Peter Kwong (; 1941–2017) was a professor of
Asian American studies and
urban affairs and planning at
Hunter College
Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...
in New York City, as well as a professor of
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
at the
Graduate Center of the City University of New York
The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and post-graduate university in New York City. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the ...
.
Biography
Born in
Chungking
Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a municipality in Southwest China. The official abbreviation of the city, "" (), was approved by the State Counc ...
, China, he was a pioneer in Asian American studies, a leading scholar of immigration, and an award-winning journalist and filmmaker of Chinese descent. He was widely recognized for his passionate commitment to human rights and social justice.
Peter Kwong
, at Hunter College's Urban Affairs and Planning department site
His best known scholarly work is on Chinese Americans and on modern Chinese politics. His books include:
*''Chinese America: The Untold Story of America’s Oldest New Community'' ();
*''Chinese Americans: An Immigrant Experience'' , co-authored with his wife, Chinese historian Dusanka Miscevic. ();
*''Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor'' ();
* ''The New Chinatown'' ();
*''Chinatown, New York: Labor and Politics, 1930-1950'' ().
He was a frequent contributor to ''The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
'' and the ''International Herald Tribune
The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France for international English-speaking readers. It had the aim of becoming "the world's first global newspaper" and could fairly be said ...
'' and wrote a bi-weekly column on Asia, syndicated worldwide by Agence Global. His exposés of Chinese drug syndicates and Los Angeles racial riots were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
. Kwong was also a documentary filmmaker, a recipient of a CINE Golden Eagle Award
Ciné film or cine film is the term commonly used in the UK and historically in the US to refer to the 8 mm, Super 8, 9.5 mm, and 16 mm motion picture film formats used for home movies. It is not normally used to refer ...
, and most recently a co-producer of '' China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province'' for HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2010. His 1980 television film, “Third Avenue: Only the Strong Survive,” won an Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
.
See also
* Chinese Americans in New York City
The New York metropolitan area is home to the largest and most prominent ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, hosting Chinese populations representing all 34 provincial-level administrative units of China. The Chinese American population ...
References
1941 births
2017 deaths
Hunter College faculty
Graduate Center, CUNY faculty
American academics of Chinese descent
Writers from Chongqing
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