"The books are amorous like the old people, and the morning and evening are sad and happy every blind date." In ancient times, the poet had a love story with the book. "The more you read, the more your face changes..." Modern writers also make no secret of their confession to books. From ancient times to the present, Chinese's attachment to books has never changed.
The seaside bookstore is bright, the riverside bookstore is gentle, and the springside bookstore is flexible... Every city has a bookstore with a different temperament. Bookstores, which can read books, can solve puzzles, can create, can rest, are still urgently needed in the digital age.
Independent Bookstore "Breakout"
On the banks of Daming Lake in Jinan, Shandong, Wang Shuzeng's bookstore has a somewhat special name, called "not expensive". As the name suggests, the prices of books here are really not expensive. The bookstore is small, and the entire storefront is crammed with rows of shelves and layers of books.
"In fact, there are many people who buy and read books now, far exceeding the public's imagination." Wang Shuzeng pointed to a table of mobile phones and told reporters that he now has 7 WeChat accounts, and friends and customers add up to more than 40,000.
"The bookstore is like a bridge, connecting book sellers and book buyers, as well as book lovers. Although the space is not large, it can form a large enough 'circle'. Wang Shuzeng said.
The variety of forms of independent bookstores is gradually becoming a reason for people to want to go to them.
Clear partitioning, transparent and bright style, walking into the Want Bookstore in Jinan Book Garden Square, you will be attracted by the simple literary atmosphere of this bookstore at a glance. Xiao Huixin, founder of Xiangshufang Concept Bookstore, introduced that this store integrates multiple functional areas such as catering, self-study, children's picture book companion reading, and second-hand books to meet the needs of different groups.
Think of the inside of the bookstore. Courtesy of respondents
Creating a "writer's bookstore" is what this bookstore has been working towards. In the first year of opening, the bookstore did nearly 100 sharing activities, which attracted the attention of many famous artists. In November 2020, writer Yu Hua also came to xiangshufang to communicate with readers face-to-face, and the concept of "writer bookstore" gradually became a reality.
"Opening a bookstore is a meaningful thing for me. It is said that the bookstore is the parlor of urban culture, and I hope to do something for the city in this way. Xiao Huixin said that Xiangshufang also boldly "crossed over", integrated with talk shows, organized non-fiction writing training camps, and the "bookstore +" model has also become a good recipe for the transformation and upgrading of many independent bookstores.
An exchange event held in the XiangShu Workshop. Courtesy of respondents
As a local bookstore in Jinan, Quancheng, since its opening in 2014, Yanmo Bookstore has been actively exploring Jinan's unique cultural elements, combining bookstores with cultural creation, and successively launching a series of cultural and creative products such as "Li Qingzhao's Twenty-Four Solar Terms Poems" and "Jinan Old Architecture".
"I want to make the Yanmo Bookstore a window for people to understand Jinan, and I hope that people can read Jinan here." Zheng Guodong, founder of Yanmo Bookstore, said.
At the Quemo Bookstore, children are selecting books. Courtesy of respondents
Traditional Bookstore "Sticking"
Affected by the epidemic, the "Yan Talk Book Club" founded by book practitioner Yan Long has not carried out offline activities for some time, but he is still pleased to see that the number of members of the book club has quietly reached 2,000 people.
"Although the current reading sharing has shifted to online, everyone's enthusiasm has not diminished." Yan Long said that the theme of the book club activities is to explore history, literature, poetry, current affairs, members from retired old professors in colleges and universities, down to 10-year-old primary school students, everyone can "get together", read books happily and share their experiences.
Yan Long is the deputy manager of Shandong Book City, the largest Xinhua bookstore in Shandong Province, responsible for book marketing promotion and event planning. "The golden signboard of 'Xinhua Bookstore' brings thousands of members to reading, and has been leading the reading trend and habits that shape Chinese."
Founded in 1937, Xinhua Bookstore is a carrier of memory about books Chinese generations. In the era when network communication was not yet developed, the access of ordinary people to knowledge was mostly in physical bookstores. Xinhua Bookstore has also become a "landmark" building everywhere, and many book lovers soak in the store for a day.
With the passage of time, independent bookstores have sprung up like mushrooms, online shopping for all kinds of books has become a new trend, and the traditional Xinhua bookstore seems to be no longer beautiful. "The decline of traditional state-run large bookstores is actually an 'illusion', and shandong book city has been growing steadily since it opened in 2015." Yan Long said.
Inside the Shandong Book City. Courtesy of respondents
With the reputation and reputation accumulated over the years, Xinhua Bookstore not only continues to deepen the traditional business such as book sales, but also gradually involves in cultural lectures, handicraft exhibitions, cultural exchanges, research and study tours, etc. Under the "golden signboard", the activities they hold can often be supported by many readers.
"Xinhua Bookstore is also one of the fronts of cultural publicity, shouldering more social responsibilities." Yan Long said that they have always been at the forefront of various social welfare activities, including book donations. Bookstores are no longer a single book distributor, but are transforming into integrated cultural service providers.
City Study "Heart-warming"
Wang Qiuli lives in Xianying Subdistrict, Jining City, Shandong Province, and recently the city bookstore next to the neighborhood became a new "base" for her and her 9-year-old son. Exploring Space, Mathematical Mysteries... Boring knowledge is brilliantly presented in the books, the son reads, and Wang Qiuli accompanies him. In Jining, the "Canal Capital", on holidays and even weekdays, the City Study Room is one of the most popular corners.
At the Canal Bookstore, three generations read together. Courtesy of respondents
The 20 urban bookstores throughout Jining City have a unified name - Canal Bookstore, full of local cultural signboards, which make people want to be close to it. Almost all of the bookstores are located in the bustling downtown, surrounded by dense crowds.
"All the study rooms are located on the first floor of the street, so that everyone can see at a glance and raise their legs to enter." Wu Bo, director of the Public Service Department of the Jinan Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, said that in Jinan's Quancheng Study, if the public has additional books that they want to borrow, they can recommend and purchase from the library through the "Quanmin Recommended Books" service of the Jinan Municipal Library to achieve "I pay for books when you read books" and meet the reading needs of citizens around the study.
In terms of creating more reading space for the public, the relevant government departments have not been absent. The construction of urban study rooms is listed as an important cultural project for the benefit of the people, and the financial government gives each city study room construction awards and subsidies for operating funds. At present, Shandong has opened more than 100 urban study rooms in Jinan, Yantai, Weihai, Rizhao and other places, and the urban study room is becoming a new incision to promote the high-quality development of public cultural services.
In Qilu Dadi, the urban study room is also a platform for cultural dissemination. On April 20, in rizhao's urban study, an intangible cultural heritage experience class was underway. The students of RizhaoGang No.1 Primary School painted the works of the peasants under the guidance of Jono, the representative non-hereditary heir of the peasant paintings. Qiao Nuo said that Rizhao is one of The Three Great Peasant Painting Villages in China, and the intangible cultural heritage experience carried out through the urban study room can allow citizens to experience the charm of traditional culture "zero distance".
On April 20th, at the Golden Port Community Museum of the City Study Room in Donggang District, Rizhao City, Qiao Nuo, a representative non-hereditary inheritor of Rizhao Farmer Painting, gave an intangible cultural heritage experience class to the students. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Guo Xulei
Practitioners of urban study rooms told reporters that the study rooms with different cultural characteristics have become a new landmark leading the urban culture, and people can find their figures everywhere they go, and these study rooms must nourish the whole city with cultural energy.
Chief planner: Zhao Danping
Producer: Min Jie
Coordinator: Wei Tiemin, Liu Kai
Reporters: Zhang Wuyue, Zhang Xinyi, Wang Yue, Zhang Liyuan, Guo Xulei, Wang Zhi
Editor: Jie Min
Xinhua News Agency to the outside Xinhua News Agency Shandong Branch co-produced
Produced by China Story Workshop