Lucie Cheng

Lucie Cheng was a sociologist who was known for her work in Asian American studies, as well as being the first permanent director of the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA. She was also one of the first academics from the United States to visit the mainland after the country normalized its relations with China.

Early life
Cheng was born to journalist Cheng Shewo and Hsiao Tsung-jang (蕭宗讓) in Hong Kong during the Second Sino-Japanese War. As a result of her father's job, Cheng moved frequently with her family during her youth to places around China, including Guilin, Chongqing, and Beiping. After the end of the war, the family returned to Hong Kong, though Cheng's older brother later returned to People's Republic of China to help further the socialist cause. In 1952, the family moved Cheng and her elder sister Catherine Chia-lin Cheng (成嘉玲) to Taiwan.

Education
Cheng attended Taipei First Girls' High School, before entering the Department for Foreign Languages at National Taiwan University. In her second year, Cheng studied abroad at the Music Department of University of Hawaii, despite her father's objections. During her stay, Cheng worked as a babysitter for a wealthy American family; the experience piqued her interest in class stratification. She then went on to obtain an MA in Sociology from the university and an MA in library studies at the University of Chicago, before completing her PhD at the University of Hawaii in 1970.

United States
Cheng became assistant professor of sociology at UCLA in 1970. Due to her engagements with politics and student movements, she became the first permanent director of the university's Asian American Studies Center since it was founded in 1969. Cheng developed and expanded the center, employing major scholars like Valerie Matsumoto, Robert A. Nakamura, and Russell Leong. Under Cheng, the center was run under socialist principles, with students and teachers rejecting hierarchical structures considered typical in capitalist America.

In 1978, alongside the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, Cheng organised the 'Southern California Chinese American Oral History Project'. The project focused on the oral testimonies of the cultural struggles that grassroots Chinese Americans faced in the United States.

After the United States normalized its relations with China, Cheng visited a Chinese university with other members of UCLA and became one of the first academics from the country to visit the mainland. Cheng had, however, visited China throughout the 1970s in a personal capacity, searching for her brother and sister on her father's behalf. During one visit, she met with Zhou Enlai, who informed her that her father was no longer considered an enemy by the Communist Party.

In 1985, Cheng founded the Center of Pacific Rim Studies at UCLA.

Taiwan
Cheng took over her father's Taiwan-based paper, the Li pao, in 1991 and continued to support leftist causes. She then divided her time between the United States and Taiwan, teaching at Shih Hsin University, before becoming a professor there in 1993, when she founded a course on gender and development.

In 2006, she founded Sifang pao, a paper aimed at Vietnamese and Thai immigrants and migrant workers.

Honours

 * 2011 35th Golden Tripod Award - special contribution.
 * The Lucie Cheng Prize is awarded by the Amerasia Journal, and recognises outstanding student essays in Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies.