Review Goodbye Chinatown by Kit Fan

*Goodbye Chinatown* by Kit Fan (2026). Published by World Editions.

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

This blog post is interesting to me because lately, I’ve been struggling to get in my reading time. I was working for the longest time as a freelancer and contractor, but recently pivoted to an 8-5 job where I’m in an office. It’s not hybrid, so I’m always at home trying to put the puzzle pieces together of how I’ll get my reading done. I also continue working on this blog when I’m not at work, so the Instagram reels I’m fed about a 5-9 feel too real right now.

Anyways, I am trying to find that time to read here and there. Somehow I’m still on track for my Goodreads goal, even though I’ve been slowly giving up on the notion of reading goals in life. I think they can be a little too much pressure and takes the fun off of reading at the end of the day, and I want to read because I want to stay in touch with literature while also pursuing my side career as a writer.

Something I’ve also been neglecting is my advance copy collection. I get sent a lot of advance copies and with my job, they’ve been accumulating throughout the past few months. I simply can’t get through them in time to put out reviews the day of release, which is what I used to do int he past.

I did get through Goodbye Chinatown before the release date though. Much love to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the advance copy!

On that note, let’s get into the review.

The daughter of a Chinatown restaurant owner finds her own path in the culinary world—and in her own life.

Our main character in this novel is Amber, who grew up in the London Chinatown during its heyday. She is the daughter of two proud immigrants from Hong Kong, and her father owns a prominent Chinese restaurant in the area. As she grows up she shows incredible promise academically and she even gets into Oxford—a source of pride for her family and community.

But when she gets pregnant, that is one of many reasons to change the trajectory of her life. She ends up becoming a chef instead, opening one of the first fusion restaurants in the Chinatown she grew up in. When investors from Mainland China start showing interest in the area, we see how the traditional restaurants, like her father’s, start failing in lieu of the ones funded by capitalists.

Amber’s fame continues to grow and accolades grow, putting her on the culinary world’s map. As her career keeps climbing, her parents decide to move back to Hong Kong, which is experiencing a series of change ever since being absorbed back into the mainland.

Her son, Bobby, goes with them, pivoting this story to a family one as well. He feels disconnected from his mother, and it doesn’t help that there’s a secret involved with his birth. Suddenly Amber and Bobby’s paths collide in a torn Hong Kong, especially when she’s given the opportunity to cook in Shanghai.

This is a novel that feels torn itself in many different ways—that’s my initial impression upon finishing it. We start at the beginning of Amber’s adulthood and career, looping to when she has a child. Then there are the political undertones shaping the characters’ experiences, which is a story in itself, as her parents are split on what’s going on in their homeland.

All of this is to say: this is a novel that’s hard to pin down and can be quite sweeping in its scope.

Overall Thoughts

I wanted to enjoy this novel more, but I kept getting the sense that it was trying to do too much. The jumps in time and space felt a bit rushed and I wanted to live more in certain moments, which made me think that this should have been more like 500 pages to dwell more on the day-to-day moments.

These characters and their stories, as well as the cooking, came alive on these pages though. I could really visualize what was going on throughout the course of the novel, even though I increasingly felt disconnected to the story itself.

I say give this book a chance if it’s interesting to you. Taste is incredibly subjective, and while I thought that this wasn’t the right book for me, it might be the right book for you! Thanks again to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

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