"If there is a paradise, heaven should look like a library", the Argentine writer Borges is widely known. And the person who enshrines this sentence as a guideline to build a bookstore, Jiang Xun counts one.
Jiang Xun, born in 1970, is a painter by birth. After graduating from Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, he first worked as an art editor in Shenyang's "Poetry Tide" magazine, and then transferred to Beijing "Poetry Journal" magazine. Painter, poet, book binding designer, engraving collector, bookstore person, etc., he has many identities, but there is no doubt that the identity of the bookstore person is crucial to Jiang Xun.
Six or seven years ago, Jiang Xun began to work as a bookstore, he looked for old buildings in the city, transformed and revitalized them into bookstores, making it a landscape of the city. The Model Bookstore on Yangmeizhu Street was the first model bookstore he opened, using a building from the Republican period, and then he came across the former Chinese Anglican Church. "Abandoned church, after reading it is very shocking, I think it is a pity that it was abandoned, to make a space for readers to read, there will be more interesting experience." 」
Located at 85 Tong Linge Road, the Chinese Anglican Church was built in 1907 under the auspices of the Englishman Scarlett, and is the earliest and largest central church built by the Christian Chinese Episcopal Church in North China. The church sits north to south, the plane is Latin cross-shaped, from the side can see that there are two octagonal pavilions on the top as skylights and bell towers, and the façade doors and windows are imitation Gothic, which has a unique charm. The church integrates church architecture and traditional Chinese architectural styles, a combination of East and West, although it has experienced a hundred years of wind and rain, the appearance has been somewhat dilapidated, but it can still be seen that the refinement and beauty of that year. In 2013, it was announced as a national key cultural relics protection unit.
Jiang Xun introduced that this place was a factory building before the 50s of the last century, after years of erosion, there is no window, the walls and floor damage is very serious, he is very sad after seeing it: "We repaired it, combined with the height of the church, and the design concept combined, made a poetic space." In this way, the model bookstore + poetry space was born.
The wall has been painted with a variety of paints, it is difficult to find the original appearance, Jiang Xun applied to the cultural relics protection department, slowly washed off with clean water, the earliest church wall body exposed to show the audience. The two steel frame structures built on the left and right wings, he also put a lot of effort into welding outside the six rings and then pulling back, and there was no contact with the beams and columns of the church itself. Stained glass windows that are unified with the style of the church, chandeliers with the taste of the Republic of China... Many details show Jiang Xun's good intentions when designing the bookstore.
Model Bookstore + Poetry Space, April 23, 2019 – World Book Day was officially put into trial operation, and was later named one of the top ten most beautiful bookstores in Beijing. Entering the bookstore, under your feet is a mottled wooden floor that makes a slight sound when you step on it, the air is filled with the aroma of coffee, classical music flows in your ears, towering domes, colorful glass windows, bookshelves full of walls, full of retro atmosphere, time here, as if slowing down.
"Working with people with liver and gallbladder, reading from wordless places, the sun is warm, friends often come", founder Jiang Xun hopes to let the world's book lovers have a quiet bookish place in this busy city, reunite with history, and touch the temperature of culture.
For this old church, the rebirth in the form of a bookstore is perhaps the best way to protect it.
Asked about the reason for the word "model", Jiang Xun explained that "in fact, the productivity of China's ancient traditional culture is in line with the current culture, the movable type is the model, the instrument is the model, and it is also one of the four major inventions that China can stand on in the world, so this concept has always run through us, passing on the culture of books, carving scenery on paper, and making friends with people who love books in the world."
In the era of online shopping when physical bookstores are struggling to survive, why are you so obsessed with the creation of bookstores? Jiang Xun's answer is full of poetry, "Come to our bookstore to experience, you first meet a book, you are in the process of finding, just like meeting your lover, I think this process is not online shopping can achieve." This pleasure, this comfort of reading, is possible only if you are immersed."
Jiang Xun founded a total of 6 model bookstores in his lifetime. During the epidemic period, the physical bookstore was hanging on the line, and the income could not be made ends meet, in order to maintain the operation of the bookstore, Jiang Xun and his wife even sold their houses. His wife, Xing Na, once said in an interview, "You can rent a house without a house, but if there is no bookstore in a city, there will be no light in the city." ”
Model Bookstore eventually had two bookstores temporarily closed due to business difficulties.
On January 16, 2022, Jiang Xun died unexpectedly in the process of moving books, at the age of 51.
Jiang Xun once said: "A person, in this lifetime, is the most difficult to do one thing." Although he died unexpectedly, Jiang Xun completed what he saw as the "most difficult" life, and he has been doing one thing all his life, which is books. His wife said that "books are Jiang Xun's faith"
If there is a bookstore in heaven, Jiang Xun should be very busy and fulfilling in heaven!
World Book Day, also the 3rd anniversary of the operation of model bookstore + poetry space, pays tribute to the founder of the most beautiful bookstore, Jiang Xun!