News Briefings

A Conversation with Author Curtis Chin — Who Gets to Belong in America?

By ACoM

Briefings

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Was Live Friday, May 22, 2026 | 11am PST

Guest Speaker

  • Curtis Chin, co-founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. His latest film for PBS, Warren King: King of Cardboard, premieres this month.

Overview

Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant” is Curtis Chin’s humorous and deeply reflective memoir about growing up as a Chinese American in 1980s Detroit. Chin’s family restaurant, Chung’s Cantonese Cuisine, served as a gathering place for residents grappling with racial and economic tensions, as well as the first recorded hate crime, the murder of Vincent Chin.

In this special briefing, held to commemorate AAPI Heritage Month, Chin will explore identity, and the question many immigrants grapple with: being between worlds. The familiar restaurant phrase: “for here or to go” becomes a metaphor for belonging. How is “American” defined, and who gets to define it?

Fresh off a 10-country book tour, Chin will also discuss how Americans are perceived in other parts of the world.

Presented by ACoM