Bookstores promote 'red' theme in anniversary year

NANCHANG－At the main entrance of the largest shopping street of old town Jinggangshan, the "cradle of the Chinese revolution" in Jiangxi province, stands the Red Bookstore.

Red not only is the color of the store's decorations but also represents the spirit of the revolution.

Many are revisiting places like Jinggangshan to connect with the revolutionary past of the Communist Party of China.

In the Red Bookstore, visitors mill around statues of Chinese revolutionaries, and as many as 10,000 books, audiovisual products and cultural derivatives take people back in time.

"When people have ideals, their country will have the strength and their nation will have a bright future," a visitor writes in the bookstore's guest book.

When customers leave, some get their freshly acquired books stamped with a quote from an essay of Chairman Mao Zedong: "A single spark can start a prairie fire."

The quote is often taken as a symbol of Jinggangshan's role as the earliest revolutionary base.

This year marks the centennial of the founding of the CPC.

Strong foot traffic has been observed in the bookstore since the beginning of the year, manager Pan Min says, adding that 70 percent of them are tourists.

Sales have climbed both on year and on month, according to Pan, in line with industry forecasts in a market report released in Beijing in March.

Traditionally a season of thin trading, the first four months of this year logged an increase of nearly 180 percent in sales compared with the same period in 2019, Pan says.

Best-sellers include collected works of Mao, catalog records of the Jinggangshan revolutionary base area and an oral history of the struggles in the region.

A similar scene is found in Zunyi, Guizhou province, where many people are visiting, according to a staff member at a local revolution-themed Xinhua Bookstore branch.

About 900 kilometers to the west of Jinggangshan, Zunyi hosted a CPC meeting in 1935, which is considered a watershed event in Party history.

Sales soared 30 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2019, according to Zhan Huijing, head of the Zunyi bookstore.

Zhongshuge, a chain bookstore startup known for its interior design, has furnished a section in its Zunyi branch with bugles and medical kits that hark back to the warring era, displaying revolutionary products and facilitating in-store reading.

In April, the Wangfujing Bookstore in Beijing joined nearby primary and middle schools to bring theme book fairs to the campuses, featuring "red" publications for students.

China Bookstore, a publisher of classic Chinese books, launched an online exhibition of "red" memories in March, bringing revolution-themed comics, posters of revolution movies and newspapers published on the previous anniversaries of the CPC.

The offline version of the exhibition is currently on tour in its physical bookstore outlets.

The popularity of books about the revolutionary years reflects a collective recognition of the Party's leadership over the past decades, says Zheng Dongsheng, a professor at the Party School of the Guizhou Provincial Committee of the CPC.

Xinhua