Solidarity Stories Book Club: Cinema Love
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Join the Office of Human Rights at Mixt Food Hall (3809 Rhode Island Ave., Brentwood, MD 20722) for our monthly book club, Solidarity Stories, as we discuss Jiaming Tang's novel "Cinema Love." Solidarity Stories is a partnership between the Office of Human Rights, Mixt Food Hall, and the Mt. Rainier branch library.
For over thirty years, Old Second and Bao Mei have cobbled together a meager existence in New York City’s Chinatown. But unlike other couples, these two share an unusual past. In rural Fuzhou, before they emigrated, they frequented the Workers’ Cinema: a theater where gay men cruised for love. While classic war films played, Old Second and his countrymen found intimacy in the screening rooms. In the box office, Bao Mei sold movie tickets to closeted men, guarding their secrets and finding her own happiness with the projectionist. But when Old Second’s passion for his male lover is revealed, a series of haunting events unfold, propelling these characters toward an uncertain future in America. Spanning three timelines—post-socialist China, 1980s Chinatown, and contemporary New York—Cinema Love is an “exceptional” and “moving” (Alice Hoffman) epic about men and women who find themselves in forbidden relationships; the weight of secrets; and the way memory forever haunts the present.
Borrow the book from the library and come join us to discuss!
And if you want to hear more about it, check out the interview we did with the author two years ago! A delightful conversation, still one of our favorites.
