Lia Chang (born September 29, 1963) is an American actress, journalist, and photographer."Getting Personal with Lia Chang and her Asian American Arts World" , Jade Magazine, March–April 2014. After beginning her career modeling and acting in New York and on tour, Chang added parallel careers as a portrait and botanical photographer and journalist.
Chang's photographs have been exhibited in the United States and elsewhere and published in various media. 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.
Early life Chang was born Kim Anne Chang in San Francisco, California,"Famous Chinese-Americans in News Media", Yellowbridge.com, accessed July 31, 2015 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).Jdang, "People in the News" , Asian Week, July 20, 2000, accessed July 31, 2015
Acting and modeling 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.Lee (2000), "Lia Chang, pp. 62–68"
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.Yamamoto, J.K. "A Little China Reunion", Rafu Shimpo, May 7, 2015 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.Nugent, Patrick. "Pauletta Pearson Washington and Roscoe Orman Lead Cast in Revival of Lorey Hayes' Power Play", October 16, 2012, accessed August 1, 2015 In 1990, she made her New York stage debut in Richard Caliban’s Famine Plays with Cucaracha Theatre.Gussow, Mel. "Review/ Theater; Dark Visions of America In a Modern Depression", The New York Times, November 3, 1990, accessed August 6, 2015 During her association with that company, she appeared in Two Gentlemen of Verona (1991)Holden, Stephen. "Review/ Theater; A Politically Correct Two Gentlemen, The New York Times, December 12, 1991, accessed August 6, 2015 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."Lia Chang", Backstage.com, accessed August 6, 2015 In 1993, at La MaMa she played Princess Noel in Lonnie Carter’s Gulliver in 1993,Bruckner, D. J. R. "Review/Theater: Gulliver", The New York Times, October 13, 1993, accessed August 6, 2015 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.McCallister, Jared. "Caribbean Week Set to Kick Off", New York Daily News, May 29, 2005, accessed August 8, 2015 She reprised her role in the revival of Power Play at the 2013 National Black Theatre Festival.DeCwikiel-Kane, Dawn. "National Black Theatre Festival: NC Natives Bring ‘Power Play’ to the Festival", News and Record, July 25, 2013, accessed August 8, 2015
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."The Winners of Film Lab's 11th Annual 72 Hour Shootout Announced!", Prlog.org, July 25, 2015; "72-hour-shootout", Asian American Film Lab, July 25, 2015, accessed August 3, 2015"Playing Hide and Seek with Actress Lia Chang", Asamnews.com, July 29, 2015; Hide and Seek poster, showing awards, Bev's Girl Films, accessed August 8, 2015 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
Photography Chang studied photography at the International Center of Photography. Since the 1980s, she has built a corpus of photographs of persons of color in the arts.Benson, Heidi. "Enter Gotanda: Ground-breaking Playwright Becomes a Ground-breaking Professor", California Magazine, Summer, 2014; and Clement, Olivia."Victory Gardens' New Play Festival to Feature Solo Show by André De Shields", playbill.com, June 01, 2015; Chai, Barbara. "Why David Henry Hwang Wrote Chinglish", The Wall Street Journal, October 10, 2011, accessed August 1, 2015; Combs, Marianne. "McKnight Foundation honors Mu Performing Arts' Rick Shiomi", mprnews.com, May 14, 2015; Piepenburg, Erik. "In New York, Everywhere a Writing Nook", The New York Times, April 9, 2015; Reid, Kerry. "How Chay Yew Made Victory Gardens Feel New Again", Chicago Magazine, November 4, 2013; Hebert, James. "Globe taps Richard Thomas for 'Othello'" The San Diego Union Tribune, March 21, 2014 In 1995, Chang was commissioned by the APALA to produce a photo essay, "Asian Pacific Americans in the Workforce". In 1996, she received a Murray and Isabella Rayburn Foundation Grant to produce three additional sets of related photos for her first solo exhibition, also titled "Asian Pacific Americans in the Workforce", which were on view for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month at the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives at New York University's Bobst Library; and in Washington D.C. at the National AFL-CIO Headquarters, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Department of Justice."Photojournalist’s Exhibit on 'Asian Pacific Americans in the Workforce' on Display: Lia Chang's series is on view at four sites on the East Coast, including the U.S. Department of Justice," Rafu Shimpo, May 18, 1996 In 2001, the West Charleston Library of Las Vegas-Clark County Library District in Las Vegas, Nevada, featured a retrospective of Chang’s work in "Asian Americans: At Home in the Galaxy", a multi-component exhibition which included Notable Asian Americans who have broken boundaries and have carved unique paths to success in their specialized field and "Asian Pacific Americans in the Workforce", ordinary women and men of diverse Asian/Pacific ancestry, working in a variety of fields and occupations. The third component included a fabric book art installation piece called "Coming to America" which detailed her grandmother’s experience of being detained at the Angel Island Immigration Station."Eye Openers: Asian Americans: At Home in the Galaxy", The Las Vegas Review Journal, May 4, 2001.
Chang’s photographs are in the permanent collections of the Angel Island Immigration Station, Asian American Federation of New York, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation Art Collection and the New York Historical Society.Chang, Lia. "About Lia", Backstage Pass with Lia Chang, accessed August 4, 2015 Her portraits of notable Chinese Americans can be seen at the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, the Museum of Chinese in America in New York, the Chinese Historical Society of America in San Francisco (portraits of New York's Chinatown after 9/11), and the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.Chang, Lia. "Awards, Exhibitions and Published Work", Backstage Pass with Lia Chang, accessed August 5, 2015
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."New Anthology of Asian American Plays Is Subject of Book Talk July 27", Library of Congress, July 15, 2011, accessed July 31, 2015 In 2011, In Rehearsal, a display of 36 photographs drawn from that Portfolio were on view in the Asian Division Reading Room at the Library of Congress,"Photo Flash: Library of Congress' In Rehearsal Exhibit", Broadwayworld.com, July 26, 2011, accessed August 6, 2015 and her "Portraits of New York Chinatown After 9/11" were featured in a Post 9-11 Commemorative Display for the 10th Anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center.Lapid, Robin. "Remembering 9/11: An Events and Resource Guide", Hyphen magazine', September 9, 2011, accessed August 4, 2015 In 2015, in Playbill, Laura Heywood picked Chang for her top ten list of "Most Useful Theatre Women on Social Media", writing: "Whether it's a live performance, on a red carpet, or behind the scenes at an awards show or opening night, Lia seems to always capture a moment of perfect realness between a star's planned poses. I always feel like I know the subjects more intimately than I did before viewing her photos."Heywood, Laura. "Retweet! BroadwayGirlNYC's Picks For Most Useful Theatre Women on Social Media", Playbill, July 31, 2015