Caretaker's mission

Indie publisher Yang Xiaozhou campaigns for better culture in Chinese bookstores, Xing Yi reports.

Books occupy most of the space in Yang Xiaozhou's study in Beijing, leaving just a small part of the room for a desk that the bibliophile, critic and independent publisher uses for his work.

"I don't know exactly how many books I have," says Yang, 54, as he squeezes into a chair.

He probably has more than 20,000 titles in his houses in Beijing, Shenzhen and Changsha, he adds.

Yang was born in Guangdong province and grew up in Hunan province, before coming to Beijing in 2003. He then started to write book reviews and essays on bookstores for the Chinese print media.

In 2012, his earlier tours of the country helped him publish Roaming in Bookstores, which is a collection of his essays on 29 bookstores.

Last year, he traveled to London twice and produced Bookshops of London, a pocket-size edition on 10 famous bookstores that he visited during his trips.

Yang writes about his exploration through many British stores: antiquarian bookseller Henry Sotheran; Foyles, one of the world's largest bookstores; specialized bookstores such as Gay's the Word that sells gay and lesbian titles; Stanfords, one of the world's top shops for maps and travel guides.

"Many bookstores in London have a long history and tradition," says Yang, who included part of a 1932 essay by the famous modern Chinese writer Zhu Ziqing (1898-1948) in the chapter on Foyles.

"Through the description of Foyles by Zhu, I felt that British bookstores have maintained the same cultural atmosphere, but many of the Chinese bookstores I wrote about 10 years ago have already shut down," he says.

"To support the business of bookstores shouldn't be a one-time policy, but a long-term project."

During his trips to London, Yang found the books there were preserved well.

"The oldest book I bought this time was printed in 1623, but when you open it, you will find the quality of the book is even better than many of the books published only 30 years ago in China."

When Yang returned with a suitcase full of books, he was stopped by a customs official with a sniffer dog at the Beijing airport. He had been suspected of carrying something suspicious, he says.

Yang has been spending money and time on books since his childhood. His father was an official in the culture department of Hunan's local government in the 1960s. He never declined his son's request when it came to buying books, Yang recalls.

Even through the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), when many books were difficult to obtain, and Yang was not able to attend college, he managed to educate himself through a lot of reading.

In the 1980s, Yang worked at a Hunan publishing house and picked up some bookbinding and design skills. He became a graphic designer in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, in the 1990s. The experiences of his past helped him start to publish his own books.

As an independent publisher, Yang says that nowadays the Chinese publishers put too much emphasis on the low prices of books to promote sales but neglect the quality. Therefore, publishers in China reprint a lot, which is not only a great waste of resources but also, the low quality of books make it hard for buyers to pass them on to the next generation.

Yang has published eight books, of which two titles are in bookstores. One is a novel and the remaining five are collections of his book reviews and stories behind the publishing process of one of his books.

All of them are only available in hardcover editions with fine gilding, he says, adding that one of them even uses sheepskin for the cover, which is a common practice in Europe but rare in China's publishing industry.

A well-designed book is like a work of art, Yang says.

"When people put it on the shelf after reading, it becomes a decoration that adds to the cultural ambience of one's room, and when people pass it to the next generation or give it to friends, the book's value appreciates even more."

Contact the writer at xingyi@chinadaily.com.cn