Return to the Deep South for Book Talks This Fall

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A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to My Retirement Home, Chateau Cupertino, June 11, 2011

A variant of a talk about my adventures after retiring from college teaching in writing and speaking about Chinese American history that I first presented in April at California State University, Long Beach.  My audience consisted primarily of college students, and some former colleagues not yet retired, in the Department of Psychology. It played well, and served to tell students that they don't have a corner on the life of the mind, and not to dismiss us retirees as 'over the hill' intellectually.

Speaking at Chateau Cupertino (just down the street from a well-known computer company), I faced an audience at the opposite end of the age span, some even older than I, and all in some stage of retirement. I gave essentially the same talk, but the implicit message was different. For some of them, the message was "it's never too late!"  That is, using your life experiences and wisdom, you might have some meaningful things to write about that you could share with others.  

Sweet & Sour @ Culinary Historians of Northern Calif, Omnivore Bookstore, S. F. June 9

It was a special treat, and challenge, to discuss the history of Chinese restaurants with a 'foodie' audience at a wonderful 'foodie' bookstore rather than a predominantly Chinese audience. A friendly crowd packed the confines of a charming bookstore which allowed eye to eye contact with each person, which was essential since I could not display any slides or graphics to illustrate important points.  One surprise was the unannounced appearance of my good friends, Joe and Liz Chan, each of whom has contributed valuable narratives to my books, with Joe writing about his life growing up in his parents' Oriental Restaurant in Ft. Wayne, Indiana for the "Sweet and Sour" book and Liz sharing memories of her life growing up in her parents' laundry in Louisville, Kentucky, for the "Chinese Laundries" book.  Joe gave me a precious gift that I was honored to receive, a stainless steel serving dish, complete with cover, used in the Oriental Restaurant probably over 50 years ago!
    A highlight of the evening was Nellie Wong's recital of 3 of her poems about working in her parents' family restaurant in Oakland, 2 of which she generously gave permission for use in "Sweet and Sour."

Sweet and Sour, Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, June 1, 2011

 

The Chinese Historical Society of Southern California holds its meetings in the historic Castellar Elementary School in Los Angeles' Chinatown amidst many restaurants that feature traditional Cantonese based cuisine, a great setting to talk about the history of Chinese family restaurants. As a member of this vital organization, and well-acquainted with many of its members, I was pleased to share my findings with them. 

I had made 2 previous presentations about my other books on Chinese American history; in fact, I can pinpoint the exact moment that I was directed toward researching Chinese grocers in the Mississippi Delta.  

I had just finished talking about my memoir of growing up in a Chinese laundry in Macon, Georgia, where our family were the only Chinese in town.  A former resident of the Delta, Roland Chow, thanked me for my talk, and urged me to consider writing a history of Mississippi Delta Chinese, a topic that I had never considered writing about simply because I did not feel I knew enough about it.  However, with the encouragement of Roland leading me to do some research for several months, I became engrossed with the topic and recognized the urgency for someone to try to write on the subject which had been ignored since the 1970s work of James Loewen, Mississippi Chinese, and Robert Quan Seto, Lotus Among the Magnolias.  Thus,  the idea for "Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton," published in 2008, was born at Castellar School.

Q & A after Chicago Talk about "Sweet and Sour." May 21, 2011

         It was a delight to be back in Chicago's Chinatown to speak again at the rebuilt, better than before, Chinese American Museum of Chicago.   Chicago Chinatown is  significant to me on a personal level because when I was working on my Ph.D. at Northwestern University I would occasionally take the L train from Evanston to get some 'soul food' from a Chinese restaurant down there.

        

Sweet and Sour, Chinese American Museum of Chicago, May 21.

This jewel of a museum in the heart of Chicago's Chinatown is one of my favorite venues.  It has a dedicated and energetic group of volunteers to support its competent staff.  I was delighted to talk about my Chinese Laundries book there three years ago because the classic book on the topic by Paul Siu was based on Chinese laundries of Chicago in the mid-20th century. A few months later, the museum suffered a major fire that shut it down for over a year.  Due to the determination of the people of CAMOC, it was not only restored, but even enlarged.  I was privileged to be able to return there last week to speak about Sweet and Sour, which included some historical facts about early Chinese restaurants in Chicago and narratives from two people who grew up in their families' Chinese restaurants.  One of them, Bill Tong, still lives in Chicago and was willing to make a 'cameo' appearance during my presentation to speak about the history of Tong's Tea Garden, his family's restaurant.

A Funny Thing Happened on My Way to the Retirement Home, (CSULB April 27, 2011)

 

I got a chance to speak about my 'retirement' career at Calif. St. University, Long Beach, the very place from which I retired after 40 years as a professor of psychology.  Instead of talking about the "content" of my four books on Chinese American family businesses, I described the remarkable sequence of events and people I've met that facilitated my success in a field about which I knew very little until I retired from academia. I wanted to impress upon the audience, which consisted of many students, that with a little bit of luck, many contacts, and some moxie, it is possible to have an impact with one's writing and publishing. Over the past 6-7 years, I wrote and published 4 books and gave over 35 talks across the country and once in Canada on the life experiences of Chinese immigrant families in their self-run businesses during most of the last century when racial prejudices denied them employment in many more lucrative occupations and professions.

The "take home message" to students is that life doesn't have to end in retirement if one seeks and embraces new challenges: expect the unexpected!

Sweet and Sour, Monterey Park Library, April 16, 2011

Sweet and Sour offered me a chance for a second visit to speak in Monterey Park at their public library. Unfortunately, the turnout was not as good as it was for my first visit last year to talk about my two books on Chinese in the American South.  You win some, you lose some, I guess.  One of the many challenges in doing book talks is the difficulty of predicting turnout. The topic was interesting as several other venues have had large attendance for a talk on the same book.  Perhaps holding the event at 10:30 in the morning was not as good an idea as we thought it would be. Or maybe there was some competing activity that day.  On the plus side, at least I didn't have far to travel to get to this site and afterwards I got to feast on some old style Toishan comfort food with friends at a nearby 1950s decor Chinese restaurant!

Foster City Library, April 9, 2011 Talk on Sweet and Sour

My second talk in Foster City, a place close to my heart where my sister Mary and her husband, Ed, and their family lived for many years. There was an engaged gathering of about 40 in the audience, some who had been to my other talks in the region in the past so it was nice to see familiar faces among the new ones. Several people who had been associated with Chinese restaurants in their families were present and shared their observations and experiences. And, my friend and contributor to the book with a narrative about her family's Oakland restaurant, artist Flo Oy Wong participated again sharing a lively account of that experience through her drawings and poetry.

U.S.-China People's Friendship Association, Long Beach, April, 2011

About a year ago, Hazel Wallace from the Long Beach chapter of the U.S.-China People's Friendship Association attended my talk on Chinese family restaurant history at the Cerritos Library. She must have liked it, as she referred other members including Stanley Yon and Rose Mary Thompson to one of my other talks, all of which led to an invitation for me to speak at one of their lunch meetings, where else, but in a Chinese restaurant!

I have given talks at restaurants before, and sometimes the configuration of the dining room does not lend itself well to powerpoint slides. There is also stray noise coming from other parts of the restaurant that can be distracting or disruptive. My prior restaurant talks have been in an enclosed section and lighting can be lowered so slides can be readily viewed. However at the Long Beach presentation at the Forbidden City Restaurant, the space used was a partially enclosed patio area, so that there was the danger that the slides shown in early afternoon would not be easily viewed. Actually that part of the slide presentation was better than I feared, but there were a few anxious moments at the outset because they did not have the right cable to connect the projector to the laptop. This is not an uncommon problem, i.e., computer glitches, etc.

On the plus side, the audience was large (over 70) and eager to learn about the topic. The afternoon was most enjoyable, and a very nice way to spend my birthday!

Hazel Wallace, Past President of USCPFA-LB was generous in her compliments:

"Bravo! Wonderful talk on my favorite of all of your books! Thank YOU for being the object of our overwhelming attendance and I hope you sold a few books to the attendees! The food was good at the Forbidden City, the ambience was great, and you proved that you were the "man of the hour"! Thank you for "being" our event."