Wang Yuanyuan

cheekywang@hotmail.com

WHEN the city’s 13th Reading Month opened at the beginning of November, various reading activities were launched at the city’s major bookstores. But book lovers in Shenzhen can still find quiet independent bookstores in which they can bury their noses in books without being disturbed.

Some people think as a busy economic center with a short history, Shenzhen has less cultured residents than in older cities. However, Shenzhen has more independent bookstores than a lot of other major cities and these stores all organize cultural events, said Xue Yuan, a famous cultural commentator in China.

“According to my research, Shenzhen’s independent bookstores are among the best in the country. They organize many more cultural activities than those in Guangzhou and Beijing and they also do good business,” said Xue.

What is an independent bookstore? “For me, an independent store should not be under the administration of any government organization or large corporation. Besides books, it will also have an intimate atmosphere,” Liu Suli, owner of the Wansheng Book Garden, said.

In the 1990s, private capital was allowed to enter the book industry and a growing number of independent bookstores with distinct features have opened as a result. To avoid direct competition with Xinhua Bookstore, the biggest bookstore in the country, many bookstores have chosen to survive by filling niches, offering discounts, and giving customers a unique experience.

Most independent bookstores in Shenzhen operate as book bars. Most are hidden in quiet residential areas or art zones, organizing cultural activities such as guest speeches, underground concerts and movie screenings on a regular basis.

Different independent bookstores do different things to attract customers. For example, popular underground bands often take the stage at Old Heaven Bookstore in OCT-LOFT, Nanshan District, one of the city’s most popular independent bookstores, while La Vie Materielle Book Bar in Baihua area, Futian District attracts its readers through interactive activities with popular writers such as Long Yingtai and Edward Lam.

“I am a big fan of independent bookstores. Their special selections of books help save me a lot of time in finding what I like in giant book malls and their cultural salons are also worth attending,” said Zhang Xin, a young woman who works for an IT company in Shenzhen.

Zhang used to go to Book City CBD store on a regular basis to participate in cultural salons. “My tastes in reading and culture are not that mainstream, so I did not enjoy these salons. But I can find what I love easily at some tiny independent bookstores. They always have something special to say there,” Zhang said.

“Many of these shops have to struggle to stay in business. Most visitors are friends of the owners or netizens who have discovered the shop on a microblog or douban.com, a popular online forum for art and culture enthusiasts. At present, many independent owners like me still make our money through other channels. For us, the bookstore is not a means of making profit, but a place to meet people with similar interests and that’s why we organize special activities to find friends who like the same things we do,” Chacha, owner of Wooden Book Study, said.