Yu and Me Books, in New York's Chinatown neighborhood, launched a GoFundMe on July 6, after a fire in a residential unit above the store caused significant smoke and water damage. Within 12 hours, the fundraiser easily surpassed its goal of $150,000, raising nearly $215,000 at the time of this article's publication, with more than 3,500 donors pitching in. Authors Celeste Ng and Vanessa Chan and actor Simu Liu each donated $5,000 to the shop.

The store lost "the majority of our inventory and much of our equipment that makes our day-to-day business possible," the shop's staff said in a collective statement on its GoFundMe page. "Most devastatingly, we've been told that the store will require a complete gut renovation—estimated to take about a year to complete." The store added that "insurance money won't be coming in for at least eight months." Yu & Me will use the money crowdfunded for staff wages and healthcare, creating a pop-up or temporary space, replacing damaged inventory and all technology and POS systems, and more.

The bookstore/café/bar was founded in 2021 by Lucy Yu, then a 27-year-old former chemical engineer and supply chain manager. A woman-owned, Asian American–owned business, it has received an outpouring of support on social media overnight, especially from the Asian American writing community.

The Yu and Me GoFundMe is still open and accepting donations.