July Book Club: Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant by Curtis Chin

Note: Order Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant now!

This event will be hosted at Pairing Cafe in Greenpoint. Tickets include one free drink from Pairing.

About Yellow Peril Books' Book Club

We're so excited to welcome you to our ongoing community book club hosted around Brooklyn! Each month, we host an in person book club at a local AAPI owned business in Brooklyn. We started this book club with a few goals in mind

• Spotlight some of our favorite AAPI owned businesses, and ensure ticket revenues are invested in supporting these amazing gems. For most events, all ticket proceeds go towards the hosting business. If you'd like to donate to YPB to support our programming efforts, please donate here.

• Feature different Asian and Asian American authors and their works

• Bring our community together in person to facilitate deeper conversation and connection

Book Club Rules

• You commit to treating everyone with respect and care

• Stay home if you feel sick!

• You do NOT need to have read or finished the book, but you do have to be ready for spoilers! We'll be discussing the themes of the book and you can still participate :)

If you would like to attend but the ticket cost is prohibitive, please reach out to contact@yellowperilbooks.com and we will try to find a solution! We never want lack of funds to be a barrier to entry.

About Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant

This “vivid, moving, funny, and heartfelt” memoir tells the story of Curtis Chin’s time growing up as a gay Chinese American kid in 1980’s Detroit (Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers).

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.

About the Author

Curtis Chin is the author of the award-winning memoir Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant, which was named a Stonewall Honor Book and a 2024 Michigan Notable Book. 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. Chin has written for CNN, Bon Appetit, the Detroit Free Press, and the Boston Globe, as well as for comedy shows on network television. He is a co-founder of the Asian American Writers' Workshop in New York City and served as the non-profit's first Executive Director. His essay in Bon Appetit was selected for Best Food Writing in America 2023 and his documentary short, "Dear Corky," premiered on American Masters (PBS). He is currently working on a new docuseries on the history of Chinese restaurants in America. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Refunds and Exchanges

Ticket purchases cannot be refunded. Because we don't have our own storefront, we host our events in partnership with other local small businesses, meaning we share all operational costs as well as revenue with them based on anticipated attendance. The only way for our partner businesses to properly prepare supplies, space, and food/drinks for these events is to have a clear idea of how many attendees to expect, meaning that any last-minute changes make it that much harder to host.

Exchanges for future events are allowed if you reach out a minimum of 10 days before the start of the original event you signed up for. Our events are usually sold out and we want to make sure that we'd have enough time to fill any open spots with people who are hoping to join. Please reach out to contact@yellowperilbooks.com if you have any issues with your ticket.