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.