Following greater than per week of hypothesis that Chengdu’s You Xing Bookstore (有杏书店, Yǒu Xìng Shūdiàn) would quickly shut, amid an outpouring of tributes from prospects and supporters, it seems that the beloved bookstore and occasions house has been granted a reprieve and can stay in enterprise. Began in August 2023 by former monetary reporter and prolific blogger Zhang Feng and a bunch of buddies, You Xing Bookstore has change into a vibrant public house, offering books, espresso, free public occasions, and a much-needed sense of neighborhood following three years of “zero-COVID” policy-induced isolation.
The doorway to You Xing Bookstore: a clear, well-lighted place (supply: WeChat account 麦客自留地)
On October 29, the bookstore’s founder Zhang Feng printed a WeChat publish saying that on account of “pressure majeure” (unspecified causes past his management, possible referring to official stress), the bookstore could be closing its doorways on November 28. When an internet commenter requested, “Why? The bookstore has at all times had such good occasions,” Zhang Feng replied, “That’s precisely the explanation.” Zhang’s preliminary announcement, which he shortly deleted, has been archived by CDT Chinese language editors, and a portion is translated under:
I had imagined many ways in which the bookstore would possibly finish. The more than likely state of affairs was pressure majeure—and now, this has come to go.
You Xing Bookstore will shut on November 28.
I almost smiled after I heard the information. I at all times knew this present day would come, I simply wasn’t certain when it might occur.
My perspective in direction of managing a bookstore has at all times been: For those who solely had sooner or later, how would you run that bookstore? It is best to dwell day-after-day as if it is perhaps your final.
[…] I feel it is a nice perspective in direction of life, and it’s additionally the path I’ve been striving for these previous few years: cherish day-after-day, and do what you like—that’s what makes life significant.
My very best bookstore is a spot the place the workers is enthusiastic about studying, there’s nice espresso, and everyone seems to be welcome to come back, share their opinions, and change into their greatest selves.
I’m so completely satisfied that, to this present day, the bookstore continues to be the best way I prefer it. All the occasions, too, are issues I take pleasure in. I’ve no regrets.
Opening a bookstore is a artistic journey that should sometime come to an finish. Like a murals, it might not be good, and it could be “eliminated,” nevertheless it stays “full” in each sense of the phrase.
[…] So it’s, my buddy. I’ve fought the nice battle. [Chinese]
Because it opened, You Xing Bookstore has hosted many occasions that includes distinguished writers, journalists, and lecturers from Chengdu and additional afield, together with Tsinghua College authorized scholar Lao Dongyan; British historian Adam Tooze; and Chengdu-born historian Wang Di, who has written extensively about Chengdu’s teahouse tradition, road tradition, and public areas. In early October, the bookstore had introduced {that a} scheduled lecture by former agricultural reporter and popular-science blogger Xiang Dongliang on the subject of meals security and pre-prepared meals had been cancelled. Zhang later defined the explanation for the cancellation: on account of some communication difficulties whereas Zhang was on a visit to Europe, the occasion had not been reported upfront to Chengdu authorities as required.
You Xing Bookstore, crowded with patrons (supply: WeChat account 蓝书屋)
However then got here the information that You Xing Bookstore could be closing quickly, and that “Zhang San Feng’s World,” one among Zhang Feng’s three WeChat accounts, had been inexplicably deactivated. Over the subsequent week, Zhang printed a sequence of WeChat articles reflecting on the bookstore, its legacy, and the very important function of bookstores and different public areas in modern Chinese language city life. On October 30, he wrote: “A bookstore could also be uprooted, however the floor beneath our toes can’t be. The truth that so many individuals got here to the bookstore and took part proves that there’s nothing illusory or fictional concerning the idea of ‘the folks of this metropolis.’” It appeared that You Xing would meet the identical destiny as many impartial Chinese language bookstores lately.
Chinese language bookstores and publishers alike are going through ever-increasing industrial and political pressures. Latest closures embrace the cinema-themed “Kubrick” bookstore in Beijing’s Dongcheng District, folding for monetary causes after 16 years in enterprise; and Haidian District’s eclectic and proudly non-commercial Douban Bookstore, additionally shutting its doorways for monetary causes after almost 20 years. There have been periodic crackdowns on impartial bookstores and on-line e book repositories; new restrictions on the sale of Taiwanese books in China; and e book bans, remembers, and social media censorship of books that battle with the CCP’s accepted model of historical past. There has additionally been pushback, with just a few bookstores turning into the websites of small particular person acts of refined ideological protest. Some Chinese language bookstores have gained a brand new lease on life by opening retailers abroad: after Shanghai’s Jifeng Bookstore was compelled to shut in 2018, it reappeared in 2024 in Washington, D.C. as JF Books.
After per week of pessimism about You Xing Bookstore’s future, on November 5, Zhang immediately introduced that the bookstore and its occasions would have the ability to proceed. Zhang additionally prompt that the huge flood of supportive articles and tributes to the bookstore could nicely have helped to rescue it. CDT Chinese language editors have archived over a dozen of those essays and articles, together with a few of Zhang Feng’s personal WeChat articles, and a spread of supportive messages and tributes from buddies, patrons, and supporters of the bookstore.
A watercolor of You Xing Bookstore, from one of many retailer’s younger patrons (supply: Zhang Feng’s WeChat account 城市的地得)
The newest archived piece is an article from Zhang Feng himself, titled “A Recent Begin: You Xing Bookstore Occasions Will Proceed From This Saturday.” It was printed on 城市的地得 (Chéngshì de dì dé), one among Zhang’s three WeChat accounts on which he blogs below the identify 张3丰 (Zhāng Sān Fēng). The 2 different accounts are 成都客 (Chéngdū kè) and 张3丰的世界 (Zhāng Sān Fēng de Shìjiè, “Zhang San Feng’s World,”) the latter of which has reportedly been deactivated. A portion of that article is translated under:
You Xing Bookstore has resumed regular operations, and our scheduled occasions will proceed. The primary of those is a lecture by [economics] professor Li Jingkui, “A New Understanding of Keynes and His Up to date Significance.”
Li Jingkui spent a decade almost single-handedly translating 11 volumes of Keynes’ collected writings.
[…] Thank You to Everybody: Bookstores as Consensus
It’s with reduction that I can now inform you that You Xing Bookstore will hold going, and that we’re nonetheless in enterprise.
Over the previous few days, so many individuals have expressed care and concern for our bookstore. In the long run, this outpouring of affection had the marvelous impact of permitting us to remain in enterprise.
So I wish to thank all of you, together with these buddies who, though we’d not know their names, exerted an affect.
[…] Once I began the bookstore, I adhered to 3 ideas:
All of our books are “legally accepted publications.”
All of our occasions are registered [with the relevant local authorities].
All of our occasions are public. Due to the Tencent Assembly platform, all bookstore occasions are recorded on video and may be simply performed again and “inspected.”
Going ahead, the bookstore will proceed to stick to those ideas.
[…] I’d wish to see bookstores regarded as a type of “city consensus.” In spite of everything, who doesn’t love a bookstore?
Even native residents who aren’t avid readers wish to deliver their children to the bookstore to play within the evenings. The bookstore has tables and chairs, and whereas there could also be some sharp edges, or books that would tumble from the cabinets, nobody pays this any thoughts. They really feel that the bookstore is a secure place for his or her kids.
The grid employee [personnel tasked with monitoring local residents and businesses] who visits the bookstore each week is at all times politely encouraging, wishing us “booming enterprise.” When she discovered that we have been slated to shut, she appeared shocked and disenchanted, judging from her facial features.
It’s this model of “consensus” that makes me eager to proceed working the bookstore.
[…] My buddies, I cannot go away, nor will I quit simply. Right this moment, witnessing this kind of consensus in Chengdu, I’m reminded of precisely why I nonetheless love this metropolis. [Chinese]
One other archived article is from Blaues Haus Bibliothek (蓝书屋, Lán Shūwū), a Chinese language-language neighborhood library, occasion house, and basis in Hanover, Germany. Blaues Haus just lately held an occasion with Zhang Feng titled, “The Rise and Fall of City Public Life in China Because the Pandemic.” The portion translated under offers some perception into Zhang’s motivation for opening his Chengdu bookstore, and the necessity for extra public areas in Chinese language cities:
Sichuan has an extended historical past of teahouse tradition. Lately, the town of Chengdu [in Sichuan province] has seen a growth in impartial bookstores. In accordance with one statistic, Chengdu was residence to fifteen impartial bookstores (not together with second-hand bookstores) in 2023. To a sure extent, these impartial bookstores provide residents a type of public house that’s just like teahouses, a locus for interplay and dialogue.
You Xing Bookstore, based by Zhang Feng in August 2023, is one such house. Opened by Zhang Feng and a few buddies, the bookstore was named “You Xing” (which implies “there may be an apricot tree”) due to an apricot tree situated close to its door.
Zhang Feng stated that throughout the pandemic years, folks yearned for real bodily togetherness, and this want fostered a want for neighborhood. Unbiased bookstores play an necessary function on this, with many bookstores even staying open at night time, providing new prospects for public life.
In his lecture [here in Hanover], Zhang Feng mentioned intimately the idea of public actions at Chengdu’s impartial bookstores, permitting us a glimpse on the ups and downs going through impartial bookstores, and the shifts in city tradition and the broader social atmosphere that underpin these. At current, when public house is shrinking, bookstores have change into locations the place many individuals search worth and which means, venues for facilitating interplay and dialogue which can be deeply woven into the material of the town.
For Zhang Feng, working a bookstore is one other technique of public expression. [Chinese]
Many of the archived tributes have been printed earlier than the reprieve, when it appeared You Xing would definitely be compelled to shut. A November 1 essay from WeChat account 麦客自留地 (Màikè zìliúdì) mourns the various different Chengdu bookstores which have closed, and displays on how their loss has diminished that metropolis’s public house:
Some folks is perhaps curious sufficient to surprise if, over the previous two years, every other bookstores have disappeared or modified their enterprise mannequin—proper right here in Chengdu, this metropolis identified for being so relaxed, leisurely, inclusive, and vibrant. It isn’t tough to find that a number of of the bookstores talked about in final Might’s article “Why Does Chengdu Have So Many Unbiased Bookstores?” have basically ceased to exist. Wilderness Books has closed; Wild Pear Tree has closed (apart from periodic pop-up occasions in numerous areas); Reed Books is at present in transition, with books now not occupying the primary house; Ge Hen, not talked about within the article, now not sells books; and now it’s You Xing Bookstore’s flip.
They may additionally surprise why so many individuals really feel unhappy concerning the disappearance of those impartial bookstores. In spite of everything, isn’t a bookstore only a “retailer” like every other? Now that we are able to order books with our telephones, why are bookstores nonetheless so necessary?
Maybe a few of these folks will encounter a buddy who will inform them concerning the which means of the time period “public house,” and the significance of public house to the town and to the folks residing in it. Maybe they may also focus on different issues, reminiscent of freedom, and rights, and duty.
“Previous troopers by no means die, they simply fade away.” One would possibly say the identical of an apricot tree: when the tree falls, nobody is aware of the place the seeds it as soon as scattered would possibly find yourself—by which tiny alleyway, or by which distant metropolis. The one factor we may be certain of is that come the subsequent spring, these seeds will sprout anew. [Chinese]
On October 29, author Huang Yingnan printed “Tonight, Let’s Toast to a Bookstore That Is Disappearing,” a WeChat article commemorating You Xing, its perform as a neighborhood house, and the way being forcibly shut down by the authorities would possibly really be a “badge of honor”:
I discovered about this bookstore as a result of I first received to know the bookstore’s founder, Zhang Feng.
In 2022 and 2023, we had the chance to have two lengthy conversations. Throughout that [pandemic] interval destined for the historical past books, I used to be deeply moved by these phrases from Zhang Feng: “Sure issues are most significant if you end up combating for them. For those who consider that these items are necessary, however go away the place that so desperately wants them, then you may have really given up combating for them.”
Later, throughout an extended dialog with a buddy who is aware of Zhang Feng, my buddy stated, “We want a thousand, or ten thousand extra Zhang Fengs in our midst. His presence reminds us that it’s nonetheless doable to dwell with dignity.”
You Xing Bookstore survived for greater than two years. This yr, I felt extra strongly than ever that each Zhang Feng and his bookstore have been coming into uncharted territory, doing issues that few others dared to do.
Braveness is probably the most treasured human high quality, and Zhang Feng possesses such braveness.
I recall chatting with a high-school instructor, dedicated to offering his college students with a strong liberal-arts training, who instructed me that in all his years of instructing, he had by no means obtained any official awards or commendations. He immediately laughed and stated, “It simply occurred to me that not getting any official commendations is the best badge of honor I may hope for.”
In occasions like these, when a bookstore is “forcibly disappeared,” it’s a badge of honor. [Chinese]
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