Mourning Loss of a Beijing Bookstore

The Bookworm was a wonderful place to learn more about China in English

Today came sad news from Beijing -- The Bookworm is closing next Monday, November 11. For many expats in the Chinese capital go there to not only find books, but also meet people, have a drink, have lunch, hang out, and write their memoirs (I know at least one journalist did!).

For me it was a great place to listen to all kinds of speakers talk about China, and they were all pretty frank about the politics, the economy, social and environmental issues. But they were also very excited about what they were discovering.

Paleontologist Xu Xing talked about his field work

I remember paleontologist Xu Xing talking about discovering dinosaurs in Liaoning province and how there are so many dinosaurs yet to be unearthed and what they can tell us about prehistoric life in what is geographically China now.

One year I interviewed Howard Goldblatt, who through his winding career that started off in the US Army led to him studying Chinese in Taiwan and had a knack for learning the language so much so that he became a translator.

And listening to him talk about what it's like to translate a novel, and in particular Chinese -- you have to really understand what the author meant to say in the passage to be able to convey that in a similar writing style but in English.

He translated Wolf Totem, a semi-autobiographical novel by Jiang Rong, that talks about young people being sent down to remote Inner Mongolia and learning the ways of the nomadic people there and how wolves are critical to the ecosystem.

Academic Howard Goldblatt on the intricacies of translation

The Bookworm held the Literary Festival every year and there were always interesting authors coming through, or people who live in Beijing but I didn't know about. I always tried to catch as many of these as I could to get different perspectives on things.

Sadly the bookstore and unofficial community centre is closing down because it is an "illegal structure".

General manager David Cantaloupo explained The Bookworm was originally started on Sanlitun Beilu in 2002 and then moved to Courtyard 4 in Sanlitun, diagonally opposite Sanlitun Village.

"[When] they started to privatize state-run enterprises 20 years ago, regulations were looser then," he says. "[The bookshop was built] on a pump room. It doesn't have an address. It's [built on] a structure that was never [transformed] into things that they can rent out. [It is an illegal structure]. We've been paying rent here for a long time.

Many authors came to the Literary Festival every year

"[The government] are trying to clean up Beijing. City planners are trying to get things in order. Whether there's anything else behind it, it is unclear to us," Cantalupo said.

In a statement that was disseminated this afternoon, the bookstore thanked everyone for their support and hoped to keep The Bookworm going.

"While we attempt to reorganize and find a new location, we wish to say what an honor and a pleasure it has been to have played a small part in fostering cultural exchange, promoting literature and an appreciation of the arts during an incredibly exciting era in Beijing, and indeed for China as a whole."

I hope the owners do find a new location and keep The Bookworm going. It's doing a massive public service to bridge the gap between East and West, creating greater understanding of China, and at the same time making us expats feel like we're not alone in Beijing.

Be Like Sheep

An idyllic Chinese New Year garden party at Government House

In his Chinese New Year video message, Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said that last year was a tumultuous one, and suggested that perhaps the city's residents should emulate this year's animal in the Chinese zodiac.

"Last year was no easy ride for Hong Kong. Our society was rife with differences and conflicts, he said. "In the coming year, I hope that all people in Hong Kong will take inspiration from the sheep's character and pull together in an accommodating manner to work for Hong Kong's future," he said.

So the wolf is telling his flock to be more docile and obedient...

Was this a deliberate message or was the metaphor completely lost on him?

Leung Chai-yan continues to create headaches for her dad

While he may be hoping for a relatively trouble-free year in 2015, so far many of his headaches have stemmed from his daughter Leung Chai-yan who has show business aspirations and keen on gaining any attention for herself at the expense of her dad's leadership image.

Officials in Beijing must be smacking their heads with their hands watching the family drama unfold on the sidelines.

For Hong Kong residents this is very amusing, though it's interesting to point out no student activists or pro-democracy leaders are taking advantage of this to smear Leung.

When Leung released the video, he was quick to point out that the children in the video were not paid actors, and that they had "language impairments".

In his message, the wolf tells the people to be like sheep...

But many were quick to point out the wolf and sheep metaphor, which also brings to mind the 2004 Chinese novel Wolf Totem by Lu Jianmin (pen name Jiang Rong), who suggests people should not be sheep who blindly follow others and instead become wolves with free spirits to survive.

Perhaps Hong Kong people should take a page out of Wolf Totem and unleash their independent streaks. Maybe sales of Lufsig will pick up again?

Toy of the Day: Lufsig

Lufsig has become the new rallying mascot against Leung Chun-ying

Ikea has unwittingly become part of the anti-Leung Chun-ying campaign with its grinning stuffed animal called Lufsig.

The wolf is based on the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood and this version is wearing a red checkered shirt and blue pants while clutching a cute granny in its left paw.

But ever since the toy was thrown at the Hong Kong chief executive by two protestors from the League of Social Democrats during a public forum on Saturday, people have been trying to get to their nearest Ikea to buy one, because of the wolverine associations with Leung.

Also while the name of the wolf is not translated into Chinese in Hong Kong, its Chinese name in China sounds an obscene three-word phrase associated with female genitalia.

Yesterday an Ikea spokeswoman confirmed that Lufsig had sold out in its stores in Causeway Bay, Sha Tin and Kowloon Bay, with the remaining few going on sale today.

"All Lufsig toys were sold out. The next set of supplies will arrive in Hong Kong in early January," she said.

The selling out of the wolf toy has benefited one group -- Unicef -- which will receive a HK$10 donation for every HK$99 toy sold.

If you are desperate to get one, Yahoo's online platform had a Lufsig toy listed for sale at HK$150.