Chronology
Timeline of the Vincent Chin Case
Film & TV
Becoming American:
The Chinese Experience. A three-part PBS special. "Program Three: No Turning Back" includes coverage of the Vincent Chin case.
Transcript of the episode.
Who Killed Vincent Chin?
Documentary by Renee Tajima-Pena and Christine Choy. Nominated for an 1989 Academy Award for Best Documentary.
A must-see film.
Books
Frank Wu
is currently writing a highly-anticipated history on the Vincent Chin case.
Helen Zia,
Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000).
Detailed account of the Vincent Chin case written by a leading activist in the case.
Iris Chang,
The Chinese in America: A Narrative History (Viking, 2003).
Jacqueline Turner Banks,
A Day for Vincent Chin and Me (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001).
Story about a Japanese American child's efforts to slow down the traffic on a residential street in Kentucky,
while his parents form a local protest in support of the Chin case.
Articles
Vincent Chin
This article from the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, offers a good overview
of the Vincent Chin case.
Remembering Vincent Chin:
A murder in Detroit remains a turning point in the APA movement
An excellent Asian Week article by Alethea Yip that lays out the major issues in
the Vincent Chin case. 06/05-06/13/1997
From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry
Remarks from a speech by Frances Wang about the role of the media in the Vincent Chin case and the birth of
the Asian American civil rights movement. Also references a recent murder case shockingly similar to the Chin
case. 06/19/2009
No Justice for Vincent Then, No Justice for Luis Now
This article highlights the remarkable similarities between the Vincent Chin case and the 2009 case of Luis Ramirez, a Latino
immigrant, who is brutally killed by a gang of drunken white teenagers, two of whom are acquitted of all charges by an all-white jury.
05/08/2009
The Model
Minority Awakened: The Murder of Vincent Chin
This five-part article by Christine Ho for USAsians.net offers one of the more extensive treatments of the Vincent Chin case available online.
2003
"Vincent Who?" Remembering the Historic Importance of the Vincent Chin Case
Roland Hwang, one of the leading activists during the Vincent Chin case, discusses the reasons why the Vincent Chin case should be considered
historically important. 04/2008
The
Vincent Chin Case Remembered 25 Years Later
Another good article by Roland Hwang, where he reflects on the major lessons learned from the Vincent Chin case. 06/09/2007
Remembering Vincent Chin 28 years later
With reflective touches, Frances Wang offers a succinct summary of the significant legal developments resulting from the case
(leading the State Bar of Michigan in 2009 to designate the case as the 34th Michigan Legal Milestone). 06/20/2010
Vincent Chin?
Remembering Ronald Ebens-the guy who got away with murder
Twenty-nine years after the hate crime murder of Vincent Chin, blogger/journalist Emil Guillermo locates and calls up Ronald Ebens, the man
who beat Vincent to death. 06/13/2011
Constructed Identities of Asian & African
Americans: A Story of Two Races & the Criminal Justice System
This scholarly article by Sheila Bedi in the Harvard Blackletter Law Journal examines the placement of African and Asian Americans in the
U.S. criminal justice system, with an exploration of two similar racial murders in Detroit - Vincent Chin and Malice Green, and how
their cases were adjudicated. 2003
What Killed Vincent Chin
A thoughtful blog essay written by filmmaker and activist Eric Byler to commemorate
the 25th anniversary of Vincent Chin's murder. 06/19/2007
Frank Wu on the Vincent Chin Case
In this audio recording from the "5th Annual Conference in Citizenship Studies: Boundaries," Frank Wu gives a substantial lecture
on the history of the city of Detroit as the setting of the Vincent Chin murder. 03/27-29/2008
Anti-Asian Racism & Violence
C.N. Le, the blogger of AsianNation.org, discusses Vincent Chin within the historical
context of anti-Asian racism in America as also evidenced in the Wen Ho Lee case.
Vincent Chin: NPR's All Things Considered
In this 3-minute audio segment, National Public Radio commemorates the 20th anniversary of Vincent Chin's death, with a summary of the case
and comments from Frank Wu, Helen Zia, and Roland Hwang. 06/22/2002
OCA Mourns the Death of Lily Chin
This press release from the Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA)
announces the passing of Lily Chin on June 9, 2002 and includes an obituary. 06/10/2002
"I'm Vincent Chin!": The Hate Crime that "Created Asian America"
Stewart D. Ikeda of Asian-American Village argues that Vincent Chin's murder
marks the defining moment for Asian American political identity. 06/19/2002
An Unnoticed Struggle:
A Concise History of Asian American Civil Rights Issues
This booklet by the Japanese American Citizens League offers a historical summary of the Asian American civil rights movement,
which includes a section on the murder of Vincent Chin. 2008
United States of America v. Ronald Ebens
The actual appellate court ruling in the case of U.S. v. Ronald Ebens, one of
the two men who beat Vincent Chin to death. 09/11/1986
Who Killed Vincent Chin? (1988) – Movie Review
The New York Times reviews the documentary, Who Killed Vincent Chin?, by Christine Choy and Renee Tajima.
03/11/1988
Detroit and the Legacy of
Vincent Chin
On the 20th anniversary of Vincent Chin's death, Scott Kurashige, a scholar on
Asian American history, reflects on Vincent Chin's legacy. November-December 2002
Asian Americans and the Perpetual Foreigner Syndrome
This excerpt from Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White, written
by Frank Wu, discusses anti-Asian American hate crimes as a brutal form of the
perpetual foreigner syndrome. Winter 2002
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