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Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant by Curtis Chin

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Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant

A Memoir

by Curtis Chin

Narrator Curtis Chin

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Length 8 hours 12 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“I loved Curtis Chin's memoir. Chin grew up in 1980s Detroit with the center of his world being his family's restaurant, Chung’s Cantonese Cuisine. One of six children and the son of immigrants, Chin's tight-knit family and community weathered social injustice, racism, and violence by providing a welcoming environment, delicious food, and open arms. Chin shares his struggles to figure out his sexuality, his feelings of being lost in a large family, and wanted to please his elders in touching and funny stories that show his earnest and kind heart. Highly recommend and also great as an audiobook from Libro.fm as the author narrates.”
— Rachel • Avid Bookshop

Summary
About the author
About the narrator

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.

Goodreads’s New and Upcoming Books to Discover This Pride Month

Biography & Memoir Nonfiction

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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Audiobook details

Author:
Curtis Chin

Narrator:
Curtis Chin

ISBN:
9781668632390

Length:
8 hours 12 minutes

Language:
English

Publisher:
Hachette Audio

Publication date:
October 17, 2023

Edition:
Unabridged

Libro.fm rank:
#3,002 Overall

Genre rank:
#209 in Biography & Memoir

Reviews

"Curtis Chin's movable feast of a memoir dishes out everything you might want in a literary meal—savory reflections of our recent history, the sour-sweet tang of adolescent nostalgia, a little sauce, a lot of heart—and yes, plenty of hot tea. The real magic is in how a book that's so fulfilling still leaves you hungry for more." —Jeff Yang, New York Times bestselling author of The Golden Screen and Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the 90s to Now "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 "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 Expand reviews

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