Friends and Books on Just Another Day
“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience, this is the ideal life.” So said Mark Twain. This sums up my Saturday, spent roaming around Hong Kong Island till past midnight. A bookaholic friend took me and two scholars to visit a few second-hand bookstores in the Fortress Hill neighbourhood in the afternoon.
Our first stop was a hidden gem called “The Chief’s Bookstore” 老總書房, owned by a renowned writer and veteran editor-in-chief of the most influential local newspaper, now no longer in business. Mr Cheng, or “The Chief”, as he is known to his friends and fans, stores half of his collection in the bookstore, which opens for only four hours each afternoon from Monday to Saturday. He spends these hours reading books and chatting to friends and customers. You can hardly turn inside the bookstore, which is filled stacked with autographed copies and rare books that must cost a fortune. And some books are not for sale until the Chief finishes reading them. “This bookstore is meant for meeting friends and finding the books new homes before anything happens to me,” the Chief says. “I have seen people leaving the world with their most precious book collections thrown in dumpsters. I don’t want this to happen to my books on my watch.”
The second stop of our adventurous book tour was again in one of the half-deserted malls in this neighbourhood. The small partitioned spaces in a quiet mall are rented at relatively low cost to individuals or small businesses such as the owner of this mosquito-sized 蚊型bookstore called “今朝風日好”, which might be translated as “It’s a breezy and sunny day today”. This tiny bookstore can barely accommodate more than two visitors at once. However, it is extremely resourceful and is frequented by scholars, and even celebrities such as the actress and writer Brigitte Lin 林青霞, whose autographed portrait greets visitors as they enter through the glass door.
At the quiet corner just a few steps from the mini-bookstore, we found another gem called “Traces of Books”, which offers free reading space for anyone as long as they follow the house rules posted at the entrance. We sat on the floor mats and looked around, taking in the chill vibes while trying to figure out more about the owner of this small oasis for book lovers.
Our adventurous small tour ended at the spacious Sum Kei Bookstore selling both new and second-hand books. It has a strong and distinctive smell, from the more than twenty stray cats that the owner takes in for shelter and food. There are various reminders posted inside and outside this bookstore carrying similar messages: “This is first and foremost a bookstore, not a CAT-bookstore,” and, “Please do not play with the cats.” However, visitors are free to observe the feline-themed decorative objects and images scattered around.
The day ends with a long dinner with a few friends who left Hong Kong academia to teach in North America in the past years. While enjoying this hearty meal, we laughed, chatted, teased, mused, and recalled the good old pre-Covid times, when our scholarly conversations continued in conferences all over the world. When we left the restaurant, we were told that a few people who had just eaten there were stopped and questioned on their way to the Victoria Park where the Tiananmen vigil took place every year for three decades until the pandemic. “They were stopped because they were holding white chrysanthemums,” the restaurant patron said. “But white flowers are just for mourning. Just like what we did to mourn the two young women who lost their lives in the knife attack at a mall in Diamond Hill yesterday!”
It was after midnight when we finally bid farewell to each other on Lee Tung Street 利東街, where the famous Wedding Card Street 囍帖街 once stood, now gone after a “revitalising” real estate project. Our writer friend, who is leaving for an MFA programme in the United States in two weeks, looked at the newly-paved street with the pebble-pattern and reminisced about the cobbled lanes in Venice where the same group of friends once hugged each other goodbye after midnight. “But we shall see each other again, in this small world, if not in Hong Kong, then somewhere, sometime soon.”
Just another day spent in this city as if nothing else had happened. However, this is more than a place where good friends and good books still exist. This is a space where intellectual synergies can still make a difference. This will remain the spiritual home where our deepest heart’s desires can be fulfilled.
How to cite: Huang, Heidi. “Just Another Day: Heidi Huang.” Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, 4 Jun. 2023, chajournal.blog/2023/06/04/heidi.
Heidi Huang is a scholar, educator, writer, translator, editor, and coordinator for academic activities promoting Chinese culture in global dialogues. Heidi is currently based in Hong Kong, and is research & development manager at The Advanced Institute for Global Chinese Studies, Lingnan University. She is also the managing editor of Prism: Theory and Modern Chinese Literature.
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