Bridges of San Diego County I drive the roads of San Diego County with an agenda: You don’t know when you might spot another canyon dancer, a concrete Nureyev. I hike gorges and find them …
August 12, 2023
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Stories by Frank Chin
Peter Jensen, the bridge-lover
Frank Chin, Asian iconoclast, on West Coast road trip
Do not sell your children to monsters My first novel is in the bookstores. My name and, here and there, my picture pop up in newspaper book reviews and Asian-American weeklies. “Are you famous?” Sam …
May 7, 2023
Dahmer's Diner, Nico, Deadheads, Paul Williams
Eating people is the ultimate control You won’t find Dahmer’s Diner on the bill at the Cannibal Bar in Mission Beach. In fact, DD has been banned from all but two venues in town, SOMA …
September 19, 2021
He-man cooks dinner, fairness of O.J.Simpson trial
Just Relax and I'll Get Dinner I am stepping through the front door of Andronico’s, my countenance set to grim purpose. Andronico’s is a grocery store, the kind that doesn’t carry 1 variety of pear, …
August 22, 2021
Golden Hills' Lomas gang vs. Barrio Logan's Red Steps; Lao vs. Cambodian gangs
Huero Walks Dopey and his friends flashed Red Steps hand signs back at the occupants of the white car as it headed toward Crosby Street. Dopey goes on to tell the jury that one of …
January 25, 2021
Best Reader stories from 1995
I've got Perry Mason on board! In early 1960, the man who created Perry Mason was introduced to an Imperial Beach resident named Francisco Muñoz. Erle Stanley Gardner had many friends, and he particularly liked …
January 11, 2020
Best Reader stories from 1994
A little bit east of Eden When I was living in Los Angeles years ago, a door-to-door solicitor pitching San Diego vacations and tours showed me a brochure of local attractions. Included on the list …
January 5, 2020
Frank Chin and the Reader
Author, playwright, and musician, Chin is considered a pioneer in Asian-American theater. Excerpts of stories Chin wrote for the Reader: Chinese hiding under a rock in Baja “When we get to Calexico, we’re hooking up …
September 29, 2019
Cambodians, Lao, Viet gangs terrorize Crawford, Horace Mann, Gompers, Lincoln, Kearny High School, Linda Vista
“They like to carry the 9mm handgun,” Officer Roy moody says. He's talking about Lao and Cambodian gang kids. “And, of course, they do like the semi automatic rifles like AK-47s, even though we haven't …
July 27, 1995
Frank Chin does the California coast and takes on Asian icons
I don’t expect to be ambushed by the fans of Maxine Hong Kingston, David Henry Hwang, and Amy Tan in Portland. They show up to vent their moral outrage and save my soul.
March 23, 1995
San Diego's hot-blooded flamenco subculture
I saw nothing unusual about a Chinaman kid dabbling in flamenco guitar. I liked it. Then Jackson Burgess, a writer from the South, sat down next to me as I practiced one afternoon. Teacher to …
October 13, 1994
Chinese hiding under a rock in Baja
I’m one of the Chinese Americans who cringe at the word “Chinaman” and understand spoken Chinese but can’t and won’t speak it and hear Chinamen telling everyone what kind of stupid American-born fool I am.
May 5, 1994