By Ananya Vinay

“As people of color, our stories are not told fully all the time, so we are oftentimes seen as the perpetrator of crime,” writer and filmmaker Curtis Chin said. “We don’t get the automatic privilege of compassion.”

On Oct. 16, Scripps Presents hosted Chin to speak about his creative journey. He was interviewed by Anne Harley, a professor of music at Scripps College, in Balch Auditorium.

Chin is the co-founder of the Asian American Writer’s Workshop in New York, which encourages Asian American creative culture by producing magazines, teaching emerging writers and organizing events. Additionally, he is the author of the memoir “Everything I Learned I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant” and the producer of films like “Dear Corky” and “Vincent Who?”

From the beginning of the talk, Chin emphasized how his creative life was entirely shaped by the murder of Vincent Chin in Detroit, Michigan. This influence is prevalent throughout his body of work.

Vincent Chin was a Chinese American celebrating his upcoming wedding in Highland Park, Michigan, when he was attacked and murdered in a racially motivated assault. The attackers were only fined and given three years of probation.

Curtis Chin, who was 14 at the time of the murder, spoke about how witnessing the lack of compassion for Asian Americans in the legal system inspired him to promote storytelling in his community.

His memoir, from which he read sections throughout the event, began as a collection of comedic family stories, eventually transforming into a reckoning of his intersecting racial and religious identities. Chin started writing the book in 2020 when the pandemic hit, and he was suddenly unable to do his day job as a filmmaker.

To read the entire article: https://tsl.news/come-for-the-egg-rolls-but-stay-for-the-talk-on-racism-sharing-asian-american-stories-with-curtis-chin/

Photo credit: wfuhumanities and curtischin8/Instagram