Yunte Huang is professor of English at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Before participating in a panel discussing “the creation of Chinese America,” he answered questions in our Green Room.

Q. What was the best class you took in college?
The classes I skipped, I guess.

Q. What was the last song that got stuck in your head?
A. I think I was on the airplane, so I got stuck with Norah Jones.

Q. What was the last thing that made you laugh really hard?
A. This interview, really.

Q. If you had a different profession in another life, what would it be?
A. Mathematician.

Q. What time do you start working on an average day?
A. Depends. In California 5 in the morning, but now I’m in Ithaca, New York, and I probably get up at 9.

Q. What is your guilty pleasure?
A. Chocolate, like everyone else’s.

Q. What was the best lesson your parents taught you?
A. Spanking.

Q. What’s your fondest childhood memory?
A. When I caught a fish in a little pond and I took it home.

Q. If you could bid for one item on eBay, what would it be?
A. Maybe a copy of my own book just to take it back.

Q. What surprises you the most about your life right now?
A. How I got here, I think.

To read more about the panel Huang participated in, click here.

*Photo by Aaron Salcido.