Hangzhou this year: believe in innocence

A community bookstore in Hangzhou issued a notice of closure. The bookstore has been open for 20 years on the slopes of Jewel Mountain by the West Lake and has become a famous cultural landmark in Hangzhou. Three years ago, it opened its first store in a younger community. This is undoubtedly a brave step forward. But I didn't expect that three years later, due to the impact of the epidemic and other reasons, the bookstore that had insisted on it for three years was ready to close.

As soon as the announcement came out, the whole city was in an uproar.

Various media outlets followed suit, and several newspapers followed the incident at large lengths. Subsequently, people from all walks of life offered advice and made their own efforts to retain a bookstore. The moving story and details in this are not repeated, only one result, and the bookstore is preserved.

I think this is the moving part of the city of Hangzhou.

Physical bookstores have struggled to survive, especially under the impact of the epidemic in the past two years. As a self-proclaimed reader and an editor outside the editor, I often lament to my friends that there are too few people who read and buy books now. Fewer people read books, fewer people buy books. The online economy is developed, and people who buy books are running to the discount of online stores, and it is naturally more difficult to open a physical bookstore. There are so many inextricabs here that I really can't say in three words. In short, the upstream and downstream related to the book, no matter which node, is not easy.

In the final analysis, it is the battle between various economic forces for individual time.

People's time is limited, you use time to go shopping, the mall is bustling. You spend your time watching movies, and the film and television industry is developed. You spend your time on your phone, and the mobile app can make money. You spend your time on the road, and the cultural tourism economy prospers.

The world is so lively, where is the time to read? Now, the departure and retention of a bookstore has re-aroused the reflection of the people in the city. How long have you not entered the door of the bookstore? How long have you not picked up a book to read? A huge community of 10,000 people, if the survival of a bookstore can not be maintained, so it can be seen that there are many things visible, and each aspect is worth thinking about. This is also the right thing to think about, everyone can't get rid of it.

Therefore, people who open bookstores are naïve.

Almost on the same day that the bookstore was announced to be closed, a friend of mine's bookstore opened.

When she decided to open a bookstore and ask those around her for advice, no one voted in favor. It is difficult to open a bookstore and it is difficult to make money. That night, her WeChat was almost crowded, and everyone pushed her the news that the bookstore was going to close. It seems to be a warning to her: it is too late to stop now.

But she was determined and her eyes were shining.

Her community bookstore opened warmly, and she dried books in her daily circle of friends, exchanged exchanges with writers, basked on the encouragement given to her by ordinary readers, and dried a cup of tea and a page of text slowly. It didn't seem to be at all moved by the cold wind outside the window.

I remembered that half a year ago, when the epidemic situation was slightly slower, I met with the president of the publishing house Pan, the writer Ms. Wang and the writer Mr. Zhao at a newly opened bookstore. A few people chatted, chatted back and forth, nothing more than books. It was a large independent bookstore, opened in a large commercial complex. The owner of the shop is also very young. The rent must be expensive, right? Can employees be paid? When we asked about the operation of the bookstore under the epidemic, the boss's face could not hide a faint sadness.

However, it is still good news, and to this day, the bookstore is still holding on to it.

People who open bookstores are naïve and brave. No industry is easy, but each has its own hardships and struggles. At the end of the day, it's man-made. Some people lifted heavy weights, and some camels were crushed to death by straw. It is not that there is no work, but that each has its own tricks. It is nothing more than the hardships of the world, each fighting hard.

One day in late December, I went to another independent bookstore and talked to the owner over tea. This is also a mom-and-pop shop, and the two people started with a small storefront, from the little girl to the present. Twenty-five years later, this year the branches are still open one by one, and now the number of branches has exceeded twenty. Looking back, when has it not been hard? The pandemic has not been the biggest difficulty they have ever faced. However, no matter what, only after the hardships have been overcome, can there be a light breeze.

That afternoon, I went around three branches with my boss, one in Midas Temple Lane, one in the exhibition hall, and one on Stadium Road, the same tranquility, the same warmth. Such a bookstore opens there, it is power, it is a light in the city.

That's what the city is. 2021 is not a tougher year than any previous year, nor is it easier than any previous year. It's not just bookstores — those who stand on the clouds— work just as hard. However, 2021 will always be spent safely, even if it is difficult, there will be a little bit of excitement, blooming in the difficult place.

The city is like this, it still believes in struggle, it also believes in the ordinary, it believes in innocence, and it also believes in countless, slowly growing possibilities.