Caught between pages after the sun goes down
Some booksellers have found a foil to their never-say-sleep internet rivals: the round-the-clock bookshop
What’s it to be as you go into that good night? Hours of ungentle carousing in a manner Dylan Thomas would have approved of ? Or of something with a little more sobriety: imbibing fine writing that flows from the shelves of a nearby bookshop, something the Welsh poet might not have been averse to either?
In the 20 years since the opening of what are said to have been the first 24-hour bookshops, Eslite Dun Nan in Taipei, around-the-clock bookshops have sprung up in Japan, Malaysia and South Korea, and some big cities in the United States have dipped their toes in the water with 24-hour news/magazine stands.
Now such shops are appearing in Chinese cities, like a resistance force under cover of darkness seeking to defend the besieged world of the printed word. There is nothing quite like such a shop to cheer the hearts of bibliophiles, bathe city areas that might otherwise be dead to the world in glittering light and open up new possibilities for what is being called the night economy.
One retailer, Zhanqiao (loading bridge) Bookstore, in Qingdao, Shandong province, even recently staged its own version of the Hollywood film Night at the Museum, inviting children to stay in the shop overnight. Sitting in tents and under lamps they read to their heart’s content before falling asleep, presided over by bookshelves full of books with an ocean theme.
Days before that, the country’s first 5G unstaffed smart bookstore opened in Xiong’an New Area, Hebei province. Driven by the advantages of 5G networking, book lovers can enter after having their face or their identity card scanned, and obtain their favorite books any time, because technology has made 24-hour unstaffed service feasible.
In Sanlitun, the heart of Beijing’s nightlife hub, at 11 pm on a summer night, among the bustling crowds one store stands out. It is Sanlian Taofen Sanlitun Bookstore, a 24-hour bookstore that has become a landmark since it opened last year.
The shop used to be a bar in a street reputed for its late-night carousing.
The night China Daily visited the shop, and alley that connects the northern and southern ends of Sanlitun Village was teeming with people, while in the 700-square-meter bookstore with about 20,000 books, a couple of young people were sitting next to their laptops open.
“We come here quite often,” says one of them, who lives nearby. “It’s the place I use most for finishing work each day. This is the only quiet place I can find around here where I do not need to worry about closing time, and you have the air conditioning in summer, too.”
Another of those in the shop, Zhao Xiaohan of Xiamen, Fujian province, who was on holiday in Beijing, says: “I accidentally found this place while I was looking for a perch after a long day of travel. It’s a relaxing place, but many young people come in here after dinner time because it’s the summer holidays.”
In addition to stocking the latest titles and best-sellers, Sanlian Taofen sells books in ancient Chinese and many works in English. To attract customers in an area that is popular with tourists it also sells souvenirs and ornaments representative of traditional Chinese culture.
Another tourist in the shop, who says she is from Moscow, was astounded by the shop’s range of offerings. “I’ve never seen a bookstore like this. It’s got everything related to books you could ever want. Before I came in I wasn’t even sure it was still open. I’ve never come across anything like this in Russia.”
A shop assistant says the design of the shop, on two floors, is inspired by Travelers among Mountains and Streams, an ink-wash painting by Fan Kuan of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127).
At an intersection of Chinese and foreign culture, the bookstore takes pride in promoting and telling stories of the Chinese culture.
A cafe inside also prolongs business late into the night. There are customers who order a drink before falling asleep and those who, it is clear, are present just because they would prefer to be here than out in the street. The bookshop managers say it does not encourage these people to stay, but on the other hand if they are not disturbing others it turns a blind eye to them.
In April The Beijing News quoted the bookshop chain’s general manager, Hao Dachao, as saying the Sanlitun outlet was taking 20,000 yuan ($2,900) a day on week days in normal periods and 50,000 yuan a day during weekends and on holiday days, and after beginning to break even was turning a profit.
However, things have not always been that easy. When Sanlian Taofen opened its first 24-hour bookshop in Beijing five years ago, near the National Art Museum of China, it was acclaimed by no less than Premier Li Keqiang, but its second 24-hour shop, which opened near Tsinghua University in 2015, struggled to make its mark and was eventually forced to adopt more orthodox trading hours.
“Location turns out to be key,” Jiang Jun, manager of the Sanlitun shop, told China Daily. “Management and operational strategies are also important. A 24-hour bookshop can’t survive on government subsidies. We survive on book sales. Takings for things such as food, drink and souvenirs account for just 10 percent of the total.
“In the few years we’ve been operating, we’ve been able to see tangible demand for 24-hour bookstores.”
Despite some failures, more 24-hour bookshops are sprouting up, located in areas likely to draw high volumes of people, especially those who enjoy nightlife.
They include October Time 24-Hour Bookstore in Zhongguancun, Beijing’s technology zone, which caters mainly to university students and those who run startup companies; and Page One, near Tian’anmen Square, which started making one of its three floors available around the clock recently.
“Students and young entrepreneurs are our target customers,” says Lin Dayan, an October Time manager. “We offer them a place where they can get in touch with their dreams.”
Another 24-hour bookshop in Beijing that allows customers to get in touch with their dreams, and with the past, too, is China Bookstore Yanchi Building, renowned for its collections of ancient books and precious secondhand books. The building in which the shop is located in a restored part of the Di’anmen Gate of old Beijing, dates back to the 15th century.
On July 20, four years to the day when the shop opened, half of about a dozen desks in its reading-for-free zones were occupied. Outside, the din of the nearby Shichahai areas and hutong were dying down; inside, some were reading the shop’s books and some were working or studying.
One shop assistant and one guard were on duty, their shifts due to end at 8 am the following day, and they seemed happy to offer assistance to customers. In these shops that help can go beyond locating books, because apart from having cafes, and selling gift items, some are turning into venues for all kinds of social activities.
In Page One Qianmen there are occasional mini concerts in the evening.
“For 24-hour bookstores, the operating challenges run into the second half of the night, says Zhang Lei, also known as San Shi, a veteran bookstore planner and critic. “The solutions include running multiple businesses.
“Midnight bookstores are like large study areas, a third space in addition to the home and the workplace. People actually do a lot of things in bookshops; they go there with relatives, meet friends in them and treat them like well-known tourist attractions, taking the usual kinds of photos.”
Zhang is skeptical about the chances of unstaffed bookshops, because one of the things that 24-hour bookshops have going for them in the relentless battle against online bookselling is that they bring people together, he says.
“If you ask me, bookshops with no people seem a bit vulnerable.”
Liu Xiaokai, director of the printing and distribution division at the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, said a year ago that the number of venues for selling books had increased in each of the three previous years.
In Beijing alone 126 bookshops opened last year. The municipal government says it invested 50 million yuan to support offline bookshops during the year and will increase that to 106 million this year, including adding more 24-hour bookstores.
A survey by Tencent News shows 8.7 percent of people think 24-hour bookstores are part of the night economy, while 4.3 percent believe it should be overnight cinemas.
Last month a measure to increase night-time spending was launched.
“The night is young and midnight reading life is so beautiful,” says Yang Junkang, with the Beijing Reading Season and who has also co-compiled a guide book of the city’s bookshops.
Midnight bookstores are like large study areas, a third space in addition to the home and the workplace. People actually do a lot of things in bookshops; they go there with relatives, meet friends in them and treat them like well-known tourist attractions, taking the usual kinds of photos.” Zhang Lei a veteran bookstore planner and critic