The 33rd Hong Kong Book Fair opens on July 19 for seven days at the Wanchai Convention and Exhibition Center. Books dealing with social movements’ politics are hardly to be found. Publishers banned from participating in last year’s fair remain conspicuous absentees this time. Some mainland visitors lamented the decline of freedoms in Hong Kong.
Sensitive Books on Politics Almost Non-Existent
As in previous fairs, the first thing one sees when entering the venue are the booths of “Sino United Publishing” and the like, where several books based on excerpts from Xi Jinping’s speeches are prominently displayed. Next to them are books on the “Basic Law” and the “National Security Law.” From time to time, passersby would stop and leaf through these books of Mr. Xi’s, but not many people bought them.Some politically sensitive books, such as those related to the June 4th Tiananmen incident, and the anti-extradition movement, seem to have disappeared from the venue. At the booth of the Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, however, George Orwell’s political fables “Animal Farm,” and “1984” are still on display, as well as the historical work “How the Red Sun Rose: The Origins and Development of the Yan’an Rectification Movement 1930-1945” written by history professor Gao Hua.
Current affairs commentator Sang Pu believes that under the National Security Law, independent publishers such as “Subculture” may reduce the frequency of their appearance at such fairs or even cancel them altogether. And there will not be any books satirizing or criticizing current affairs in the whole exhibition hall. Although some of the books removed from the shelves of public libraries can be sold on-site, none of them contains content related to current affairs.
He criticized that the Hong Kong Book Fair has become a kind of entertainment venue and that the Trade Development Council has long been a propaganda apparatus of the Hong Kong government. “Hong Kong people are now living in a strange state where they feel the chill, but they all appear normal. It is absolutely regrettable.”
This year, the Fair organizer invited 15 writers to be speakers for seminars, eight are from mainland China. On the contrary, last year’s seminar invited mainly Hong Kong writers.
In an interview with Radio Free Asia, current affairs commentator To Kit believes that many mainland writers invited this year are liberals. In the past 20 or 30 years, they have been more outspoken on the mainland, but now they dare not speak freely on the mainland. Even when they are now in Hong Kong, they are still worried about encountering trouble on their return to the mainland for any issues that happened in Hong Kong. At the same time, they are also concerned about all the “Hong Kong National Security Law restrictions.”
Publisher: No Worries About Selling ‘Off-Shelf’ Books
Public libraries earlier took off books related to a number of scholars and media professionals off the shelves, but reporters at the book fair yesterday found at least three of those books, including those of veteran media personnel Au Ka-lun’s “Tidal Pool: A Story of Wandering in Twenty Countries” and “Tataba: Travelling inside Splendor and Desolation,” as well as the work “Under the Keystone: Eighteen Years in Politics” by former Legislative Council member Margaret Ng. The HKTDC, organizer of this year’s event, stated at the press conference that it will not pre-screen books, and there is no such list of “banned books.” And as long as they comply with Hong Kong laws, all can be exhibited.BBluesky Co. Ltd. releases Mr. Au’s works, including “Tidal Pool,” “Tataba,” “Turbulence,” and so on. Editor Wu Zizhen said that the books that have been removed from the shelves have been sold in bookstores for the past few months.“ That’s why he continues to sell them here without any special consideration.” He emphasized that these books are bona fide travelogs; the organizer never asked anything before. He said frankly he also likes to know why they were removed from the libraries.
He said that there had been pressure and challenges for publishers these few years. “First and foremost is not to violate the law, so they will be more cautious and tighten a bit on both content and text. Of course, there is a narrowing in creative space compared with previously, but we have to be more careful. That’s why publication is getting difficult.”
On the issue that authors are being “tagged,” resulting in their works being removed even if they are not political, Mr. Wu is also puzzled, “Actually, this shouldn’t happen. Since there is no problem with the content, why can’t we continue to publish?”
Another independent publisher at the fair, “Boundary Bookstore,” also sells the new work “Three in One Collection” by Margaret Ng, one of the “authors with their works removed from shelves” in public libraries. Ms. Amber, the manageress, said that she felt the book’s content was “without any problem” and she would not be particularly worried. “I haven’t received any complaints or notice from the organizer, so I don’t think there may be any taboos.” She added that most of the “off-shelf books” are selling at Boundary Bookstore.
Ms. Amber said that it is an upstairs bookstore, and it is the first time it has participated in the book fair this year. “I want to attract different sources of customers from the public. I hope to increase exposure and reach more different readers.” At the same time, she hopes to promote the works of local publishers in Hong Kong too.
Mainlander Buys Off-The-Shelf Books, Questions Fragility of National Security
Ms. Lin from Shenzhen said she came to the book fair with a few friends because she is very interested in Hong Kong’s history, culture, and movies.She specially bought a book, “Tidal Pool” by Allan Au. “Recently, his books have also been withdrawn from the libraries in Hong Kong, so when I first came, I was still thinking that the book fair would not display his books.” She said she didn’t understand why a travel journal type of writing could be removed from the shelves.
Ms. Lin felt disappointed that different types of books were taken off the shelves, “I think this is quite sad, the libraries in Hong Kong were originally set up to let the public understand what happened on this land so its history and culture could be freely understood, and you can then support many different viewpoints. But when all these have been withdrawn recently, you will feel that it is not so free anymore.”
In the past, many mainland tourists came to the book fair to buy banned books. Now that these books on politics are gradually disappearing, Ms. Lin feels very helpless. “Books such as those about the Cultural Revolution, or for those related to social movements, are very difficult to find in bookstores in Shenzhen.”
Writer: ‘Removal of Books’ Brought a Chilling Effect
Allan Au went to the bookstall at about 6pm yesterday to sign autographs for his fan readers. He believes that removing his books has only made people more aware of them. “In fact, many smaller bookstores are selling them. It should not have any impact, but they are gone from the public libraries.”He believes that the “removal” incident has brought about a chilling effect. “Overall, a lot of freedom of expression seems to have disappeared bit by bit. Many publishers in Hong Kong, their printing houses may not be willing to print. They need to be extra critical of some words. All these create a chilling effect. Even if the government says there is no problem, it actually creates a feeling of deterrence to many people.”
At the same time, many authors may have taboos when writing. He said, “Even authors who write novels or travel experiences find their works removed from the shelves. I think the government should explain clearly.”
As for where the red line lies, Mr. Au said it probably depends on the mood of some people. “Because the line is quite illusive, it just depends on the mood of some people.” He said that publishing in Hong Kong has now become a high-risk business. “From the printing house to the author, if you want to criticize something, you must be mentally prepared to take risks.”
He also said that there was no word that harmed anything there was no word that harmed anything among the books that were removed from the shelves. “It’s hard to imagine it was actually because of people. Being gagged because of people, books banned because of people. These are all political considerations.”
Mr. Au added that the public library website mentions compliance with UNESCO’s regulations, saying, “It will not take books off the shelves for any political reason, or not lend out certain books. It has made its principle of operation sound and clear. It is [has set out] its own tasks and its own ideals. I hope it complies with it.”
He believes that the “removal” incident hinders the flow of information and causes a disparity in the flow of knowledge between the rich and the poor. He said bluntly that it is “totally unsatisfactory.”
Mr. Au said that as it was not because of the content, he hoped that the Leisure and Cultural Services Department could return them to the shelves as soon as possible after review. “If it thinks something is wrong, please make it public and explain clearly which word or sentence is misleading.”
