From Menu to Memoir: An Evening with Curtis Chin

Please note that this event will be conducted mainly in English.

***For event attendees, we are offering a 10% discount on all books, excluding consignment books, second-hand books, and on-sale books!

***If you’d like to reserve a copy and have it signed at the event, please click here. Use 10% discount code EVENT2509 at checkout. A convenient in-store pick-up option is available.

Join award-winning filmmaker, activist, and writer Curtis Chin with local activist Hsien Chew for an evening of stories, conversation, and celebration from Chin’s acclaimed memoir Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant.

Set in 1980s Detroit, this heartfelt and humorous coming-of-age story takes us inside Chung’s Cantonese Cuisine - a bustling family-run restaurant that served as a rare safe haven for a divided city. From politicians and drag queens to movie stars and everyday locals, Chung’s welcomed everyone under its bright-red awning. For Curtis, it became the backdrop of his youth: a place where he navigated questions of identity, queerness, and belonging as a gay American-born Chinese boy growing up in turbulent times.

Structured around the restaurant’s beloved menu, this memoir is more than a story of food and family - it’s an invitation to consider how community spaces can shape who we are, and how we choose to live in the world.

✨ OUR MENU

🍽️ Starter: A warm welcome & introduction

🍜 Main Course: A rich conversation between Curtis Chin and guest speaker, local activist Hsien Chew.

🥣 Side Dish: A flavourful chapter reading

🍰 Dessert: Audience Q&A - bring your curiosity!

🥂 Daily Special: Book signing, mingling & leisurely browsing

Additional Information:

• The shop will remain open during the event, with regular customers informed about the ongoing event in the venue.
• Due to limited space and safety considerations, we strongly recommend booking your ticket in advance. While walk-ins may be accommodated, it will depend on available capacity and cannot be guaranteed.
• Please kindly note that the venue does not have accessible facilities.
• This event will primarily be hosted in the basement and please note that seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.
• We will be taking photos during this event for marketing purposes. If you do not wish to appear in these photos, please inform our staff and ask for a sign before the event begins.

(The following content is quoted from the publisher’s public resources)

"Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant is Chin’s story, but it’s also a love letter to the communal spaces that shape us."—TIME

"Breaking new ground has been part of Curtis Chin’s entire life, as his distinctive new memoir attests...In his bright, snappy voice, Chin traces his pioneering nature back to the Chinese restaurant his parents ran in Detroit, hospitable to all in a starkly divided city."—San Francisco Chronicle

"Exuberant, big-hearted...Chin also is a fantastic storyteller and his scintillating debut will have readers laughing, crying and laughing some more."—Minneapolis Star Tribune

About the Author

CURTIS CHIN A co-founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in New York City, Curtis Chin served as the non-profits’ first Executive Director. He went on to write comedy for network and cable television 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 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. His memoir, "Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant" was published by Little, Brown in Fall 2023. His essay in Bon Appetit was selected for Best Food Writing in America 2023. He is in post-production on a new film for American Masters on PBS.