The Chinese characters on the cover of Chin's Wine List are a rhyming couplet slightly tweaked from the original: the first character has been changed from a famous poem by Cao Cao, a general and poet in the Eastern Han dynasty. The tweaked couplet means: "When drunk and singing, who gives a toss about life?". The original means: "When there's fine wine and singing, who gives a toss about (the shortness of) life?". Classical Chinese poetry is concise and highly elliptical, quite unlike modern Mandarin. Most secondary students who have studied in a Chinese school would be familiar with the poem.

This wine list carries a hand-written pencil note dated Thursday September 7, 1937, and is further inscribed "went with Lu, Mr. Davis and another guy after went to Radio City & Roxy".  Nice night on the town. Located at 1604 Broadway in Times Square, Chin Lee was in the heart of midtown Manhattan's theater, dinner and dancing district. Pitchers of beer at Chin's cost more after 10 pm on Saturday nights. It must have been quite the nightclub!   The menu was drawn by Henri Lamothe, a famous entertainer and illustrator of the period. Here is a Sports Illustrated article on him from 1975: Big Fish In A Small Pond

Gallery quality Giclée print on natural white, matte, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Custom printed with border for matting and framing.

Printed in USA.

Each product is accompanied by a copy of the interior menu where available.