Helen Zia

Helen Zia was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1952 to first-generation immigrants from Shanghai. She began working in her parents’ floral novelty business at the age of five. In the early 1970s, Zia attended Princeton University, where she was part of the first graduating class of women. During her time at Princeton, she co-founded the Asian American Students Association and was an active antiwar activist, opposing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. She also championed feminism and promoted cross-racial unity among low-income communities of color. After graduating, Zia briefly attended medical school at Tufts University in 1974 but left in 1976. She then moved to Detroit, Michigan, where she worked in various roles including a construction laborer, an autoworker, and a community organizer, before discovering her passion for journalism and writing.

Zia’s career as an activist solidified during her time in Detroit, particularly with the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin. She played a pivotal role in bringing federal civil rights charges against the perpetrators and was instrumental in galvanizing the Asian American community to demand justice through her journalism and advocacy. She co-founded American Citizens for Justice, a Detroit-based Asian American civil rights group, and served as its president in 1983. Her work in this landmark case is documented in the Academy Award-nominated film, ‘Who Killed Vincent Chin?’. Beyond this, Zia has been a vocal advocate for civil rights, peace, women’s rights, and combating hate violence and homophobia. In 1997, she testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights regarding the racial impact of news media.

As an accomplished author, Zia has published several important books. Her work ‘Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People’ (2000) was a finalist for the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize and was quoted by then-President Bill Clinton. She co-authored ‘My Country Versus Me’ (2002) with Wen Ho Lee, detailing Lee’s experience as a Los Alamos scientist falsely accused of espionage. Her most recent book, ‘Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao’s Revolution,’ was released in 2019. Zia also served as the executive editor of Ms. Magazine from 1989 to 1992 and has contributed to numerous publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post. In June 2008, she married Lia Shigemura in San Francisco, becoming one of the first same-sex couples to legally marry in California.