Musings about, and observations at, the 2022 Hong Kong Book Fair

Books for sale at this year's Hong Kong Book Fair included 

copies of George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984

 

Also on sale (and popular) at the fair were copies of books featuring

Doraemon and Oshiri Tantei (AKA the butt-faced Butt Detective)!

 

This year's edition of the Hong Kong Book Fair was in the news even before it opened due to a number of independent, identifiably "yellow" (pro-democracy) publishers not being allowed to have booths there -- unlike in previous years, including just last year. On social media, there were people declaring that they'd give the event a miss this year. But I went anyway yesterday; in part because I was curious to see for myself how much the event had changed from even its first post-national security law incarnation (in 2021).

 

Also on social media, there had been photos showing displays of books purportedly by Xi Jinping at the fair. But I actually didn't spot them despite having spent around three hours prowling about the exhibition halls.  Had they already been sold out by the time I went yesterday (evening) or were they actually on display in a not particularly prominent area of the exhibition halls, I wonder?

 

Instead, my eyes were more easily caught by the display of copy after copy of such as George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984, and books featuring popular Japanese cartoon characters Doraemon and Oshiri Tante (i.e., the butt-faced Butt Detective)! And while there no longer are any books by Joshua Wong and Chris Patten on sale (unlike last year), there still was no shortage of books on Donald Trump (ugh!) and Hilary Clinton (interesting, as I hadn't realized that she had many fans in Hong Kong!) at the book fair!

 

What does this mean in terms of book censorship?  As I intimated earlier in this post, there are people who assume that there's wholesale censorship going on now in Hong Kong.  But, as Amy Hawkins and Jeffrey Wasserstrom wrote in The Atlantic about China in a January 2019 article, censorship in China is a "complicated reality": i.e., " It’s less comprehensive, less boot-on-the-face—as Orwell might have put it—and quirkier than many Westerners imagine."

 

For my part: my sense is that, with books (and also with film), the censors tend to go hard on contemporary works that directly address what's been happening in Hong Kong over the past three years, particularly 2019, and sometimes also with regards to the Umbrella Movement too.  On the other hand, works with ideas that one could extrapolate and apply to Hong Kong's contemporary situation tend to be allowed -- perhaps because, as Hawkins and Wasserstrom intimated about China previously, "censors take a rather dim view of their audiences’ abilities[: that is,] they believe...  citizens are unable to draw a connection between the political situation... described [in such as Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm] and the nature of their government".

 

In any case, here are three takeaways from me with regards to the book fair (which ended today): 

- 1)  Yes, there's a significant Mainland Chinese presence in terms of publishers and organizations -- but it's notable that the Mainland Chinese section of the exhibition hall was the least crowded of the fair'

- 2) Also, yes, there is a notable absence of politically sensitive books one thinks/knows would sell (including Louisa Lim's Indelible City: Dispossesion and Defiance in Hong Kong along with works by Joshua Wong and Nathan Law) -- but look around and you'll also still see Vaclac Havel's The Power of the Powerless and Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny available, and even booths by publishers/companies one would think are on the non-pro-Beijing side, including a very literally yellow one set up by openly "yellow" media outlet Passion Times; and

- 3) the chief national popular culture champion remains Japan, not Mainland China.  E.g., apart from the Butt Detective, there also were books about Doraemon, Pokemon, Rillakuma, etc. (but no Funassyi!) on sale -- and not always aimed at kids either!

One caveat: Even though there were fewer books on sale this year than before, a lot of books still were being hawked in the cavernous exhibition halls of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre!  So I can't be 100 percent certain that I saw every book on sale as well as not on sale there.  (For example, I definitely didn't spot, unlike Hong Kong Twitterverse member Razven, a (Chinese language) copy of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf on sale at the book fair!)

At the same time though, something I noticed as part of a trend over a number of years is that the number of English language books on sale at the Hong Kong Book Fair have dropped dramatically.  But, then, that's the case with regards to the availability of English language books in Hong Kong.  Period.  

 

This is no thanks to a number of international book chains (like Page One and Popular) having exited the Hong Kong market in recent years, the 100 plus year old Swindon Books closing down its Tsim Sha Tsui branch a few years back, and the Communist Chinese Party having gotten a grip on Hong Kong's publishing scene some years ago.  And to be clear: this happened before 2019.  For, yes, those of us warning -- and upset -- about Beijing's grip on Hong Kong for some years now really were on to something way back then, never mind now!