Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Oct 2023
304 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Publication Information
This "vivid, moving, funny, and heartfelt" memoir tells the story of Curtis Chin's time growing up as a gay Chinese American kid in 1980's Detroit (Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers).
Nineteen eighties Detroit was a volatile place to live, but above the fray stood a safe haven: Chung's Cantonese Cuisine, where anyone—from the city's first Black mayor to the local drag queens, from a big-time Hollywood star to elderly Jewish couples—could sit down for a warm, home-cooked meal. Here was where, beneath a bright-red awning and surrounded by his multigenerational family, filmmaker and activist Curtis Chin came of age; where he learned to embrace his identity as a gay ABC, or American-born Chinese; where he navigated the divided city's spiraling misfortunes; and where—between helpings of almond boneless chicken, sweet-and-sour pork, and some of his own, less-savory culinary concoctions—he realized just how much he had to offer to the world, to his beloved family, and to himself.
Served up by the cofounder of the Asian American Writers' Workshop and structured around the very menu that graced the tables of Chung's, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant is both a memoir and an invitation: to step inside one boy's childhood oasis, scoot into a vinyl booth, and grow up with him—and perhaps even share something off the secret menu.
"A charming, often funny account of a sentimental education in a Cantonese restaurant…Chin is a born storyteller with an easy manner, and this memoir should earn him many readers." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A captivating account of growing up gay and Chinese in 1980s Detroit…In lucid, empathetic prose, Chin mounts an elegy for a now closed community center that doubles as a message of compassion to his former self. Readers will be moved." ―Publishers Weekly
"Vivid, moving, funny, and heartfelt, Curtis Chin's memoir showcases his talents as an activist and a storyteller. This is one man's story of growing up gay, Chinese American, and working class in 1980s Detroit, finding a place in a large and loving immigrant family and in a changing city—and in doing so, carving out a place in the world for himself." ―Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers
"The work Curtis Chin has done as a writer and organizer made so much of this current moment possible—a memoir from him is a cause for celebration." ―Alexander Chee, bestselling author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
"Coming out and coming of age are hard enough for the average teen, but when they're in a Chinese American family, in a city in conflict with itself, it becomes an epic journey of self-discovery. As a kid who also ran around in the back of a Chinese restaurant, this book is literary comfort food, so delicious and good for the soul. Curtis Chin's story of coming of age and coming out is endearing and unforgettable." ―Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of The Many Daughters of Afong May
This information about Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
A cofounder of the Asian American Writers' Workshop in New York City, Curtis Chin served as the nonprofit's first executive director. He went on to write for network television before transitioning to social-justice documentaries. Chin has screened his films at over six hundred venues in sixteen countries. He has written for CNN, Bon Appétit, and the Boston Globe's Emancipator. A graduate of the University of Michigan and a former visiting scholar at New York University, Chin has received awards from ABC/Disney Television, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and more. He can be found at CurtisfromDetroit.com.
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