Mar 22, 2021
Charlie and Lillian Li (Number One Chinese Restaurant) discuss racial prejudice in Chinese restaurants, looking at the narrative of immigrant parents and sacrifice, and how her editor pushed her to increase the impact of themes and ideas.
Please note that I have not censored the swear words in this episode because the over all effect would be different without them.
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The article Charlie quotes from:
"'Customers looked right through me': what I learned working in a
Chinese restaurant"
The video of Lillian's event for Politics
and Prose
Question Index
00:57 You work at Literati. What is it like
working in a bookshop as an author?
08:03 You have a few origin stories for Number One
Chinese Restaurant. Is there one that's the most important to you
to tell, the one that's most crucial to the book?
17:03 How did you come to decide to discuss issues
of race in the way you do?
20:57 Does the title have a place in what you've
been talking about?
30:08 Is Jimmy your favourite character?
32:17 Why is Nan and Pat's relationship important
to the book?
36:16 There's a lot of language switching in the
book - why did you decide to do this and what were your choices
informed by?
38:58 Could the story have been told without Uncle
Pang?
40:46 Was it always your intent to include moments
of comedy?
41:37 What is the importance of food further than
it's simple inclusion, so to speak, in the book?
45:39 What's next?
Purchase Links
Number One Chinese Restaurant:
Literati (during Covid curb-side
pick up in Ann Arbor)
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Amazon Canada
Waterstones
Hive
Barnes & Noble
IndieBound
Indigo Chapters
I am an IndieBound affiliate and earn a small commission on qualifying purchases.
Photograph used with the permission of the author. Credit: Margarita Corporan.