Goodbye Chinatown by Kit Fan review – London chef | Fiction

Amber Fan, the 22-year-old protagonist of Kit Fan’s heartfelt and epic second novel, is ready to say goodbye. Farewell to his parents, who were booked on a midnight flight from London to Hong Kong, there to enjoy their sunset years after selling the family restaurant in London’s Chinatown. And farewell to the old Chinatown that they and their generation of Hong Kong émigrés represent, the Chinatown of peking duck, red lights, rude waiters and sticky tables. He loves them both, in their own way, but he has his own plans for the future.

The story begins in late 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, when Amber plans to open her own restaurant – an east meets west “fine dining restaurant” called Luna. It is, he says, “the worst time to open a restaurant”. International markets have crashed and old Cantonese joints in Chinatown, often founded by those who, like Amber’s parents, fled Hong Kong to Britain after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, are closing and selling, often to investors in China. Everyone agrees that it is the end of time.

But this is not really bad. Amber, a professional chef, is establishing herself as one of London’s up-and-coming artists. The addition of ginger to his chicken broth (common in traditional Chinese cooking but resulting in “satisfaction and full flavor”) sees lines of hungry diners lining the streets. He soon meets Celeste Gao, an incredibly rich Shanghainese woman. Celeste is shy and brash, possibly affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, and wants to know the future of Chinatown (“My family will own Chinatown. This is true”). The two bond over their estrangement from their parents and their memories of Tiananmen, and Amber wins by offering Celeste a cash injection and promising to make her an “Asian Alain Ducasse”.

For Amber, a second-born, food represents a love and shared history that is hard to describe. “His friendship with his father did not begin with hugs and kisses but with noses and mouths, garlic fingertips, tongs, fire, oven and wood.” In an attempt to win over her brother Bobby, who has a very complicated relationship at the heart of the novel, Amber cooks him a special burger (her recipe included). However, Bobby doubts: “I think from a young age he confused food with love.”

The story goes from 2001 to 2007-08 to 2019 and finally to 2020. Each time is inspired by past events: the destruction of the twin towers; the global financial crisis; pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The plot jumps from London to Shanghai to Hong Kong, and we see events through the eyes of different members of the family. As Amber’s star rises, things take a turn for the worse in Hong Kong. In 2020, the national security law was introduced, which led to new migration. Photos of fans mourning the change in Hong Kong (the branch is clearly covered Diamond Hillthe author’s old book), and Bobby’s accidental participation in the show, are the most affecting aspects of the book. It’s not just goodbye to Chinatown, but goodbye to Hong Kong, too.

This book keeps a happy note for every conflict. Amber’s status as an outsider trying to get into the competition is tempered by the fact that she herself is privileged. (He went to Marlborough College and Oxford University, having entered the latter through slightly devious routes.) Interesting, too, are the difficulties of being successful, wanting to move abroad, and the loyalty (or not) one feels to the country and culture one has left behind.

That’s not to say there aren’t weaknesses here (including the occasional claim). But the fire and flavor with which Fan brings a passionate, enthusiastic, and often courageous salute to a region, a city, a country that has gone through history, makes this a very satisfying offering.