Late Chinese-American writer Iris Chang's critically acclaimed book The Rape of Nanking was on the New York Times bestseller list for over two months after its publication in 1997. Ever since then, many Chinese film companies have vied for the film rights but their hopes have been dashed since America Online Services Company finally snatched the rights.

The company will adapt the book, describing the systematic rape, torture and killing of hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians by Japanese soldiers in Nanking in 1937, to the big screen next year.

2007 is also the 70th anniversary of the massacre in the former Chinese capital.

AOL Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis said the company would reveal the Japanese invaders' atrocities from the viewpoint of European people present in China at the time.

The book, which has drawn wide-ranging attention in English-speaking circles, brought to light that Japanese soldiers turned Nanking into an experimental center in which soldiers were taught to terrorize unarmed and compliant civilians, a process later repeated throughout their conquests in Asia.

Born and educated in the United States, Iris Chang worked as a reporter for the Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune. Tragically, in November 2004, Iris Chang succumbed to psychological pressures and committed suicide at the age of 36.

(CRI.com December 4, 2006)