Wangs Vs. the World (Chang) - Author Bio

Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1969-70
• Where—State of Ohio, USA
• Raised—San Fernando Valley, California
• Education—B.A., Cornell Univesity
• Currently—lives in Los Angeles, California


Jade Chang is an American editor, journalist, and author. Her debut novel, The Wangs Vs. the World, was published to wide acclaim in 2016.

Chang's parents met when the two came to the U.S. from Taiwan for graduate school. Chang herself was born in Ohio, although when she was nine, her family moved to California, a place she now considers home. She went cross-country for college, however, to Cornell University in upstate New York where she received her B.A. in English.

Over the years, Chang has written for a number of magazines but most consistently for Metropolis, a high-end New York-based architecture and design magazine. She became the west coast editor. It was from this vantage point, observing lives of the wealthy, that Chang witnessed the 2008 recession and its effect on people of means—an event that inspired The Wangs Vs. the World.

Most recently, Chang became an editor for GoodReads. Earlier in her career, she had worked with Elizabeth Khuri Chandler—before Chandler and her husband Otis started GoodReads. A number of years later, when GoodReads expanded, Chang was hired to edit the website's Young Adult newsletter.

Chang is the recipient of a Sundance Fellowship for Arts Journalism, the AIGA/Winterhouse Award for Design Criticism, and the James D. Houston Memorial scholarship from the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. She lives in Los Angeles. (From the publisher.)