{"id":81263,"date":"2026-05-28T22:52:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T05:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=81263"},"modified":"2026-05-28T22:52:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T05:52:46","slug":"chinese-restaurants-may-save-america-riffs-writer-curtis-chin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=81263","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Restaurants May Save America, Riffs Writer Curtis Chin"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Selen Ozturk<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cCome for the egg rolls; stay for the talk on racism,\u201d says Chin, as he pitches his memoir \u201cEverything I Learned, I Learned at a Chinese Restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Curtis
Writer Curtis Chin discusses his book, \u201cEverything I Learned, I Learned at a Chinese Restaurant.\u201d (Facebook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Curtis Chin was born nine months after the 1967 Detroit riot.<\/p>\n

The rebellion was the deadliest of that summer\u2019s nationwide racial unrest, leaving 43 dead, over 1,100 injured and the city under National Guard occupation for five days.<\/p>\n

Chin, who refers to himself as a \u201criot baby,\u201d explained his commitment to social justice advocacy in a witty, lively conversation May 22 with American Community Media. \u201cPeople always ask me why I talk about social justice so much,\u201d he said at the news briefing. \u201cWithout that incident, I probably wouldn\u2019t be around, so I have to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That conviction also led to his memoir, \u201cEverything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2019For here or to go?\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Published by Little, Brown and Company in 2023, the memoir traces Chin\u2019s childhood working in his family\u2019s restaurant in inner-city Detroit \u2014 a business founded by a great-great-grandfather who moved from Canton, China to Canton, Ohio in the late 1800s before realizing there were no Chinese people there. He eventually landed in Detroit just as the auto industry was taking off.<\/p>\n

Chung\u2019s Cantonese Cuisine, where Chin grew up, served over 10 million handmade egg rolls over 65 years.<\/p>\n

It was a great place to grow up, he said \u2014 even amid the crack cocaine epidemic, the AIDS epidemic and a city socioeconomically convulsing as its auto industry declined.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally knew five people murdered by the time I was 18 years old, but despite that, we had this fabulous Chinese restaurant in the inner city where my parents were able to raise me and my five siblings,\u201d he said. The memoir is a thank-you to his parents and a \u201chat tip to my hometown of Detroit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201dI think a lot of people still kind of misunderstand the city of Detroit. I wanted to show that Detroit was still capable of producing good things like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chin is the co-founder of the Asian American Writer\u2019s Workshop. His latest film for PBS,\u00a0\u201cWarren King: King of Cardboard,\u201d\u00a0<\/a>premieres this month.<\/p>\n

Lucky<\/strong>\u00a0888<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The book is structured around three sets of eight stories each \u2014 grade school, high school and college \u2014 because, as Chin noted, \u201cfor a lot of Chinese people, 888 is good luck.\u201d His memoir\u2019s central question is also culturally animated: \u201cFor here or to go?\u201d<\/p>\n

Chin\u2019s great-great-grandfather faced the same question in the late 1800s as he stood cold and alone on a rickety dock in Guangzhou, China, trying to decide his future and that of his young impoverished family.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I got older, it was a question I asked myself, starting in our restaurant\u2019s long and open back kitchen, where my family made some of our most popular items, including the tangiest barbecue pork and the best-smelling almond cookies.\u201d<\/p>\n

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