Dr. Benjamin (Benji) Johnson Chang, Ph.D., 45, of Greensboro, North Carolina, died unexpectedly of natural causes on July 20, 2022, while visiting family and friends in his hometown of Cerritos, California. Benji was an award-winning scholar, revered teacher, respected mentor, passionate activist, beloved friend, caring son and brother, loving husband, and doting father.

Benji was born to Frank and Louise Chang on September 25, 1976, in Fullerton, California. He spent his formative years in Cerritos, where he joined a burgeoning community of Asian American DJs. Known as "DJ Ultraman," Benji and his high school friends provided mobile DJ services for house parties, high school dances, and college student organization fundraisers. Throughout his too-short life, hip-hop served as a form of activism and a platform that Benji used to connect with other socially conscious people worldwide.

After graduating from Whitney High School in 1994, Benji attended the University of California San Diego (UCSD). He lived the life of a scholar-DJ, majoring in psychology, hosting "The Ultrajam Show with DJ Ultraman" on the college's radio station, KSDT (and filling occasional guest spots on commercial station Jammin Z-90 FM), interning with Atlantic Records, and writing hip-hop articles for The Guardian newspaper. Benji was also a student activist and community organizer, viewing everything he read and learned critically through the lens of social justice. He actively participated in many Student Affirmative Action Coalition (SAAC) organizations and was elected president of the Asian and Pacific Islander Student Alliance (APSA) during the 1997-1998 school year.

Benji earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from UCSD in 1999, obtained his teaching credential in 2000, and immediately began teaching primary school and his "Sensational Students" at Castelar Elementary School in Los Angeles' historic Chinatown. He became a fixture in the Chinatown community, founding or facilitating a social justice and arts education collective, a martial arts and lion dance troupe, youth soccer and basketball teams, a youth organizing program, and a college access mentoring program. He also raised money for these ventures by hosting a monthly party called "mETHODOLOGY," a Chinatown staple. Benji did much of this community-based work while simultaneously going to graduate school.

Benji obtained his Master of Arts in Education from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2001. He would also obtain his Ph.D. in Urban Education from UCLA in 2009. He served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Teachers College - Columbia University in New York City from 2011 through 2013. As an educator at Teachers College, Benji taught critical approaches to race and pedagogy. He was a mentor and beacon of light to many students who sought to uplift race and equity in education.

When Benji returned to Los Angeles to teach, he began dating and became engaged to the love of his life, Jenny Star Lor. Together, they moved to Hong Kong in 2015, where Benji joined the Education University of Hong Kong faculty. Benji and Jenny briefly visited Southern California in 2016 to be married in front of their family and friends at a ceremony in Los Angeles. Jenny gave birth to their daughter Rayen in Hong Kong in 2019. Shortly after that, Benji, Jenny, and Rayen moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, where Benji became an Associate Professor with tenure in the Department of Teacher Education and Higher Education at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.

In addition to being a DJ and an educator, Benji was a fifth-generation disciple of Choy Lee Fut Kung Fu. He first learned Kung Fu through Ronald Wong, the grandfather of one of the Sensational Students. In 2008, Benji began training under Sifu Ng Fu Hang, a fourth-generation direct descendant of Chan Heung, the founding father of Choy Lee Fut. He was not only diligent in his practice in Los Angeles but also passionate about educating others on the history of Kung Fu and its oppression. During his time in New York, Benji trained as a visiting student at the Brooklyn Choy Lee Fut school. There, he studied under Sifu Huang Zhen Qin—he used the opportunity to compare techniques and share his experience in martial arts with his Kung Fu brothers and sisters.

Benji brought his whole self into his work—constantly negotiating the mix of being Chinese American, part of the international Chinese diaspora, a devoted martial artist, a hip-hop DJ, a community activist, and an educational activist. His work spanned countries and communities—he wrote about Chinese American and Asian American education and history, linkages between education in Hong Kong and mainland China, and transnational connections racializing Asians in education throughout the Pacific Rim. He even managed to sprinkle work about hip hop and lion dancers into that mix. But, perhaps most importantly, Benji's scholarly work was guided by a commitment to educational activism, critical pedagogy, and social justice.

Benji masterfully brought people of diverse backgrounds together, creating deep connections and communities wherever he went. He openly shared his love of Diet Coke, classic Kung Fu flicks, clean hair cuts, vegetables, inside jokes, and reading bedtime stories to Rayen with everyone in his circles.

Benji is preceded in death by Frank, his father. He is survived by his wife Jenny, three-year-old daughter Rayen, mother Louise, brother Stephen, and niece Colette.

Send to someone

Share this obituary with others

https://everloved.com/life-of/benjamin-chang/obituary/

Copy