"2023, meet again!" At 9:40 p.m. last night, the lights in the Fuzhou Road store of Shanghai Book City gradually dimmed row by row, and the store was officially announced to close. The last group of readers wandered reluctantly in front of the door, and the staff stood in a row and waved goodbye to them, saying goodbye in 2023. Ms. Geng, a citizen who has a deep affection for the book city from childhood to adulthood, learned that the book city was about to close when she watched the news at night, and rushed to take a taxi with her husband to prepare to "grasp the last wisp of books", and did not expect to harvest surprises - although the Shanghai Book City was temporarily "offline", the fragrance of books here will not dissipate.
Pictured: The last batch of readers left the bookstore Xinmin Evening News reporter Wang Kai photographed (the same below)
"Moving" Pudong
Jiang Li, general manager of Shanghai Xinhua Media Chain Co., Ltd., introduced that during the store closure period, Shanghai Book City will open up a 1,500-square-meter transition site in the sunken square of 96 Square, No. 796 Dongfang Road, Pudong New Area, providing more than 30,000 kinds of books. "Although it is not as good as the Shanghai Book City, which is 'book in the sky and the book', it can solve the needs of most readers to read and buy books." Originally, the Shanghai Book City covered an area of more than 10,000 square meters and displayed 400,000 kinds of books, audio-visual products and electronic publications at its peak. Since the area and display capacity of the transitional site are only about one-tenth of the original, the book city will give priority to readers to purchase the most high-demand social science, literature and textbook teaching and auxiliary books, and strive to serve readers to the greatest extent. We are working construction and hope to open the transition site to the public next spring. Jiang Li said.
Photo: During the store closure period, Shanghai Book City will open a transitional venue in 96 Square
With the rapid development of online book purchase channels, physical bookstores have long ceased to be solely places to sell books, but also venues for cultural activities such as writers' meetings, book clubs, and lecture forums. According to Zhao Jianping, the second general manager of Shanghai Book City, in 1998, the Fuzhou Road store of Shanghai Book City had just opened, and it already had such a forward-looking concept. "In the first week of opening, we held the 'Second Shanghai Book Fair', one event after another. In fact, the grandeur of the book market is the daily life of the book city later. For more than 20 years, we have held more than 400 events a year, more than one a day. Nowadays, the book city is closed, and many readers who are accustomed to "accompanying books" in their spare time are worried, will there be such a rich reading activity in the future? Jiang Li said: "In the transition venue, we also set aside a special space for cultural activities. "Even in just over a year of renovation of the book city, the fragrance of books here will never be absent from the life of Shanghai book lovers."
Pictured: Kong Xiangdong played at the event
Support Hebei
During the renovation period, the fragrance of books in the book city will not only continue to linger around readers in Shanghai, but also "float" to Hebei thousands of miles away. 40 of the old bookshelves replaced by the book city for upgrading will be donated to the FA Commune Library in Wei County, Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province. In addition, the staff of Shucheng also donated a batch of books, plus sample books of Shucheng, a total of 1,000 copies, which were also donated to Wei County. The 80 villages in Wei County were just lifted out of poverty last year, and the villagers solved the problem of food and clothing and are in the initial stage of cultural construction. This scent of books from Shanghai will help them create a better reading atmosphere and accelerate the improvement of cultural level.
The reason why Shanghai Book City, thousands of miles away, can "hold hands successfully" with Weixian is also relying on the "matchmaking" of cultural activities. Since announcing in October that it would close the store and reload, Shanghai Book City has held a series of "I and Shanghai Book City" activities, inviting authors and readers from all walks of life to share the books they have written, published, sold and read in those years. As a lover of words, Zhu Xudong, chairman of E-House Lenong, was the guest of the first phase of the event. "At that time, I was participating in a renovation project in Wei County, where there were many left-behind children and women, and there was a lack of a library, and it happened that I came to the book city to participate in the activities, so I proposed to use these eliminated resources to help them build a library, and also to spread the seeds of Shanghai's knowledge to the whole country."
The brief distinction is to meet better in the future, and readers will look forward to the next reunion with Shanghai Book City in the atmosphere of books. (Xinmin Evening News reporter Wu Xuying)