The Center for Fiction Presents Jiaming Tang on Cinema Love with Vanessa Chan

The Center for Fiction is thrilled to welcome The Center for Fiction / Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellowship alumnus, Jiaming Tang, to celebrate his debut novel, Cinema Love. Tang’s novel follows Old Second and Bao Mei, a married couple in Chinatown with an unusual past. In their hometown of Fuzhao, Bao Mei worked at the Worker’s Cinema, a theater and safe space for gay men to find love. While Bao Mei sold tickets to closeted theatergoers, Old Second found intimacy under the backdrop of classic war films. After his secret relationship with his lover is revealed, the two set out towards an uncertain future as they emigrate to New York City. Spanning the course of several decades, Tang’s enrapturing story is a moving epic about queer love and forbidden relationships that is “not just an extraordinary debut, but a future classic” (Jessamine Chan, author of The School for Good Mothers). He is joined in conversation by Vanessa Chan, author of the national bestseller The Storm We Made. Tang and Chan will have a rousing discussion on his debut novel and its exploration of memory and the weight of secrets.