04/08/2025
From takeout boxes to feeling boxed in, growing up in a family-run Chinese restaurant is a unique experience. grew up in a small town in Canada. grew up in Detroit. Both have written memoirs about their experiences.
📗Rachel’s book is “Restaurant Kid: A Memoir of Family and Belonging.”
📙Curtis Chin’s book is “Everything I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant.”
“When I was growing up, I think in 1998, there were only 15 Chinese people in total in my town. My family is five people, so my family was a third of the Chinese community in my town…I didn’t really know who I was, and people seem to have expectations about who I should be based on me being Chinese. So on one hand, the business was welcomed but as a Chinese person, I didn’t feel like I was accepted,” Rachel says.
“One of the stereotypes they have about Asians is that we’re not very loyal to America. So I said, I’m going to be the most patriotic American possible. So I became what was known as the Asian Alex P. Keaton…That was my way of adapting. I was senior class president, President of the National Honor Society. I started the Young Republican Club...Margaret Thatcher was my imaginary girlfriend,” Curtis says.
🎧Click the 🔗 in bio to learn more about their journeys
📸s Courtesy of Rachel Phan, Curtis Chin
