But now Zhu can sense this freedom being curtailed.
She says she finds herself encountering authorities more often in Hong Kong than in mainland China. At one bookshop event, she recalls government officials entering the premises. “They just sat there listening alongside us.”
Increasing raids have not only targeted explicitly political shops, according to a bookseller who asked not to be identified because of possible repercussions.
“Luck Win Bookstore and Elmbook have always kept a very low profile,” the bookseller says.
“They rarely make public statements or organise events. I genuinely can’t think of anything they could have done to offend the government.”
In the weeks leading up to this year’s book fair, both shops were criticised in Wen Wei Po, a newspaper controlled by Beijing’s liaison authorities in Hong Kong.
The paper accused them of selling books promoting “soft resistance”. This included The Hong Kong Diaries by the last governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, before the city returned to Chinese rule, and 300 Short Essays by late Apple Daily columnist Lee Yee. The newspaper was shuttered and several senior staff, including its owner Jimmy Lai, were jailed for violating the new security laws.
“The authorities don’t want people to know exactly where the boundaries are,” says Tong Kin-long of University College London. “They want people to work out the red lines for themselves, or to censor themselves before crossing them.”
Watching these changes unfold in Hong Kong has felt strangely familiar to a man we are calling K, in his 30s from Sichuan.
He remembers a time when mainland China’s bookshops were also vibrant spaces for public discussion. Liberal books and magazines would be prominently displayed. Bookshops regularly hosted talks and discussions. But around 2015, he began to notice a gradual tightening.
At first it was books about the country’s leaders. But then less obviously sensitive books started disappearing. Public events became less frequent, and the atmosphere changed.
Zhu has a friend who currently runs a bookshop in Guangzhou. She says police occasionally visit the shop to harass the bookseller. During film screenings organised by the bookshop, the electricity has even been cut off.
“Hong Kong,” she says, “should be a freer place”.
