“Hong Kong will never die as long as there are bookstores”: Independent bookstores in Hong Kong amidst diminishing political opportunities

Abstract

Independent bookstores in Hong Kong have gained a vital role in sustaining a sense of temporary community since the 2019 Anti-ELAB protests, after which many forms of activism have become almost impossible. While the social role of independent bookstores within communities has been widely discussed, this study foregrounds their civic significance by examining how, in a non-Western hybrid regime, bookstores both navigate and enable civic life under authoritarian constraints. Amidst the passage of the National Security Law in 2020 and the National Security Ordinance (Article 23) in 2024, these bookstores offer more than just books; they provide spaces for connection, conversations, and even commemoration. As alternative spaces, they foster opportunities for “low noise” civic engagement where acts such as buying books or organising workshops become forms of quotidian activism. Bookstore owners deliberately curate collections and arrange their spaces to create “alternative realities” that nurture temporary communities and solidarity, even as they face growing surveillance and political risk. Drawing on site visits to twenty bookstores and interviews with six bookstore owners, this study demonstrates how independent bookstores, as material and affective spaces, sustain civic agency and resilience within a shrinking political sphere.