Media & Interviews
Largehearted Boy: A soundtrack for Fortune Cookie Chronicles
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008I was invited by David Gutowski to participate in his Book Notes series on the music&lit blog, Largehearted Boy (note the cute logo someone designed for him!)
And amazingly he has compiled the most comprehensive list ever of my reviews and interviews.
So when he first invited me after hearing about his book, I checked out his […]
Food Network: Online interview with the Amateur Gourment
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008Here is an episode of FN Dish, the Food Network’s edgier online cousin, hosted by Adam Roberts of the Amateur Gourmet.
Adam and I went to New York City’s Chinatown and eat my favorite buffet place on Grand Street between Chrystie and Bowery: $4 for five items! He tried pigs heart (his Jewish grandmother […]
What I eat…
Sunday, April 20th, 2008A profile/interview of me on Midtown Lunch, which is a fun food blog. (Have I posted this before? This was in draft mode and I’m not sure why) In it, I discuss the places I like to eat in midtown, and also explain why Dubai’s food scene is awesome.
Media & Interviews, midtown lunch
Harvard Crimson: Q&A on The Fortune Cookie Chronicles
Saturday, April 19th, 2008Jessica Henderson does a Q&A with me for The Harvard Crimson arts section. I remember she recorded the whole thing on her laptop with her freeware, and was very impressed. Every so often we’d have to startle the computer to make sure it didn’t go to sleep.
jessica henderson, Media & Interviews, The Harvard Crimson
WNYC Brian Lehrer Show
Friday, April 18th, 2008I did a lovely interview on Brian Lehrer (scroll down for mp3…no permalink?) on Wednesday, right before the Asia Society talk with the Fuchsia Dunlop of Chinese cookery fine.
Audio, brian lehrer, Media & Interviews, wnyc
Squat Magazine Q&A, at a Vietnamese restaurant in New York’s Koreantown
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008An interview with Shereen Low for Squat Magazine, which is an online publication focusing on Chinese-themes largely read in the UK.
We did the interview after the Asian American Writers Workshop reading in mid-March. It was us two Chinese-ish girls and three South Asian girls at a Vietnamese restaurant in Koreatown. Very pan-A.
Media & Interviews, Shereen […]
Audrey Magazine Profile: I collect toothpaste from around the world
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008Elisa Mala wrote a nice two-page profile in Audrey Magazine [pdf] in which she interviewed my parents and numerous friends (Nolan, Sugi, Alexis) at the book party. It has a lot of detail about my family actually, and my siblings. And it mentions my hobby of collecting usual toothpaste flavors from around the world. (Coca […]
Why does television always want to film people walking?
Saturday, April 12th, 2008I taped another television segment today, though this one is not intended for an American audience, and strictly speaking, may actually be banned from within our borders. Suffice it to stay, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles may be immortalized as part of U.S. propaganda.
Anyway, we did (yet another) shot of me walking. Television people always seem […]
Fortune Cookie Chronicles quoted on Chop Suey in the New Yorker Online
Saturday, April 12th, 2008A few people had passed me this little item by Andrea Thompson that ran on the New Yorker’s web site on chop suey a few weeks ago, where my book is mentioned and quoted. Exciting.
Born in the U.S.A.
In this week’s Tables for Two, Ligaya Mishan reviews Chop Suey, whose tongue-in-cheek name has little to do […]
Fortune Cookie Chronicles on CNN with Lola Ogunnaike (and a Jack-o-Melon).
Saturday, April 12th, 2008CNN ran a segment on Chinese food in America by my former colleague Lola Ogunnaike. Produced by the lovely Ethel Bass. We actually filmed at an Empire Szechuan, a descendent of the original restaurant that sparked the delivery revolution. I asked Lola what was different from print and television, and one of the things is how much logistics […]
Doing an all-day radio tour…by phone
Monday, April 7th, 2008Today I am doing an insane tour by phone set up via Newman Communications, a PR firm that specializes in (among other things) literary radio and satellite television tours. They essentially hook you up with radio programs (mostly live, some pre-taped) coast to coast on a very tight schedule. It has to be done over […]
Lessons from TV
Saturday, April 5th, 2008This is what I have learned over the last few weeks re television/video appearances.
You do not dress for television the way you would dress in real life (or at least I don’t).
For women, wear bright (but not too bright) solid colored tops: Royal blue, wine, maroon, emerald green. Pastels can be good (but not on […]
OC Register: confronted by a wall of me-ness
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008Richard Chang brought me physical copies of the paper where his Q&A with me ran. I have to say, I was kind of overwhelmed with the amount of me that was on that page. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a picture of myself that large before.
Book Musings, Media & Interviews, Orange County Register, […]
Elle Magazine Readers’ Book of the Month for April
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
Yay. Elle Magazine’s April book of the month as determined by readers. Good news. “Elle Lettres” (not Letters, as it is a play on Belles Lettres, notes my friend Michael Grynbaum). They have one pro review, and one negative review, always. I thought the criticism was interesting — on structure and juxtaposition.
elle, elle magazine, honors […]
Crossing paths again and again with Parag Khanna
Saturday, March 29th, 2008A friend of mine mentioned that another author, Parag Khanna, had a book, The Second World, being published around the same time as mine from Random House. (read the New York Times Magazine cover excerpt.)
And it turns out, really really around the same time. We ended up overlapping a lot in our tours. His event […]
幸运签饼纪事 (”Fortune Cookie Chronicles” in Chinese)
Friday, March 28th, 2008Another random Chinese article…from a few weeks back, forwarded to me by my classmate from Beijing University Charlene Wang. I chose Charlene as a name for her in college, because her original English name was Beryl, and I was like nononono. You sound like some British grandmother.
华裔女记者掀起正统中餐热
李竞的新书《幸运签饼纪事》出版后带起了美国人的正统中国菜文化热。
幸运签饼是由日本人发明、”左宗棠鸡”不关左宗棠事、两代布什总统有特别留座的防弹中餐台，还有中国以外全世界最好吃的中餐馆原来在温哥华……这些有部分你或许知道，不过，更多的是你闻所未闻，这都是美国《纽约时报》华裔女记者李竞（Jennifer 8 Lee)走遍全美、横跨六大洲的游历收获，写成新书《幸运签饼纪事》，美式中国菜大发现加上正统中国菜的寻根，在美国带起了新的中国菜文化热。
charlene wang, Chinese, Media & Interviews
Time.com: Explaining General Tso (convergence)
Friday, March 28th, 2008Time Magazine has a video with me talking about American Chinese food at Chinatown Brasserie. I’m interviewed by Gibert Cruz who himself is a print journalist by training. But we are all learning video. It’s all about convergence, I’m discovering.
Media & Interviews, time magazine, Video
OC Register’s Q&A…musings on my Chinese name and Colbert
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008Richard Chang of the Orange County Register write a Q&A with me and also plugs the appearances at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena; Friday at Skylight Books in Los Angeles; and Saturday at the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum in Yorba Linda. What is nice: it will also be picked up in the Los Angeles […]
Aol’s front page, “click bomb”
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008Aol.com put this feature on Chinese food myths on its front page for six hours on Sunday and it cause a jump in traffic to this blog, and a sharp (but quick) bump on Amazon (~200 to 124). As a guy who worked for Gap’s Internet properties observed, when they have a shopping deal featured […]
Washingtonian Chat Transcript from March 20
Friday, March 21st, 2008On Thursday I did an online chat with the Washingtonian, which was really fun. (good questions) Sara Levine coordinated.
Washington has been a surprisingly strong market for the book. (Great events at both the Library of Congress and Politics and Prose, who exercised their marketing muscle. Standing room only with ~150 people each.)
Appearances, Media & Interviews, […]
Crossing paths with Obama in Philly
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008Totally randomly, I was scheduled to stop in Philadelphia for two NPR interviews at WHYY at the same time that Obama was giving his eagerly anticipated (historic?) speech on race right across the street at the National Constitution Center. (Here is the text). Here are all the satellite trucks lined out front from WHYY’s second-floor […]
Smith Magazine Q&A
Monday, March 17th, 2008Elaine Chen writes up our Q&A for Smith Magazine
INTERVIEW: Jennifer 8. Lee, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles
Monday, March 17th, 2008
By Elaine Chen
New York Times reporter Jennifer 8. Lee started tracking down a suspiciously high number of lottery winners, and ended up following a trail that led through hundreds of Chinese restaurants on six different continents. The […]
Jeff Yang: on books and babies.
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008Jeff Yang, the founder of A. Magazine and a columist for Sfgate.com, has a piece interweaving The Fortune Cookie Chronicles and raising his sons.
We had an hour-long interview before I ran out for a TV shoot on Saturday where he told me he liked my book. I was like, if there is one person on […]
Salon: “An attitude of amused observation, obsessive reporting, anthropological curiosity”
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008Nina Lalli does a Q&A with me for Salon, which was picked up on the front page of Yahoo!
How the fortune cookie crumbles
Is Chinese food as American as apple pie? Jennifer 8. Lee discusses the strange evolution of everyone’s favorite ethnic food.
By Nina Lalli
Mar. 11, 2008 | As a teenager, New York Times […]
Boston Globe: An author’s quest for identity.
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008Emily Schwab writes a lovely piece today in The Boston Globe about me and my quest for identity through Chinese food. I met with Emily last November during my pre-pub tour at Changsho in Cambridge and we had a lovely time. So this is one of the longest pieces in development on this book.
Boston Globe, […]