On March 22nd, the Friends of the Alameda Free Library hosted a webinar featuring the author Debbie Chinn. Debbie Chinn has had a remarkable career in the lively arts, but her family’s history as immigrants from China is just as remarkable. Debbie is the executive director of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, a former managing Director of California Shakespeare Theatre in Orinda, along with many other significant posts in a long career in arts administration.
About a decade ago she started piecing together stories and memorabilia about her extended family, from their roots in China to their several paths of immigration to America. She was doing this primarily to preserve the information for the family’s generations to come. Then, with the election of 2016 and the subsequent rise of anti-Asian hatred in the U.S. she decided to publish the family story to highlight Chinese Americans’ contributions to American society, economic success, and culture.The result is her memoir Dancing in Their Light, A Daughter’s Unfinished Memoir, published in 2022.
Click on the video below to watch this wonderful talk!