A recent furore over the future of a popular independent bookstore has shone a fresh spotlight on concerns that the space for public debates and cultural events in China is shrinking.
Advertisement
The announcement that the You Xing Bookstore in Chengdu – a venue that had hosted a number of events featuring prominent Chinese and foreign speakers – would shut later this month followed the closure of a number of other bookshops as well as cancelled cultural events and film screenings across the country.
Although the bookstore now appears to have been given a reprieve, some key details about the process – including the decision-making process that determined its fate – remain unclear.
On October 29, Zhang Feng, the writer and commentator who opened the bookstore in the capital of Sichuan province two years ago, wrote on social media that the shop would have to close because it was facing an “irresistible force” – a phrase often used as a usual euphemism for political pressure.
“I had imagined many possible ways for the bookstore to end. The most likely one was force majeure – and now, it has really come,” Zhang said. “Well then. My friends, I have fought the good fight.”
Advertisement
One comment under his post asked why the shop was closing, saying the events it hosted “have been great”, prompting Zhang to reply “that’s exactly the reason”.