. military and to the fabric of American society today.

Through historical pictures and firsthand oral histories from U.S. veterans of Chinese descent, ages 24-104 from the book Fighting for the Dream: Voices of Chinese American Veterans from World War II to Afghanistan, Moy will look at what it’s meant to juggle being both Asian and American, from the lens of Chinese American men and women who’ve served. These individuals defied boundaries, went against their cultural grain and changed history. Their stories paint a greater tapestry that is the story of America itself in the last hundred years, and how war and their service affected Chinese American communities.

This talk is free and open to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill community.