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"""Growing up in a restaurant and nightclub, selling cigarettes at the age of three, working as a bartender's helper at the age of six, and spending my weekends performing during my teenage years are naturally good fodder for a memoir. There aren't many people whose childhood included learning how to walk on fire..."" -------- Debbie Chinn begins this colorful memoir by tracing her roots back to China. In the 19th Century a Southern Baptist missionary by happenstance started her family. Horrors of war, the Japanese occupation of China, the brutalities of starvation and poverty, and the Communist takeover of China in 1949 forced her family to flee their homeland, becoming immigrants in the United States. They brought with them their specialized skills, connections, and a spirit of invention, all of which greatly contributed to this country's economic growth and reputation in the fields of science, engineering, medicine, nursing, research, aerospace, higher education, cultural diplomacy, and artistic heritage during the 20th Century. The broad influences of their achievements are now international in scope and still utilized today. Debbie's parents were pioneers in the Chinese restaurant and nightclub industry, therefore a commanding portion of this book is a prime seat to transportthe reader back to the bygone era of fine restaurant dining and when Polynesian nightclubs were ubiquitous during the 1960s and 1970s. Growing up in this environment, the author was a gawky teenager by day and a performer by night. Her childhood world was a restaurant playground encircled by an endless stream of food and liquor, nightclub entertainers, politicians, Catholic priests, Hollywood and Broadway celebrities, barflys, gamblers, sports icons, and the mob. Dancing in Their Light is a colorful compilation of inspiring and unfathomable stories woven together by humor, pathos, confluences of fate, and the eternal guiding hands of her ancestors."

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9780578355993

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The proud daughter of immigrants, Debbie Chinn is first-generation Chinese, born and raised on Long Island, New York. While other children participated in sleep-overs, summer camps, and sports activities, Debbie's childhood was spent at The House of Mah Jong, her family's Chinese restaurant where she entered the workforce at the age of three. Her first job was selling cigarettes. By the age of six, her responsibilities expanded and she spent time on a bar stool inserting umbrellas into cherries and pineapple slices for an assortment of exotic drinks.As the family business grew in popularity and fame, she was thrust into the land of the South Seas when Mah Jong evolved into a Polynesian nightclub; ubiquitous dining experiences during the 1960's and 1970's. She became an exotic hula and sword dancer performing weekly at nights when not a middle and high school student during the day.In their quest to assimilate in the United States, her parents abided by the value of strong work ethics, fanatical hospitality, the importance relationship-building and maintaining, of supporting organizations doing good work in our communities, and always taking care of others. It was a family ethos that is known today as philanthropy.It is no wonder that Debbie eventeually established a distinguished 30 year career as an arts activist, a non-profit consultant, and CEO - leading some of the country's most renowned cultural institutions and their programs - which was inspired by her Mah Jong upbringing. She has long championed equity and inclusion - a business philosophy instilled in her by her father - before it had a DEI acronym.She is a fervent life-long learner with an insatiable appetite to make sense of these convoluted times by forging bridges via the arts, humanities, and cultural heritage. Here, she carries forth the legacy of her ancestors and elders who contributed to this world's economic growth and reputation in the fields of science, engineering, medicine, aerospace, cultural diplomacy, academia, and culinary hospitality. She has many passions - too many to mention here, but wine tasting/collecting is high on that list.Debbie currently serves on a variety of non-profit boards providing advice on governance, finance, fundraising, marketing, strategic planning, artistiic programming, and board/staff relations. She lives in Northern California with her two cats, Kona and Leilani, surrounded by her collection of 100+ bottles of wine.

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