Lia Chang

In 2010, the "Lia Chang Theater Photography and Other Works Portfolio" was established in the Asian Pacific American Performing Arts Collection housed in the Library of Congress. She has written as a syndicated columnist and as a writer and editor for AsianConnections.com, is a writer for AsAmNews.com and maintains a blog about the arts, culture, style and Asian American issues.

• Name — Lia Chang • Born — 29 September 1963 • Birthplace — San Francisco, California, U.S. • Occupation — * Actress • photographer • journalist • Years Active — 1981–present • Website — liachang.com

Chang was born Kim Anne Chang in San Francisco, California, the daughter of Russell Chang, an engineer, and Beverly Umehara, who was president of the national executive board of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA).

Chang began her career as a model in high school, moving to New York in 1981 to work as a petite runway and print model for various accounts including, from 1984 to 1993, as a petite model for Liz Claiborne. Chang made her feature film debut in Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon in 1984, followed by John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China in 1985. In 1986, Chang made her professional stage debut as Liat in a North American tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, starring Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden, and directed by Geraldine Fitzgerald. In 1990, she made her New York stage debut in Richard Caliban’s Famine Plays with Cucaracha Theatre. During her association with that company, she appeared in Two Gentlemen of Verona (1991) and the late night theater soap opera Underground Soap. She played Angela in Waitin' 2 End Hell, directed by Woodie King, Jr., at the New Federal Theatre, and starred as Jing-mei Woo in an adaptation of Two Kinds, directed by Isaiah Sheffer at Symphony Space, which she also performed for broadcast on National Public Radio. In 1993, at La MaMa she played Princess Noel in Lonnie Carter’s Gulliver in 1993, and she played Suzie in Hot Keys, by Jeff Weiss, with the Naked Angels Theatre Company with the Signature Theatre Company. In 1996, she was Sally and Joy in Sam Shepard's play Chicago at the Public Theater. In 2005 at the Billie Holiday Theatre she played Carole Barbara in Lorey Hayes' Power Play. She reprised her role in the revival of Power Play at the 2013 National Black Theatre Festival. Her television credits include the recurring character of Nurse Lia on the daytime soap operas One Life to Live and As the World Turns, guest roles on other television shows, such as Another World and New York Undercover, and minor characters in several feature films. In 2015, Chang co-produced, co-wrote and co-starred in the independent short film, Hide and Seek. She is included in Joann Faung Jean Lee's 2000 book Asian American Actors: Oral histories from stage, screen, and television. • Selected filmography • Year — Title — Role • 1985 — The Last Dragon — Girl Student • 1986 — Big Trouble in Little China — Female Wing Kong Guard • 1989 — Another World — Attorney Han Su Lee (TV) • 1989–present — One Life to Live — Nurse Lia (TV; recurring) • 1989–present — As the World Turns — Nurse Lia (TV; recurring) • 1990 — King of New York — Gangster’s Gun Moll • 1990 — Frankenhooker — Crystal • 1991 — New Jack City — Scotty’s Girl • 1991 — A Kiss Before Dying — Shoe Saleslady • 1994 — Wolf — Desk Clerk • 1995 — New York Undercover — ICU Nurse (TV; episode: "Knock You Out") • 1997 — Taxman — Mr. Green’s Receptionist • 2015 — Hide and Seek — Woman

Chang studied film and communications at Hunter College. She is an Asian American Journalists Association Executive Leadership Graduate (2000), a Western Knight Fellow at USC's Annenberg College of Communications for Specialized Journalism on Entertainment Journalism in the Digital Age (2000), a National Press Photographers Association Visual Edge/Visual Journalism Fellow at the Poynter Institute for New Media (2001), a Scripps Howard New Media Fellow at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism (2002), and a National Tropical Botanical Garden Environmental Journalism Fellow (2003). She was a syndicated columnist for KYODO News, writing about arts and entertainment in her "What's Hot in New York" column from 1995–2004. In 1997 Avenue Asia magazine named Chang as one of the "One Hundred Most Influential Asian Americans". In 2000, she received an Organization of Chinese Americans Chinese American Journalist Award for an article entitled "An Active Vision", which detailed the life of her mother, Beverly Umehara, a secretary and mother of four, who became a labor activist and president of the national executive board of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance. In 2001, she received the Asian American Journalists Association 2001 National Award for New Media for an article she wrote about her grandmother’s harrowing journey through the Angel Island Immigration Station. Chang is an editor and writer for AsianConnections.com, Arts and Entertainment reporter for AsAmNews.com and an arts reviewer for All Digitocracy. She maintains a blog about the arts, culture, style and Asian American issues, Backstage Pass with Lia Chang.

• 1996: "Asian Pacific Americans in the Workforce" on view at National AFL–CIO Headquarters, Washington DC; Environmental Protection Agency, Washington DC; U.S. Department of Justice, Washington DC; Tamiment Labor Library/NYU Bobst Library, New York, NY; and Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire • 1997: National Transportation Safety Board, Washington DC • 2001: "Asian Americans: At Home in the Galaxy" on view at West Charleston Library, Las Vegas, NV. This multi-component exhibition includes notable Asian Americans as well as ordinary women and men of diverse Asian/Pacific ancestry, working in a variety of fields and occupations. The third component of the exhibition is a fabric book art installation piece called "Coming to America" which details Chang's grandmother’s experience of being detained at the Angel Island Immigration Station. • 2002: "From Clay Street to Canal: Remembering NY Chinatown in the Wake of Sept. 11th" at Museum of Chinese in America; and Chinese Historical Society of America, San Francisco, CA. • 2008: "Actor BD Wong: In Rehearsal with Herringbone at McCarter Theatre", Princeton, NJ • 2009: "Chinese New Year in New York Chinatown" at Gouveneur Healthcare Services, New York, NY, presented by New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation Art Collection • 2010: "Art and Healing-Healthy for the Holidays Features Andy Warhol, Romare Bearden, Lia Chang" at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, Staten Island, NY • 2011: "In Rehearsal" in the Asian Division Reading Room of the Library of Congress, Washington DC • 2011: "Portraits of New York Chinatown After 9/11" in the Asian Division Reading Room, Library of Congress, Washington DC • 2012: "In Rehearsal" in the Asian Division Reading Room of the Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

Lia Chang is recorded as actress, photographer and journalist.