85 years ago today, one of China's best bookstores was born.
It used to be everyone's childhood memories:
Go rub air conditioning in the summer;
Books are only read and not bought;
It's a whole day.
It has a lot to be confusing about:
Book prices are never discounted;
Always open in a bustling area;
It seems deserted but stands tall.
It's just --
Xinhua bookstore.
Image source: Visual China
In today's era, when it is so convenient to buy books on the Internet, offline bookstores are crazy about internal volumes;
Xinhua Bookstore, never participating in the fight, is like a cold bystander, experiencing the replacement of a batch of peers.
This makes one wonder:
How did such a Xinhua bookstore survive such fierce competition?
In today's network is so developed, does Xinhua Bookstore still have the significance of existence?
It's not what you think
Xinhua Bookstore is actually very profitable
On the surface, Xinhua Bookstore really doesn't look like it makes money.
After all, over the years, everyone has deeply felt the decline of the physical book market.
The traditional bookstore in the previous impression is difficult to see;
In its place are a variety of beautifully decorated internet celebrity bookstores.
Image source: Visual China
These stores not only sell books, but also sell stationery, cultural and creative products, coffee refreshments, and even rent out venues for events and lectures to open up different sources of income.
Compared with bookstores, it is more like a place of cultural exchange "related to books".
Therefore, the biggest revenue of many bookstores depends on income other than selling books.
In contrast, Xinhua Bookstore still uses white signs on a red background;
The unchanged traditional bookstore decoration style;
No matter how you look at it, you can't spell those internet celebrity bookstores.
Image source: Visual China
And in the past, in the bookstore, everyone already saw more and bought less.
Nowadays, with the rise of online book selling platforms, entities are even more unable to sell.
Often everyone sees a good book in the bookstore, shoot the cover, and then go to the Internet to buy, a cheaper price of nearly half the price.
It can be seen that Xinhua Bookstore is facing the situation:
Offline, there is no exquisite appeal of internet celebrity bookstores;
Online, the price can not beat the daily discount of the online book selling platform.
Image source: Visual China
But if you were told two numbers, you'd find it unbelievable.
Internet book giant Dangdang.com (the company that grabbed the official seal by Li Guoqing) revealed Dangdang's sales data in 2018 on its 20th anniversary:
"Sales of 11.6 billion yuan, operating profit of 470 million yuan."
Sounds pretty good.
But in the same year, the sales of Xinhua Bookstore, do you know what it was?
There were 127.862 billion, 10 times higher than Dangdang!
What's the secret behind it? In fact, it is also simple to say.
First of all, Xinhua Bookstore has contracted the publication and distribution of most of the teaching and auxiliary textbooks in China, and the income of this piece of income can be self-sufficient every year.
Second, although Xinhua Bookstore is more open in a bustling part of a city, it is different from other places that need to pay huge rents; Xinhua Bookstores are all owned real estate.
Not only is there no rent, which greatly saves costs, but even additional income can be earned by renting the venue.
Image source: Visual China
This is mainly because from the beginning of its establishment, Xinhua Bookstore has not been positioned as a bookstore, but as a public infrastructure construction.
This is inseparable from its founding history.
Built under gunfire
Ignite the plains with sparks
Today, in 1937, Yan'an established the first "Xinhua Bookstore".
It was founded for the weekly magazine Liberation, a theoretical journal of the CENTRAL Central Committee at that time.
For the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Liberation Weekly can be said to have made a great contribution.
Many leaders have been contributors to Liberation.
As the carrier of its publication, Xinhua Bookstore officially changed its name to "Xinhua Bookstore" in October of the same year, and the name is still used today.
This can be said to be the bookstore that was born in the fire of the cannon and is the most popular.
The four words "Xinhua Bookstore" were also inscribed by Chairman Mao himself, and after several revisions, they became what we see today.
Image source: Visual China
At that time, during the period of the War of Resistance Against Japan, it was very important to disseminate the situation and guiding ideology in a timely and effective manner.
In order to take responsibility, in addition to publications and books, Xinhua Bookstore is also responsible for printing military maps, stamps and other just-needed items.
And deliver these things to the front line in a timely manner.
Opening a bookstore under gunfire is obviously not easy, difficult and dangerous.
At that time, there were only seven people working as bookstore staff, most of whom were Red Army soldiers.
Under a green oil lamp, they were accompanied by books, bundles, military stickers... Often busy until late at night.
Early the next morning, the books were picked up on a flat shoulder, waded across the river, and sent to the city post office for mail.
Some post offices cannot reach places, so they have to be carried by manpower to the base areas.
The degree of danger can be imagined.
But no matter how dangerous it is, it has not stopped Xinhua Bookstore from blossoming in the land of China.
At that time, every time a base was taken, four facilities had to be built on the spot:
Banks, post offices, supply and marketing cooperatives, and Xinhua Bookstore.
The Xinhua Bookstore during the war was people's spiritual food and brought new hope to people.
As a result, the bookstore was bombed by the Japanese army many times, and many people died because of it.
In 1941, Xinhua Bookstore Jinchaji Branch and its Chenzhuang Store Department were established in Chenzhuang, Lingshou County, Hebei Province.
Not long after, the store department was bombed by Japanese aircraft invading China.
Luo Jun, the first branch manager at that time, and Wang Jigui, the publisher, both died.
In 1942, in the Taihang Mountains, the Japanese army launched a major "sweep".
At that time, the comrades of the Xinhua Bookstore in North China were transferred with the troops, but unexpectedly encountered the Japanese army at the Cross Ridge in Liaoxian County.
In the end, after a fierce battle, more than twenty comrades in the bookstore died
……
The history of these bloody battles has given Xinhua Bookstore a bright red background.
At that time, every comrade in the bookstore was a heroic and indomitable warrior.
Because of their persistence and sacrifice, Xinhua Bookstore has walked through the rain of bullets and bullets.
They deserve to be remembered.
Xinhua bookstore
It's never just a bookstore
"Wherever there is a revolutionary base area, there is a Xinhua bookstore.
Wherever there are people, there is a Xinhua Bookstore. ”
This was the slogan of Xinhua Bookstore at that time.
Now it seems that it has actually done it.
Unlike the city's dazzling book market and dazzling e-commerce platforms.
In some remote places in China, there are no bookstores and e-commerce platforms cannot deliver them.
How do people in these places read books?
It is precisely the "spirit of the basket" of Xinhua Bookstore.
Every year, Xinhua Bookstore will send employees to put books in the back basket and wade through the mountains and waters to remote areas where there are no bookstores and deliver them to the hands of ordinary people.
If someone doesn't have the money to buy a book, they can also exchange them for items.
It is by relying on these "back baskets" that Xinhua Bookstore has gradually established a rural book distribution network, so that people in the mountains and people in remote areas can have books to read.
Source: Xinhuanet - Developer China
Some of the more backward rural towns do not have the capacity to build libraries.
At this time, Xinhua Bookstore assumed the responsibility of becoming a library.
And it does all this so that everyone has a book to read.
The former Xinhua Bookstore was born in the rain of bullets and bullets;
It becomes the spiritual comfort of people in war and the soil for the spread of new ideas.
Later, Xinhua Bookstore is the childhood memory of everyone;
It's the only place you're willing to soak in for a day other than play.
Today, Xinhua Bookstore is the hope of some people to "change their fate with knowledge".
It is a window to gradually broaden your horizons and understand the world in the process of growing up.
So back to the original question:
Does Xinhua Bookstore still have a meaning of existence?
The significance of its existence is that it has never been just a bookstore.
Similar facilities, in fact, we can think of a lot.
For example, where there are people, the mission of "China Post" will be achieved;
For example, even if you lose money every year, you still have to provide people with a convenient "poverty alleviation train"...
They never exist to make money.
It is to make it easy for every countryman.
To this end, they have stayed true to their mission and have never wavered.
A netizen once said:
"Xinhua Bookstore will never drive you away."
And the mission and original intention it has always adhered to since its inception have not changed:
"At any cost, give the Chinese people a chance to study."
Such persistence deserves our respect.