Author, filmmaker, and activist Curtis Chin gave a talk on his award-winning memoir, “Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant.”
Credit: Chenyao LiuAuthor, filmmaker, and activist Curtis Chin delivered the Asian American Studies Program’s 2025 Yoonmee Chang Memorial Lecture on his award-winning memoir, “Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant.”
Around 50 Penn community members attended the event at the Penn Museum’s Widener Lecture Hall on March 26. ASAM faculty director and Richard L. Fisher Professor of English David Eng introduced Chin, and College senior and ASAM Undergraduate Advisory Board member Louis Dong moderated the conversation, which was followed by an audience question and answer session and book signing.
Chin began the lecture by reading a section of the prologue of his memoir to the crowd. He explained how his family ended up in the Midwest, the discrimination early Asian American immigrants faced in the late 19th century, and how the civil rights movement in Detroit influenced his parents.
He also spoke about the many lessons he learned as a child. Many of those lessons were related to food but more, he said, shaped him into the person he is today.
“When you’re a little kid, oftentimes your parents will say, ‘don’t talk to strangers,’” Chin said at the event. “My dad said the exact opposite [...] He owns this amazing ability to just talk to anybody and just make a connection with them.”
Chin continued by explaining how growing up in a large family allowed him to focus on listening to others and made him more sensitive to those around him — a skill that helps him navigate social justice advocacy and politics. He also emphasized the importance of education and storytelling in empowering communities.
Chin went on to describe the impact racial tension in Detroit has on his upbringing, including the murder of Vincent Chin, a close family friend.
“When Vincent [Chin] was attacked, because our family were friends, I actually found out that very next morning that he was in the hospital struggling for his life,” he said. “It took the media 12 whole days before they reported on his murder. In that time, everybody in our Chinese community was coming down to our restaurant to find out details.”
He added that, for him, writing "has always been a social justice act.”
Chin — who co-founded the Asian American Writers' Workshop, a nonprofit focused on featuring Asian American literature — spent his early career writing for television before transitioning to create social justice documentaries. He directed “Dear Corky,” a documentary which tells the story of Chinese-American activist and photographer Corky Lee and is currently working on a docuseries about the history of Chinese restaurants in the United States.
“Him and I have a pretty similar upbringing,” Dong said in an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian. “I really appreciate his view because I feel like a lot of Asian American literature now is just racial but this also explores economic issues and sexuality issues.”
This year marked the sixth annual lecture held in honor of Yoonmee Chang, a key leader in the founding of ASAM. She received her Ph.D. in English from Penn in 2003 with a specialization in Asian American diasporic literature and culture before passing away in 2018.
“She was an amazing scholar … and it was quite tragic, her early, untimely death,” ASAM co-director and professor Fariha Khan said in her introduction. “We continue to remember her through the continuous support of her mother, [Woonsuk] Debbie Chang, who has continued to support this lecture for years and honor her work.”
Chin ended the event by emphasizing the importance of ethnic studies programs. He specifically noted the importance of Asian American studies, a program at Penn which has historically struggled with support from the University.
“[ASAM is] not just helping people identify our stories and tell our stories,” Chin said. “You guys are also the ones preserving our stories so we don’t have to wait for another Vincent Chin or another Atlanta spa shooting or FedEx that is being shot up. We don’t have to wait for the next terrible thing to happen, we have that history that we can learn from, build from. For me, storytelling, Asian American studies, ethnic studies, are inextricably tied into each other.”
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