The main entrance of Zhengyang Bookstore
There is a bookstore on Xisi South Street, adjacent to the 800-year-old Wansong Old People Pagoda, which is the only special bookstore in Beijing that only deals in Beijing literature and books. The bookstore is called Zhengyang Bookstore, which has been opened in 2009 for 13 years. Cui Yong grew up in a hutong, and his family has taken root in Beijing for seven generations, and is an "old Beijing" after the 80s.
The courtyard is filled with old door panels, old door piers, old bookshelves, and the towering Wansong Old Man Pagoda of the Yuan Dynasty, which is full of strong atmosphere of old Beijing hutongs.
Eat hundreds of meals in the hutongs, raise grasshoppers to play crickets, major in science and engineering at university, and join foreign companies after graduation. Before 2007, Cui Yong's life and the opening of a bookstore could not be beaten.
In 2007, the notice of demolition and transformation of the pilot plot of the Dashilar Historical and Cultural Conservation Area was posted on the wall of the ganjing hutong. Cui Yong, who was born here, like other neighbors in the hutong, left the courtyard.
The demolition allowed Cui Yong to find a family photo from the 1930s, filmed in their old mansion, a three-entry courtyard in the Da'an Lanying Hutong outside the front door. The photo shows three generations of his great-grandfather, great-grandfather and grandfather.
Cui Yong collected old photographs of Beijing
"It's a shocking feeling that a family history that you once knew nothing about suddenly appears in front of you." Cui Yong said that the glory of the old mansion and the memory of life in the courtyard gave him the idea of opening a bookstore specializing in Beijing historical documents, and the Zhengyang Bookstore came into being.
In 2009, Zhengyang Bookstore opened in the front porch room 2, and in 2014 moved to Wansong Old Man Pagoda Courtyard.
The courtyard is not large, but it is filled with old door panels, old door piers, and old bookshelves. "Loyalty has been passed down from generation to generation, and poetry has been passed down from generation to generation." Cui Yong said that the door panel is a simple pair, carrying the expectations of the old Beijinger Lide Tree people and reading heirlooms, and "reading" and "heirloom" are also the core of Zhengyang Bookstore, where the inheritance is precisely the memory and future that belong to Beijing.
An old reader (left) who has been "soaking" in the bookstore for many years has become the author of jingwei books published by Zhengyang Bookstore.
Whether it is an elderly person or a young child, when you enter the bookstore, you will be attracted by the antique decoration and the books on the shelves. The hand opened a copy of the "Xuannan Hongxue Tuzhi", and the architectural system and style of the old Xuannan were clear at a glance. Celebrity biographies, Beijing-style books, comic books, each of which tells about Beijing. Looking up, the map of Beijing from various periods gives readers a glimpse of the evolution of the ancient capital over 600 years.
With the 13 years of Zhengyang Bookstore, Cui Yong feels that it is not so much a bookstore as a teahouse, a place to place "nostalgia" for people with Beijing feelings. The bookstore moved from the Dashilar to the Wansong Old People's Pagoda Courtyard, and Cui Yong's road of guarding nostalgia also gained new "nutrients".
Foreign college students Tang Yihong (front) and Nick (rear) became bookstore volunteers, giving full play to their language advantages and telling foreign readers about Beijing culture.
"Running such a bookstore has realized my original intention as a Beijinger to inherit and protect Beijing's history and culture." Cui Yong said, "Such a cultural space with a sense of historical depth is the common spiritual home of many people. ”
Zhengyang Bookstore's net red cat "Brick Ye", with a gentle temperament, close contact with readers.