Every Chinese impression has such a Xinhua Bookstore, which may be located in different locations, and there are also different layouts and books in the store, but the same is that the signboard has chairman Mao's inscription "Xinhua Bookstore" in four big characters. Today, when more and more people are accustomed to online shopping, many offline bookstores are difficult to sustain, but Xinhua Bookstore is still unmoving, and even opens new stores. People can't help but wonder, what is the origin of Xinhua Bookstore, can it still make money? Let's decipher it today.
First, the root is sprouting red
Xinhua Bookstore is rooted in Miao Hong, and its birth and development run through the entire history of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation. In 1937, after the CPC Central Committee settled in Yan'an, it appointed comrades Zhou Enlai, Zhang Wentian, Bogu and other comrades to form the Central Party Newspaper Committee to strengthen the party's work in distribution and publication. In order to facilitate the distribution of promotional materials, on 24 April of the same year, the Committee established the Xinhua Bookstore outside the North Gate of Yan'an, and soon after moved its work location to QingliangShan in Yan'an.
The former site of Xinhua Bookstore in Qingliangshan, Yan'an
From 1939 to 1941, it was three years of rapid development for Xinhua Bookstore, which was still in its infancy. At that time, young people from all over the country who were interested in resisting Japan and saving their lives went to Yan'an, the holy land of revolution, to study. Revolutionary colleges and universities such as Shaanxi Northern Public School, Kang University, and Lu Xun Art Institute were also expanding rapidly, and all kinds of books were extremely scarce for a time. Other base areas other than Yan'an are also in urgent need of revolutionary books and theoretical guidance to boost confidence. Therefore, Xinhua Bookstore ushered in a good opportunity for development, and on September 1, 1939, the Party Central Committee established a separate system for Xinhua Bookstore, making it under the leadership of the Publishing and Distribution Department of the CPC Central Committee. On the basis of the original, the bookstore has improved its organizational structure and set up departments such as distribution, mail order, accounting, and stores.
In practical work, Xinhua Bookstore continues to open branches in various base areas. In March 1940, the Party Committee of the Northwest District of the Communist Party of China established the first branch of Xinhua Bookstore in Xingxian County, Shanxi. In 1941, in accordance with the spiritual instructions in Mao Zedong's "On Policy," the xinhua bookstore rose to the occasion, established the Jin-Cha-Ji branch of xinhua bookstore in the base area behind enemy lines, and published a notice for opening a store in the Jin-Cha-Ji Daily: "In order to carry out the new democratic cultural undertakings in Hebei, this store supplies the vast number of military and civilians in Jizhong with spiritual food for the war of resistance... All books, newspapers and magazines issued by Xinhua Bookstore Yan'an Main Store and Jinchaji Branch are sold by our store. ”
People who are shopping for books
After the outbreak of the Liberation War, with the continuous advancement of the frontline army, the staff of Xinhua Bookstore also established bookstore outlets in strategic areas such as Northeast China, North China, East China, and Central Plains, and the number of Xinhua Bookstores in the country before the founding of the People's Republic of China was as high as 735.
2. The book bag of the Republic
On January 1, 1951, the third year of the founding of New China, the head office of Xinhua Bookstore was officially settled in Beijing. Xinhua Bookstore has received more support from national policies, and at the same time has taken the initiative to assume the social role of the Republic's book bag.
After the outbreak of the Korean War, in order to support the front line, under the organization of the Xinhua Bookstore Headquarters, branches in various places donated money and books, and finally used the funds raised to purchase a fighter called "Xinhua Bookstore Staff" and an anti-aircraft gun, all of which were donated to the troops. Xinhua Bookstore employees in all major regions of the country have asked for battle one after another, and a 59-person field cultural service team has been formed to go to the battlefield. Braving the rain of bullets and bullets, they brought 6955419 books and newspapers and periodicals collected from the volunteer army, and also established 7662 field libraries in various companies for the soldiers to study and relieve their boredom in their leisure time. On June 8, 1951, in Yangdeok, North Korea, Gao Zhaojie, a 19-year-old Xinhua worker, was shot three times by U.S. aircraft while running to the air raid shelter, and was shot three times.
Group photo of Xinhua Bookstore staff
In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the illiteracy rate in rural areas across the country was as high as 95%, and it was Xinhua Bookstore that spread the fire of knowledge to the vast underdeveloped areas of China. From 1950 to 1992, Xinhua Bookstore distributed a total of 82.85 billion books in rural areas across the country, and tried its best to expand its branches to various local counties and towns. In October 1952, the Huairou area of Beijing finally had its own Xinhua Bookstore, so that the villagers in the nearby villages could read books, the bookstore often organized employees to carry baskets filled with books and wade through the mountains and rivers to send them to the villagers. Lu Tongshan, an old employee of the bookstore, recalled: "The staff lived wherever they went, and sometimes there was no place to live, they lived in the pig farm. Half of the pig farm is made of fire to make pig food, and the other half is a clay kang, and at night it is crowded on a kang with the old man who raises pigs. "This arduous action is not for profit, and taking into account the economic situation of the rural people, the bookstore implements a barter policy in the countryside. When they encounter fellows who really have no money to buy books, bookstore staff will take the initiative to help them transcribe the required book fragments.
The small Xinhua bookstore in the county
For urban residents, Xinhua Bookstore is an important channel for them to enrich their lives and improve themselves. In Shanghai in the 1950s and 1960s, bookstores were mainly based on revolutionary books such as Mao Xuan, but there were also novels such as "Lin Hai Xueyuan" and "Song of Youth". Although most of the books were a few cents a book, they were highly expensive at the time. After the reform and opening up, there are more and more types of books in bookstores, of which world literature masterpieces are the most popular, and when new books come, fanatical readers line up all night long. In 1998, due to the small size of the bookstore and the large demand of readers, Shanghai Book City was born on December 30. According to Zhao Jianping, general manager of Shanghai Book City, "At that time, the business was so good that readers who queued up could queue from Fuzhou Road to Guangdong Road. When you enter the book city, you also have to buy a ticket worth 3 yuan. ”
A bookstore selling The Complete Works of Stalin
Third, does the new era leave a place for Xinhua Bookstore?
As of 2004, there were about 13,283 Xinhua bookstore distribution outlets nationwide, and 2,736 Xinhua bookstores at or above the county level. The number of employees has also increased from 12,000 at the time of the founding of the people's republic of China to 146929. However, the change in policy has forced Xinhua Bookstore to face strong competition from private and foreign capital.
In order to join the WTO, in 2003, China allowed foreign investment to enter the field of book retail. In December of the same year, global publishing giant Bertelsmann Group took a 40% stake in the Beijing Fairview Book Chain. At the same time, The country is also further open to private companies. In 2007, there were more than 160,000 publication distribution outlets nationwide, including nearly 6,000 second-level private wholesale outlets and more than 110,000 collective and individual retail outlets. There are more than 760,000 employees in the national publication and distribution industry. Among them, there are more than 540,000 employees in second-level private wholesale points and collective and individual retail outlets. Such a proportion can be seen in the rise of private forces. Changes in actual policies and environment have caused Xinhua Bookstore to lose its natural monopoly position and suffer from the encirclement and interception of foreign and private capital.
Nowadays, in the field of book retail, the living space of Xinhua Bookstore is tightened step by step. In 2020, there are 4061 new bookstores in China, and as many as 1573 bookstores have closed, and the competition between physical bookstores can be described as bloody. But what is interesting is that the profit of Xinhua Bookstore has not decreased but increased, ranking in the position of big brother in the industry. From 2017 to 2019, Xinhua Bookstore's profit rose from 8.946 billion yuan to 10.521 billion yuan. Total assets also rose from 176.959 billion yuan to 198.685 billion yuan. Such profit income is very impressive, relying on online book sales of the industry giant Dangdang.com in 2018 net profit is only 425 million yuan.
The reason why Xinhua Bookstore can still maintain a lot of profits in the deteriorating environment is closely related to its business composition, and Xinhua Bookstore does not expect to make money from the retail of books in offline physical stores. According to the "2020-2021 China Physical Bookstore Industry Report", nearly half of Xinhua Bookstore's textbook and auxiliary book sales account for 50-79% of the total revenue. The gross profit margin of textbook and auxiliary book distribution exceeded 40%. From this point of view, the income from the publishing and distribution business of textbooks and teaching aids is the main part. Judging from the Xinhua bookstores in various places, many bookstores have their own independent shops and even buildings, and the geographical conditions are superior. After the bookstore rents out the remaining space, the rent plus its own income often makes these Xinhua bookstores self-sufficient.
But the times are changing all the time, and the strength in front of us does not mean that you can sit back and relax, and Xinhua Bookstore is also making adjustments and continuing to move forward in the exploration. For example, Xinhua Bookstore in Henan Province followed the trend and opened its own online sales platform, Yunshu Network, to broaden sales channels. Xinhua Bookstore in Guangdong has taken a fancy to the spending power of young people. Launched a sub-brand four-reading bookstore to embrace the mid-to-high-end market.
Today, the interior decoration of Xinhua Bookstore has been adjusted
Wen Shijun said
The establishment of Xinhua Bookstore stemmed from the needs of the party's work at the propaganda port, and its rapid development after the founding of the People's Republic of China was due to the need for such an institution to popularize cultural knowledge for the working people in the road of socialist construction, regardless of cost and loss. Today, in the face of an increasingly complex situation, Xinhua Bookstore cannot just lie on the merit book and sleep, relying too much on the "Golden Bull Business", thus losing the opportunity to enter the new era.
Resources
The official website of Xinhua Bookstore
Editorial Committee of the History of Xinhua Bookstore: History of Xinhua Bookstore 1951-1992, People's Publishing House, 1996.
Zheng Yanan: "Research on the Reform of Xinhua Bookstore", Zhengzhou University, Master's Thesis, 2005.
(Author: Haoran Wenshi Tianbai Yujing)
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