Asia-Pacific Newsweek
Hong Kong is a difficult place for independent bookstores.
Rents are high and space is limited, but in recent years, it has become increasingly difficult to browse the law. China implemented strict national security laws on Hong Kong in 2020, and the government also began to implement the dormant colonial sedition law.
The ambiguous wording of the law raises questions about the material that judges sensitively, and after the statute is enacted, public libraries have removed the order books of government authorities. In 2022, five speech therapists were sentenced to 19 months in prison for publishing children’s books, a court said it had violated the sedition law. Independent bookstores struggled, sealing off several local favorites such as Zero Mountain books and desolate house books, prompting high-profile writers and vibrant goodbye parties to prompt their tribute.
But those closed stores and other closed stores are not the last ones. Despite the challenges, some booksellers still exist, relying on the convergence of creativity, generous landlords and a reading community, for which rare books or slanted old second-hand books still possess a magic that feels special in Hong Kong. Here are some places to take advantage of this magic.
When Lorence Johnston studied the idea of a business decades ago, he realized that his adopted hometown of Hong Kong stood out among major cities because it lacked rare bookstores. He said he was surprised given that the city is “the third largest financial center in the world.” So Johnston, a passionate reader who never had a rare book before, set out to browse the vast amount of knowledge needed for himself in this academic community.
He opened his own bookstore, Lok Man Rare Books, in 2006, and recently moved from Chancery Lane to the Central District Pedder Building’s new luxury-focused, luxury-focused retail arcade. Johnston’s source from this perfect store with deep armchairs invites long stays and sells exquisite copies of rare and special books.
He said his library sweeps the literature genre – “I can’t focus on anything, so that’s great for me,” he said – while some of his clients are collectors, most people are looking for gifts. “They want you to find their favorite book or three or four favorite books, or books that really influence their decisions to turn their lives in a different direction,” he said.
The store has a lot to attract casual customers, although the price is not casual, climbing many times from about 3,000 Hong Kong dollars ($386).
Recently, the best copy in the world of Game and Economic Behavior, written by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, in the best copy Johnston calls it, is called outstanding works. Three volumes of a colorful illustration of the “Gazette” of French fashion magazine; and a first edition copy of E. Nesbit’s “Five Children and IT”, bound to Crimson Leather by Bayntun-Riviere Bindery in England, to which Johnston sent many restoration projects.
A gentle book
Diane Wang and Jessica Cheung noticed how many people they attracted in the several books they sold when they were running stalls at flea markets in 2023, mainly second-hand clothes and second-hand household items.
Wang said: “We said ‘What should we do if we only make books next time?'” Wang said. “The book is such a simple connector.”
Not wanting to commit to the store’s overhead costs, friends began asking for book donations, held weekend sales in coffee shops, and carefully planned English books. In June 2023, they sold more than 100 books in the rain, and in the rain, the business quickly grew into a full-fledged project, which they wrote in their mission statement aimed at “building a circular book economy and fostering a community of readers.”
The gentle book popups that Wang and Cheung advertise on Instagram have a friendly feel. They are usually locked on common ground, a café on Hong Kong’s so-called Ladder Street: narrow streets, made entirely of steps, extending to the slopes in the central and Sheung Wan area. The area attracted a weekend crowd, with dog books arranged steps, another reason for ongoing.
One of several creative ways they found to attract readers, Wang and Qing-style quiet reading sessions encourage participants to remain silent for an hour. Others, Wang said, include book exchange dinners and theme book club nights such as “The Books That Make You Cry”.
Book of Dionysus
Stephanie Chong quit her hated job and spent a lot of time every day doing what she likes – buying and reading – her husband Samuel Li eventually suggested they open a store where she could continue to do what she likes.
The result of this idea is Dionysus Books, a small, exotic decor store tucked away on the small streets of the new territory town of Saigong. About 13 miles from the city center, without good transportation connections, the area has a lower rent, attracting visitors, but is struggling in seafood restaurants and accessing surrounding beaches and hiking trails. Dionysus books are now the only bookstore left in town.
It sells second-hand English books at affordable prices, all of which are donated, as well as new Chinese books. She has a special interest in literature and history books, helping to narrate the circular scenery of the world. “I don’t think our mindset or our ideas, who we are, should depend on the concept of nature, country or nationality,” Chong said.
What started about four years ago was a passion project that kept it this way more than the business, and the couple were the only employees of the store. And, Lee said, the books they sold were “enough to make a living.”
“It’s not all about money,” Chong added.
Lily Bookstore
On the first floor of a building in Sheung Wan near the center, the entrance to Lily Bookshop is filled with books waiting to be admitted to the crowded interior. The series consists primarily of donated books, most of them in English, so the embrace of the nose to the shelves is expected to find any number of treasures that have been loved by all kinds of residents of the city.
Owner Lily Wang is a special antique book collector who gathers a variety of rare, signatures and first editions on the store’s cash register. You may have a hard time finding another 1967 Hong Kong catalog in the city, for example, a book with Coca-Cola decorated with the front cover, and all the list from the tram schedule to the governor of Hong Kong.
The store opened in 2017 at its current location and has a partner store around the corner, Flow Bookshop, a Hong Kong second-hand book agency, and sales first opened in Central in 1997. The process had to be closed in 2017, when the store was behind rent and the court ordered the store’s assets to be frozen. But after owner Surdham Lam sought support from the community, it was saved. The two bookstores shared Lily’s space for a while until Lin split his adventures focused on building social enterprises with the goal of lending his books to Flow Bookshop using a library system.
His simple task, he said, is to prevent people from losing their “reading habits.”
