The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current, November 06, 2023, Page 9, Image 9

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    U.S.A.
November 6, 2023
A new memoir serves up life lessons from
a childhood in a Chinese restaurant
By Terry Tang
M
The Associated Press
W
ASHINGTON
—
The
COVID-19 treatments mil-
lions of Americans have
taken for free from the federal
government are entering the private
market with a hefty price tag.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is
setting the price for a five-day
treatment of Paxlovid at $1,390, but
Americans can still access the pills at
no cost — for now. The less commonly
used COVID-19 treatment Lagevrio,
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CHIN’S CHILDHOOD. Writer Curtis Chin poses for a portrait to
promote his new book, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Res-
taurant: A Memoir, in Los Angeles. The memoir is a candid and some-
times funny reflection on growing up Chinese American in Detroit in the
’70s and ’80s. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
said. “People don’t realize how fragile ethnic enclaves are
whether it’s Chinatown or J-Town (Japantown).”
When Chin started writing a decade ago, he envisioned
a “family comedy” memoir with his grandparents as a
focal point. But when the national conversation shifted in
2020 with George Floyd’s killing and pandemic-driven
anti-Asian hate, he shifted his focus to growing up Asian
American and working class.
Recent hate crimes have evoked comparisons to Vincent
Chin’s beating death at the hands of two white
autoworkers outside his bachelor party. The assailants
blamed foreign competition for the auto industry’s
hardships and assumed he was Japanese.
The slaying was personal for Curtis Chin. Their
families were not related but knew each other. Curtis
Chin’s uncle was Vincent Chin’s best man. In his memoir,
Chin describes the sadness and outrage in the community
when the attackers only got probation and a $3,000 fine
for a manslaughter plea. It was a watershed moment for
Asian Americans nationwide, including Chin, then a high
school freshman.
“I feel like that’s why I’ve spent so much of my life trying
to open up opportunities for more people of color or more
Asian Americans to tell our stories, because I feel like
that’s what’s going to improve our lives or help prevent the
next Vincent Chin,” Chin said.
His book has inspired an exhibition at the Detroit
Historical Museum. “Detroit’s Chinatowns” opened in
early October. Lily Chen, who curated the exhibit, said 20
people were interviewed for oral histories. Several others
contributed artifacts, including a 70-year-old mahjong
set, as well as videos and photos. Chin will give a talk on
the book there on November 12.
“Seeing people like Curtis of a generation above mine do
this really brave thing of telling their story is such a big
inspiration for wanting to trace the long history of
Detroit’s Chinatown,” said Chen, who like Chin is Asian
American and a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
“When older generations of people tell their story, it is so
incredibly powerful for younger generations because it
says not only are we here today, we’ve been here.”
Chin’s work elevating Asian Americans is coming full
circle as many want to show up for him on his book tour.
Asian American and Pacific Islander groups are behind
several upcoming events.
“I just can’t impress upon it enough how much I feel like
my whole community is rallying behind me for this book,”
Chin said. “In some ways, being an older author coming
out with my first book in my 50s, it’s been easier because of
this.”
Tang, who reported from Phoenix, is a member of
The Associated Press’ Race and Ethnicity team.
COVID-19 treatments to enter the market with a hefty price tag
By Amanda Seitz
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The Associated Press
any parents tell their children never talk to
strangers. But Curtis Chin’s parents urged
their six kids to ask customers at their Chinese
restaurant about their background.
It was their way of showing the children a world outside
the Detroit restaurant’s four walls.
“That is something my parents taught me — not to be
afraid of people, not to be afraid to ask questions, not to be
afraid of asking for help even,” Chin said in a phone
interview from his Los Angeles home. “I would have to say
that the Chinese restaurant and my parents are probably
my greatest teachers in life.”
From co-founding the Asian American Writers’
Workshop to producing documentaries like Vincent Who?
about the 1982 killing of Vincent Chin, Curtis Chin has
been championing other Asian Americans for more than
30 years. Now, it’s his turn in the spotlight.
His memoir, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a
Chinese Restaurant, was released last month. The book,
his first, has made several fall “must-read” lists including
in The Washington Post and TIME magazine. It’s a
candid, sometimes funny reflection on growing up
Chinese American and gay in Detroit in the ’70s and ’80s.
Chin delves into racism, gay rights, and other social
justice issues, but not by force-feeding them. Like a
welcoming restaurant server, he invites the reader to
share in digestible bites of memories from childhood up
through college graduation. Instead of chapters,
anecdotes are dished out in menu sections such as
“appetizers and soups,” “rice and noodles,” and “main
entrees.” They just happen to be stories that are
emblematic of that time in Detroit and the country at
large, including epidemics of crime, drugs, and AIDS.
Despite all this, it’s not a “misery memoir,” Chin said.
“While the city did have a lot of challenges, I also
wanted people to see the other side of Detroit, which is the
good that came out of it,” Chin said. “I wouldn’t trade my
childhood for anything. I really loved growing up in
Detroit.”
The trajectory of the Chin family business matches the
ups and downs of the city’s Chinatown. Chin’s great-
grandfather opened Chung’s Cantonese Cuisine in 1940
in Detroit’s original Chinatown. The restaurant became a
community hub and, like other businesses, relocated in
1960 when the city demolished the area for a highway and
other development.
Chung’s moved to Cass Avenue. The Cass Corridor
became a second Chinatown. That’s where Chin, born in
1968, spent his formative years. Chung’s closed in 2000,
after 60 years and an estimated “10 million eggrolls.”
In its heyday, Chung’s drew in customers who varied
across race and class. Local politicians, journalists, and
drag queens are among the patrons Chin recalls in the
book. How his parents treated each person made an
impression.
“It didn’t matter if you were the mayor of Detroit or if
you were the pimp and prostitute standing on the street
corner,” Chin said. “They really tried to judge each
customer for who they were as a person. And that’s a value
that my parents really taught me.”
Roland Hwang, a Detroit native who co-founded
American Citizens for Justice a year after Vincent Chin’s
racially motivated killing, has fond childhood memories of
a bustling Chinatown. He would watch butchers chopping
up chickens, or get a dragon puppet and play with other
Chinese American kids. Chung’s was among the
restaurants where he ate. It wasn’t until 1999 that he met
Curtis Chin and they became friends. Hwang thinks the
memoir does a service for the community.
“This book sort of raises the profile of this aspect of
history of Chinese Americans in Detroit. Physically
speaking, there’s not much left of the Chinatown,” Hwang
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 9
manufactured by Merck, also hit the
market.
Millions of free, taxpayer-funded
courses of the pills will remain at
pharmacies, hospitals, and doctor’s
offices across the country, according
to U.S. Health and Human Services
officials. People on private insurance
may start to notice copays for the
treatments once their pharmacy or
doctor’s office runs out of the
COVID-19 treatments they received
from the government.
The U.S. government initially
inked a deal with Pfizer to pay more
than $5 billion for 10 million courses
of Paxlovid in 2021.
Under a new agreement reached
between Pfizer and the federal
government, people on Medicaid,
Medicare, or those who are without
medical insurance will not pay any
out-of-pocket costs for the treatment
through the end of next year. Pfizer
will also offer copay assistance for the
treatment through 2028. The
Department of Veterans Affairs, the
Department of Defense, and Indian
Continued on page 13
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