Welcome to Litsy!

Welcome to Chung's. For here or to go? 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.