MOCA TALKS with Curtis Chin – Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant
November 16, 2024, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
The Museum of Chinese in America invites you to an engaging MOCA TALKS event featuring Curtis Chin, author of the award-winning memoir Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant. In this insightful discussion, Chin will share his experiences growing up as a gay Chinese American in 1980s Detroit, framed by life at his family’s beloved Cantonese restaurant, Chung’s. His memoir captures a powerful journey of self-discovery during a time marked by rising xenophobia, the AIDS crisis, and the shifting social and political climate of the Reagan era, illustrating how these challenges shaped his identity as a writer and activist.
As a filmmaker and co-founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, Chin has dedicated his career to exploring cultural identity, community, and social justice through storytelling. He will delve into his evolution from comedy writing to producing documentaries that address critical social issues. The conversation, moderated by Yifan Wu, MOCA’s Director of Programs, will offer insights into the intersection of personal history and larger social movements, inspiring reflection and dialogue.
In celebration of the paperback release, Chin has organized a series of events at beloved Chinese restaurants across the country to share their stories and discuss their history and challenges. Learn more about this national tour at www.curtisfromdetroit.com.
About Curtis Chin
Curtis Chin is the author of the award-winning memoir, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant. A co-founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in New York City, Chin served as the non-profits’ first Executive Director. He went on to write comedy for network and cable before transitioning to social justice documentaries. Chin has screened his films at over 600 venues in twenty countries. He has written for CNN, Bon Appetit, the Detroit Free Press, and the Emancipator/Boston Globe. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Chin has received awards from ABC/Disney Television, New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and more. He is currently working on a docuseries on the history of Chinese restaurants in the US.
About Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant
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 co-founder 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.