Visits to the 2023 Hong Kong Book Fair, and an alternative, "yellow" book fair (Photo-essay)

Earlier this week, I went to the 2023 Hong Kong Book Fair.  Having been to the book fair for a number of years now, certain trends are quite noticeable.  In addition to the obvious one of there being fewer and fewer "yellow" booths and books that are explicitly political on sale (even between 2016 and 2017, never mind after China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong), there also are way fewer English language books on sale -- and, actually, fewer exhibitor space for booksellers.  Also, maybe it's just me but there seems to be a lot more stalls hawking religious (more specifically, that which are Buddhist or Christian) books this year than any other year that I've been to the Hong Kong Book Fair!

 

On a brighter note: certain tomes that I was glad to see available for sale at the book fair last year remain available for sale this year.  Also, The Standard has reported that "a few small publishers [were] selling "politically sensitive" books that can no longer be found in public libraries, including books written by Au Ka-lun, a former columnist for the shuttered Stand News".  And while an alternative book fair for "yellow" book publishers and sellers was not able to take place last year, this year one organized by Hunter Bookstore's Leticia Wong did go ahead over in Sham Shui Po -- and when I went to check it out, I found that at least one bookseller that was among the smaller book fair's participants and also had a booth at the larger Hong Kong Book Fair! :)

 

Books I bought at book fairs I went to in recent days: 

Want to/can you guess which one(s) I got from the alternative 

book fair (as opposed to the Hong Kong Book Fair)? ;b

 

Yes, books by Xi Jinping and his ilk were on prominent display/for sale 

at the 2023 Hong Kong Book Fair -- but note that the booth attracted 

very few interested customers despite having a prominent location!

 

For comparison: note the crowd at a more "regular" booth 

(whose offerings included works by Nietzsche!) at the book fair!

 

Unlike last year, I didn't spot the copaganda booth this year

-- but I did see this for the first time at the Hong Kong Book Fair!

 

Also at the fair: a fair amount of Taiwanese representation

 

Two books that I found for sale at more than one booth:

George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984

 

Another book whose sale (or non-sale) I reckon is a good

weathervane for book fair censorship is this tome by 

Vaclac Havel, and, also, Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny

 

Probably the most popular national leader/politician this year -- 

books about Volodymyr Zelenskyy abounded, in both English

and Chinese (along with ones on Queen Elizabeth II)!