Economist, Sept 9, 2017 (I)

choi

There is no need to read the rest of the text.

Shopping  l  A Turn-Up for the Books; Never the censors, some bookshops are cool.
https://www.economist.com/news/c ... some-cool-bookshops

Quote:

"IN AN underground railway station below the main public library in Shanghai is a spacious bookshop called Jifeng 季风书园. It is one of the city's most respected, but its days are numbered. * * * The shop's landlord is the library, which has told the owners that it has 'no choice' but to terminate the rental contract when it expires.

"around China, privately owned bookstores continue to defy both competition from online booksellers and heavy-handed censorship

"Fang Suo Commune, a chain which opened its first store six years ago in Guangzhou. * * * Commune has become an aspirational brand like Dior and Dolce & Gabbana—European fashion houses that have outlets in the same shopping centre in Guangzhou. By some estimates, almost a third of visitors to the complex 广州太古汇 enter Commune's doorway carved from a massive single piece of ancient wood [search images.google.com with (门 方所): no quotation marks], and step into its subtly lit interior. * * * Commune sells clothes, too. One corner of the shop is devoted to the Exception de Mixmind 例外 fashion brand, which was founded by the store's owner, Mao Jihong 毛繼鴻

"But even in Shanghai, despite Jifeng's travails, several new, elegantly designed bookshops have opened in the past two years. They include Long Time No Read 好久不读.

"But companies like Commune are careful not to provoke the authorities too blatantly. They obtain books published abroad from a state-owned distributor, the China National Publications Import and Export Corporation [(CNPIEC) 中国图书进出口（集团）总公司 (中图 for short)] (its motto: 'Opening, Harmonising, Innovating, Advancing' [坚持 '开放、和谐、创新、奋进' 的企业精神]), which prohibits anything critical of the Communist Party.

"In Shanghai, in a quiet side-street close to Jifeng, is a café called 1984 [1984 Bookstore 1984书店] that looks much like a trendy bookshop. Its entrance hall is lined with different editions of George Orwell's dystopian novel. But its owners are canny. 'None of the books in this shop is for sale 本店书籍均不销售,' says a sign inside.

Note: Fang Suo Commune  方所
http://www.fangsuo.com/index/aboutfs.html
("方所 典出南朝梁代文学家萧统 '定是常住，便成方所。'  Fang Suo, meaning 'where your heart dwells' in Chinese, comes from an ancient Chinese writer Xiao Tong of the Southern Dynasties")
(a) 萧统
https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E8%90%A7%E7%BB%9F
(501-531; 梁武帝长子)
(b) 定是常住，便成方所 is from (令旨) 解法身义.