Xue Yuan Bookstore, which has persisted for over 20 years, has recently closed down, and a landmark flag of Qingdao independent bookstore has surrendered. It marks that the era of Qingdao traditional bookstores has come to an end. A new round of prosperous bookstore running modes will replace it.
On June 19th, the Qingdao Study was put into trial operation inside Anna Villa, a centenary German-style building in the old town full of historical memories. Meanwhile it is also the first Qingdao private bookstore located in a single villa. On June 28th, Sisyphe bookstore, a well-known bookstore brand in the many south Chinese cities, was opened in Qingdao. On the evening of June 30th, Fang Suo, the bookstore giant, held a grand inauguration ceremony inside the MIXC in the core commercial area in south Qingdao.
In the midsummer, the new epoch of the Qingdao “post-bookstore era” has fully opened.
Qingdao Study: a model city-themed bookstore
The Qingdao Study located on No. 26, Road Zhejiang, expands the bookstore function into “a memorial coordinate of urban history” from a simple bookstore. Ma Chuntao, the initiator, positions Qingdao Bookstore as “a comprehensive human and cultural space based on bookstore”.
In this 113-year-old Germany-style villa, the Qingdao Study is characterized by supplying books on Qingdao. Qingdao history and scenery and Qingdao-related celebrities and stories can all be found in books here. This bookstore not only has established Qingdao Wenmai Publishing Funds specially for publishing books related to Qingdao but also has launched civil collection as a long-term sustainable interaction between the bookstore and readers. In addition, the expansion of the bookstore concept by the bookstore proprietor also closely focuses on the theme of Qingdao.
In the exhibition room specially set up on the first floor of the villa, a monthly-updated Qingdao-themed exhibition is held. According to Ma Chuntao, a few daily articles closely associated to Qingdao history will be strictly selected and put on display to show the Qingdao indigenous features of Qingdao from a micro perspective filled up with daily fun.
The Anna Villa, where the bookstore is located, is also a carrier of the interaction between readers and the bookstore. In just one week of trial operation, the readers’ comment book has already been replaced a few times. Many native citizens wrote down on the book the touching stories between their elder generations and this house. “Must the books in a bookstore be put on the shelves? In Qingdao Study, your reading is multi-dimensional. Even the study itself is a master work on Qingdao history.” In the Qingdao Study, a kind of Qingdao coffee is served. Its recipe is derived from the earliest coffee served in the Qingdao Hotel with a history of over 100 years.
Ma Chuntao hopes that the Qingdao Study can become a window for outsiders and Qingdao citizens to have an in-depth reading about Qingdao.
The power of capital: always give you a little more than your imagination
A young reader shows without any disguise his fascination with the largest bookstore in Qingdao. And the fondness is firstly visual experience. Imagine that you stand in a broad room with an area of 3,400 square meters and look forward the book wall with a distance of over 100m. Mao Jihong, the creator of Fang Suo, used to describe the overall design of Qingdao Fang Suo with the words, “Like a rising wind and scudding clouds, an immense number of books”. Such grand and magnificent hard facilities can only be feasible with huge capital power.
The magnificence doesn’t decrease at all even in the Sisyphe Bookstore. It is said that its European-style lattice show windows are almost the same as those of the Shakespeare Bookstore in Britain. However the bold and unrestrained style of LOFT and delicate props cultivate a strong artistic and reading atmosphere.
All these bookstores including the Fang Suo, Sisyphe, Qingdao Study and Qingdao Ru Shi Bookstore, all reflect the construction of refined and elaborate reading space based on actual strength and scale. This seems to become the shared features of these new bookstores based on experimental consumption.
On the first weekend since the Qingdao Study opened, the visitor flow volume reached nearly 2,000 person-times. The Ru Shi Bookstore, which is located relatively more remotely, received an almost identical visitor flow. The new bookstores will put more anticipation on human flow than conventional book buying.
About the design of Qingdao Fang Suo, Mao Jihong said: “It can provide a romantic and relaxing environment for human encounter and interaction so as to construct a holy palace for cultural and spiritual communication.” The capital empowers the bookstores and gives you a little more than you can imagine about bookstores.
The future of bookstores: just the combination of coffee and activities?
When the Xue Yuan Bookstore formally decided to quit, Zhang Binglin, its owner, made such a statement on wechat: “The end of Xue Yuan Bookstore is a relief for me. However real bookstores in the future don’t live on romanticism and dream. They cannot surrender to capital either. We need to keep on exploring.”
In 2009, Zhang Binglin didn’t just run bookstores but became the trailblazer to introduce coffee and cultural activities into bookstores. He used to manage 4 bookstores and 1 coffee company at the same time. About the future mode and direction of bookstores, Zhang Binglin, who is a romantic person, is still at loss. But we know that no matter it relies on capital or romanticism, a more balanced pattern of Qingdao bookstore industry will emerge in the future with deep impressive impact on daily lives of Qingdao people.
For instance, the “creator on the spot” launched by Fang Suo, autograph sale and life-themed activities held by Sisyphe all provide more options and surprises for Qingdao bookstores on weekends. The “Life is the most important” innovation space launched by Sisyphe and fashionable aesthetics advocated by Fang Suo will expand the existing cultural creation space of Qingdao bookstores.
