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During author Curtis Chin’s childhood, he spent most of his time in his parents’ Chinese restaurant, where the only books available were a phone book and a Bible left behind by customers. Even though he didn’t grow up reading famous novels, his memoir is now a bestseller.

“I’m not your typical profile of who becomes a professional writer, right?” Chin said. “Just because you don’t have a certain pedigree, just because you didn’t go to a certain school, doesn’t mean that you can’t have a great career as a writer.”

Chin’s award-winning memoir, “Everything I Learned, I Learned In a Chinese Restaurant,” chronicles his childhood as a closeted Chinese-American gay man growing up in Detroit while the city dealt with the AIDS crisis and a cocaine epidemic.

On Tuesday, Chin spoke at Syracuse University as part of his national book tour. He talked about his experiences in college at the University of Michigan, his relationship with his parents and his identity. Among a small group of students and faculty, he read an excerpt from his book and answered questions.

He said through the event, he wanted to reach first-generation college students and working-class students. He aimed to encourage them to not let the barriers they face hold them back.

After some previous college speaker events, Chin said, audience members came up to him after the speech crying. He said students have shared their struggles with pressure from their families and school with him. Seeing someone with his background succeed was important to them.

“While I wasn’t reading books as a kid, I was paying attention in that dining room,” Chin said. “In that restaurant. I was listening to stories. I was forming opinions. I was exposing myself to the world via our customers.”

Chin said it is important to be able to talk to people from different backgrounds. From his experiences as a child in the restaurant, he learned how to talk to anyone, a skill he said is a “gift of growing up in food service.”

Along with his experiences with the restaurant, Chin discussed his relationship with his parents. He told the story – not included in the book – about how he came out.

He said when you come out as gay in an Asian-American family, parents value different things than stereotypical American families. Generally, parents react based on religion and age, but in Asian-American families, they think about the family’s reputation, he said.

“As a gay kid, I connected it,” Chin said. “If I choose someone that my parents don’t approve of, I will lose their affection.”

School of Information Studies Professor Ping Zhang organized the event. She is Chinese-American like Chin and said she has a passion for incorporating diversity at SU.

“I have been in this country for more than 30 years,” Zhang said. “I want to really bring awareness that we do have some (Asian-American) voices here – and his book is definitely one of those voices that’s pretty loud.”

Zhang thought the book was “fabulous,” and felt personally connected to the stories he included in his memoir. She said she saw similar Chinese values to those she grew up with, four generations earlier.

Zhang’s fiance, Jim Emery, serves on his local school board in Mexico, New York. He emphasizes diversity, equity and inclusion in his work and was enthused to see a speaker event like this at SU.

He said because he knows Zhang’s story, he saw a lot of parallels between her life and Chin’s book.

“To me, what makes America great is the diverse group that we have,” Emery said. “We need to move back to being more open, and accepting (with events like this).”

Published on April 23, 2024 at 10:57 pm