At the beginning of the construction of Beibei, Mr. Lu Zuofu vigorously advocated reading, ran a public library, organized staff to read books, and exchanged reading experience. Every year in winter and summer, a book club in the Gorge Area is held. After the September 18 Incident, Lu Zuofu published 170 bibliographies, organized all the staff of the Gorge Bureau to read in groups and categories, learned about the political, military, economic, and historical materials of the three eastern provinces, and serialized the reading notes of the staff in the Jialingjiang Daily. But at that time, there was no bookstore in Beibei, and the books were purchased from Chongqing or even Wuhan and Shanghai. In 1930, Lu Ziying "made a fortune" for the Chongqing Navigation Administration Office to lead the training escort team, received a high salary, before donating the salary, squeezed a part, bought a bunch of books in Chongqing, read them himself, and then took the young volunteers to read together, and later donated more than a thousand books he had collected to the people's library.
There was a bookstore in Beibei, and that was after the beginning of the War of Resistance. It began in 1938.
First of all, in the middle of March, in the stadium mouth, the Xiajiang store opened, there is a special distribution office of the life bookstore, there are a small number of books published by the life bookstore, but also sell the Hankou version of the Ta Kung Pao, film pictorial.
--Zhang Manjun and Deng Wenyuan by Li Gongpu
The first bookstore in Beibei was opened in June at the Beibei Branch of Chongqing May Bookstore next to the rice market on Beibei Junhe Road. May Bookstore, a bookstore run by Gao Mengjue of the Rural Mobile Drama Team of the Chongqing Cultural Circles Anti-Enemy Salvation Association, soon received investment from Li Gongpu's wife, Zhang Manjun, and opened a branch in Beibei. Zhang Manjun personally hosted the May Bookstore in Beibei, Li Gongpu also came to the scene, Zhang Manjun and Lu Ziying's wife Deng Wenyuan became friends, and Deng Wenyuan also inscribed the name of the "May Bookstore" in the name of Lu Ziying. Li Gongpu was one of the Seven Gentlemen of the Anti-Japanese Resistance, Zhang Manjun was a descendant of the family, and her father was Zhang Xiaolou, a famous calligrapher and painter in Shanghai. With the appeal of these two people, May Bookstore has become a well-known cultural venue in Beibei.
In November 1940, Zhang Manjun left Beibei and withdrew from the shares, and Gao Mengjue renamed the bookstore xinxin bookstore to continue to operate.
In 1942, Gao Mengjue left Chongqing, and Chen Zhijian took over the bookstore and converted it into a new bookstore.
The most powerful bookstore in Beibei is the Jianguo Bookstore opened by Du Zhaotang.
Du Zhaotang is a native of Yangzhou, nicknamed Baoweng, who calls himself Yangzhou Xiaodu, born in 1891, and is Chen Qimei's brother-in-law. After the success of the revolution, he did not become an official, and returned to Yangzhou to work as a primary school physical education teacher, principal, and boy scout. He is a well-known master of the Yang Lian and Lantern Riddles, and has also published the book "Wandering Serial Bagua Palm", and considers himself to be an authentic descendant. When the War of Resistance Broke Out, he left Yangzhou with his wife and son, and went to Beibei to settle down in several places. In January 1939, Du Zhaotang opened the Jianguo Bookstore on Junhe Road, later Nanjing Road. In July 1940, Beibei was requested to establish a Kuomintang party department directly under the province's Beibei district, and Du Zhaotang had been serving as the secretary of the party department, which was considered to be the subordinate of Chen Qimei's nephew Chen Guofu. His younger brother helped him run the bookstore in Beibei.
Because of Chen Lifu's relationship as minister of education, Du Zhaotang almost monopolized the distribution of textbooks for primary and secondary schools in Beibei's jurisdiction. Beibei's basic education has been particularly good, absorbing a large number of teachers from occupied areas, opening dozens of national schools, and was once designated by UNESCO as China's basic education experimental area. Jianguo Bookstore naturally has a prosperous business, and has successively opened branches in Huangge and Chengjiang.
——Chaoyang Bookstore in Beibei in the 1950s
After the 1939 May 354 bombing, a large number of units in Chongqing were evacuated to Beibei, the Chongqing Business Daily Printing Factory was evacuated to the Chengjiang Xiaxikou Mining Police Station, and the Life Bookstore also said that it would be relocated, but in fact only Zhengzhong Bookstore, Beixin Bookstore, Huazhong Book Company, and Jinghua Printing House were moved. These are all self-published, not just bookstores. Zhengzhong Bookstore is located in Jingangbei, Jinghua Printing House is located in Tianshengqiao, Zhonghua Bookstore has set up an office in Hot Spring Park, and Beixin Bookstore and Huazhong Book Company have opened book sales stores in Beibeishi Street.
The Chinese Cultural Service Agency has set up a branch in Beibei to sell books. In addition, beibei also has Sanba bookstore, Beibei bookstore, bowl water jai old bookstore.
During this period, according to the observation of those with hearts, Jianguo Bookstore has many textbooks, Beixin Bookstore has more Chen ancient books, Chinese Cultural Service Society has more revolutionary books, May Bookstore and 38 Bookstore have more reference books, Central China Books Company has more miscellaneous books, and Beibei Stores have more movie pictorials.
- Old book stalls from the 1940s
In December 1940, Du Zhaotang of Jianguo Bookstore initiated the organization of the Book Industry Association, and there were responses from Huazhong Book Company, Beixin Bookstore, Xinxin Bookstore, Beibei Branch of Cultural Service Agency, Beibei Bookstore, Huang Ge Jianguo Bookstore and so on. At the end of the year, the Bookstore Association was established, and Du Zhaotang was elected as the president.
At the beginning of 1941, Feng Shuangnan, the manager of Beibei Bookstore, gave the store to Beibei Xieji Bookstore. Huazhong Books, however, was expanding, buying land from Huang Zishou at No. 9, 11, 13 Nanjing Road and No. 6 Lushan Road, and building its own houses and opening the market. By October, Zili Bookstore was also next to The Yongfeng Bookstore of Central China Books Company opened on Lushan Road.
In the middle of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the people's livelihood was difficult, prices soared, and hundreds of industries were depressed. Life is difficult, there are few book buyers, there are many scholars and professors, selling books on the street to make a living, but there are still many people who are optimistic about the culture of Beibei, there will be a market, and there will be a Wensheng Bookstore, Zhenghua Bookstore, Fengyun Bookstore, Guanghua Bookstore, and Nanjing Bookstore opening in Beibei. The Central Industrial Laboratory also sells products and scientific and technological books at the Beijing Road Kai Service Office.
Indeed, there are dozens of national schools, more than a dozen colleges and universities, dozens of scientific research and cultural institutions in Beibei, celebrities from all walks of life walking all over the streets, and they will still worry about whether books can be sold?
Fifteen or six bookstores are gathered in the small Beibeichang, eight of which are crowded around Nanjing Road.
Du Zhaotang is a cultural person in his bones, and when he earns money, he is also giving back to culture, and since the summer of 1942, he has set up scholarships many times for students of Fudan University, Jiangsu Medical College, National No. 2 Middle School, and Jianshan Middle School.
——Wensheng Bookstore at the intersection of Nanjing Road in Beibei
Nanjing Bookstore, which has not been open for a long time, has a fat boss who understands foreign dialects and foreign rules, and shortly before the victory of the War of Resistance, he set up a window in the bookstore dedicated to serving the Allied forces, purchasing foreign wine, daily necessities and other miscellaneous items, which became the place where the Allies must come to Beibei, and there were often American jeeps parked in front of its doors.
Among these bookstores, Chen Zhijian, the manager of a new bookstore, is a progressive person, with flexible business methods, the first to open a rental book and purchasing business, a new bookstore is in the market, attracting many cultural people, Hong Shen, Li Jiazhong, Zhao Juntao are regular customers of the bookstore, and once snatched some primary school textbooks from Jianguo Bookstore, expanding the living space. In April 1945, the revived World Journal chose this place as its window in Beibei.