Lithe Chinese-American round the bend (7)
I believe the answer is:
sinuous
'lithe' is the definition.
(I know that lithe can be written as sinuous)
'chinese-american round the bend' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'american' could be 'us' (abbreviation for United States) and 'us' is present in the answer.
'round' could be 'o' (round can mean a round object) and 'o' is found in the answer.
'bend' could be 'u' (a U-bend is a kind of bend - pipe under sink) and 'u' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'sin' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sinuous that I've seen before include "Wavy -- winding" , "Intricately winding" , "Wiggly" , "Serpentine" , "Full of curves, bends" .)