Year-end Review: Stories of books

Revival of bookstores in the era of digital-reading

The death of Robert Wu, founder of Taiwan-based Eslite Bookstore chain, on July 18, 2017, has triggered a nation-wide wave of mourning, as well as discussions over the business model and operation condition of bookstores in an era of digital reading.

However, the revived bookstores have adopted new faces. Either following the Eslite mode or others, the newly emerged bookstores not only sell books but also aim at building a new lifestyle for the audiences.

Shanghai is one of the cities that sees the opening of quite a number of independent bookstores. Xu Jiong, chief of the Press and Publication Bureau of Shanghai called the coming back of the bookstores as "a big surprise" in an earlier interview this year.

"Nearly all the newly opened bookstores have been providing cultural spaces for the readers, and have their clearing reading plans to provide to the customers. They will indeed become an important force and spaces for promoting public reading campaigns," Xu added.