Shanghai bookstore opens new chapter

Eager readers gathered in front of 401 Fuzhou Road on the morning of April 19, waiting for the grand reopening of the Shanghai Ancient Bookstore, which had been closed for 467 days undergoing renovation.

"I live in Pudong, and took the ferry across the Huangpu River this morning," a man surnamed Cai said.

Entering the bookstore at 10:30, he walked straight to the used books section on the third floor to browse old Chinese comic books.

"My dad used to buy me these books when I was a child," he said. "A few years ago, I came upon some old copies, and began to build a small collection of my own. …There are still new prints coming out, but somehow they lack the authentic flavor of originals. People say they will increase in value some day, and I surely hope that is so, but I like them anyway, even if they don't."

The Shanghai Ancient Bookstore was set up in May 1956 as one of the first specialized bookstores since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, according to its general manager Shi Hongying. Over the decades, it has played an important role in buying, restoring and publishing reprinted editions of ancient books, and in researching and studying ancient books, she says.

In January last year, the store closed its doors and underwent its first complete refurbishment since it moved from 424 Fuzhou Road to 401 in 2006.

The road in downtown Shanghai is also known as Si Malu, or Fourth Road, and was a cultural hub in the early 1900s when bookstores, stationery shops, and publishing houses opened along its length. Today, Fuzhou Road is still home to a number of famous bookstores. Aside from the Shanghai Ancient Bookstore, there is also the Shanghai Foreign Languages Bookstore, and the Shanghai Book Mall, the largest bookstore in the city.

The renovated store carries 50,600 titles, mostly books about traditional Chinese culture, alongside more than 1600 traditional thread-bound editions in a 3,000-square-meter space spread over six floors.

Following renovation, it has opened its roof terrace for the first time, using it as an outdoor market for used books. The bookstore hopes to make the market a regular event on weekends as long as the weather permits, according to employee Kang Xun.

A dozen well-known book lovers and collectors were invited to the first market and put up stalls of their own on the terrace. Among them was Zheng Youhui, an ink painter and granddaughter of Zheng Yimei, a famous Shanghai writer and scholar, who died in 1992. She was selling old copies of her grandfather's essays published in the 1940s, new editions of his work she has illustrated herself, and signed copies of books by other celebrated Shanghai authors.

"From my grandfather on, all four generations of our family have been booklovers," she says. After retiring in 2010, Zheng Youhui has taken over the job of sorting and editing her grandfather's work from her father. She has had more than a dozen new editions published.

"I attend book market fairs whenever I can," she says. "It is great to meet people who share the same passion for reading and cultural heritage."

An annual survey on book reading in Shanghai released on April 23, the World Book Day, showed that its residents have a great love of books and reading. The municipal administration for press and publication has conducted an annual survey of reading habits for the last 13 years.

This year's survey revealed that more than 97 percent of Shanghai residents read last year, each averaging 10 books. Digital books have taken over from print to become be the most popular format, and there is increased interest in trading and collecting secondhand books.