TRAVERSE CITY — To celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander month, an event is poised to raise voices such as Curtis Chin, who has long pushed for awareness for both the AAPI and LGBTQ+ communities.
The New York Times bestselling author will read from his memoir, “Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant” on May 16 at Northwestern Michigan College’s Dennos Museum Center as a featured part of the free celebration that runs from 5-9 p.m.
Chin, a Detroiter, spent his developmental years in his family’s restaurant, Chung’s Cantonese Cuisine (or Chung’s, as the locals called it.) A staple for decades, the Detroit restaurant closed in 2000, with Chin’s parents making the difficult decision to shut doors on the suburbs location in 2005 after Chin’s father passed away. After that, he and his siblings moved away, leaving Chin with a sad realization — after a century of history in the state, his soon-to-come nieces and nephews would miss out on the influential environment Chin had been raised in.
“When my siblings started having kids, I thought it was sad that this next generation wouldn’t know about this legacy. I really started writing the book to share family stories with them,” Chin said.
However, it quickly grew into much more.
Following nationwide Black Lives Matter protests and the anti-Asian racism also happening at the time, Chin’s narrative was opened to a much broader audience.
“I thought that maybe my book could help in the discussion that was happening around that time. In America, we were looking at race as an issue, and as someone who grew up in Detroit, a very racially polarized city, I thought that I might have some thoughts that could contribute to it,” Chin said. “I think just having the book out there helps. Anytime there’s an opportunity to talk about these things in a way that brings us together, it is worthwhile.
For me, writing the book was, at least what I said to my agents was, ‘Come for the eggrolls, but stay for the talk on racism.’”
Chin’s introduction to activism took place decades before when a close family friend, Vincent Chin, was murdered in an act of racism.
“As a 14 year old, to know someone that’s been viciously beaten and killed in a hate crime like that, it activates you,” Chin said. “It’s sad that sometimes it takes a tragedy like the Vincent Chin case to motivate people to wanna fight for your civil rights, but that’s just the way it is sometimes.”
Chin, who will be speaking to a few different groups in Michigan, including the Detroit Pistons, Ford Motor, and the Kresge Foundation, will wrap up his brief tour of the state in Traverse City, thanks to an invitation from the informal Traverse City AAPI Committee.
This committee — made up of Amy Yee, Judy Chu, Sakura Takano, Tony Vu, Craig Hadley, and Henry Lan — was first brought together by Holly Bird, a member of Northern Michigan E3 (Educate, Elevate, Engage.) She reached out to them all after the individuals had been featured in the Record-Eagle speaking out against anti-Asian hate crimes and racism in 2021.
After their initial meeting, the group decided to take action, working with E3, Traverse Area District Library, and the Dennos Museum. The committee put on three events within the first year alone, from movie screenings to panel discussions, and has only grown since.
This year’s program is supported by Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation, Northern Michigan E3, Northwestern Michigan College, the Traverse City Human Rights Commission, and Oryana Community Co-op, Dennos Museum Center and the Traverse Area District Library.
“We’re taking positive action to build spaces for voices that might be unheard or unseen. It’s for the community, but it’s also healing for us, for folks who might feel isolated or might not have people around who can associate or relate to specific identities and culture,” said Takano, CEO of Rotary Charities.
“For me, it’s just phenomenal to be able to educate the community about things that they would not be aware of, and also to have a voice,” said Yee, a local Bodyworks practitioner, who can identify with Chin as both a Detroit native and former family Chinese restaurant owner.
“[Chin’s reading] is particularly exciting because he represents lots of different identities. He grew up in Michigan, in metro Detroit, in a Chinese restaurant environment, but he also talks a lot in his book about his experience coming out as gay,” Takano said. “I think visibility is so important. We hear this in general media, through advertisements or corporate things, but this is what it looks like in real life. This is how it happens in community.”
The reading will also feature a short film series “The Blessing” and Q+A with award-winning AAPI director, Liann Kaye. Appetizers from Oryana and local AAPI restaurants, including The Good Bowl, will be available. The evening includes a Q+A with Chin, and a book signing and sale. Register in advance at simpletix.com as the event is capped at 200 people.