Carlotta Dotto - Last Hong Kong bookshop selling titles banned in China shuts
NB: Who says ideas aren't important? The all-powerful Chinese Communist Party is terrified of books. DS
The last bookshop
in Hong Kong selling
titles banned by the Communist Party on the mainland has closed, marking the
last chapter of the city’s historic independent publishing scene. Human rights activists
and publishers have raised grave concerns over the closure of the People’s
Bookstore, a tiny shop in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay district, known to be the
last source of literary contraband in the city, in the latest example of
China’s tightening pressure over the city. The Guardian spoke to
locals familiar with the matter who believe bookseller Paul Tang closed the
shop under pressure from the government. A frequent visitor of the shop, who
preferred to remain anonymous, said the city “was once the place where mainland
readers came looking for the truth. But today, you’re afraid to even mention
these forbidden topics.”
Fears that Beijing has
hardened its policy on freedom of speech were raised earlier this month when
the Financial Times’ Asia news editor, Victor Mallet, had his visa effectively
revoked and the pro-independence Hong Kong National party was banned. The closure follows
the disappearance and
detention of five
city booksellers in 2015, who were linked to the Mighty Current publishing
house that produced critical books about China’s leadership. Joshua Wong, one of
the leaders of the 2014 Occupy Movement, told the Guardian the closure “marks
the definitive proof of Hong Kong’s lack of freedom”. Benedict Rogers,
co-founder and chair of the NGO Hong Kong Watch, said: “Hong Kong used to be a
window onto China, a
sanctuary for books that tell the truth about the mainland. But freedom of
expression and of the press have been significantly eroded in recent years, and
the closure of bookshops selling banned books is a further example of this.”
The former British
colony has preserved much of its autonomy since its return to Chinese rule in
1997, including its own laws on liberal publication rights. Several publishing
houses and bookshops flourished selling works that a couple of miles away were
forbidden, attracting buyers from all over the mainland. Tang discovered the
niche market in 2004 and the boom came right after. “It was a crazy time,” said
the bookseller, who attracted mainland customers with a portrait of Mao at the
entrance of his shop. “Publishers printed a title after the other, and we were
selling a hundred books a day,” he said. High on the
best-seller list of forbidden books were taboo topics such as politics,
religion, and sex. From the private life of President Mao to the history of the
cultural revolution, mainland customers could leaf through books supporting the
1989 Tiananmen Square movement or essays on the struggles within the Communist
party, as well as bluer topics such as oral sex bibles and sadomasochism guides.
When the Chinese
government increased its pressure, “the industry experienced a significant
turndown and banned book are not published any more,” said Malinda Ye,
Acquisition Editor at the Chinese University Press. “This is a very
worrying situation,” said Agnes Chow Ting, social activist and member of the
pro-democracy party Demosisto, who was recently banned from running for Hong
Kong’s legislative council. “A lot of chained bookstores and book publishers in
Hong Kong are controlled by liaison office of the Chinese government,” she
said. The closure of the
shop leaves Hong Kong with no outlet that challenges censorship. Albert Cheng,
renowned Hong Kong political commentator, said the concern was that “the ‘one
country, two systems’ principle will gradually fade, while Hong Kong will
become simply another Chinese city.” The Chinese Liaison
Office did not respond to a request for comment.
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