Claim comes as chain opens its third store in the city and the Lee Bo mystery continues
ALLEN.AUYEUNG@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 06 January, 2016, 5:49pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 06 January, 2016, 5:49pm
Eslite Spectrum in Taikoo Shing is the chain’s third store in the city. Photo: Nora Tam
Management of the Taiwan-based book retailer Eslite insisted it felt no pressure to pull politically sensitive reading material from its shelves in Hong Kong as it expanded its operations in the city.
“We really have no [pressure to pull any books]. At least right now, no,” said Mercy Wu, vice-chairwoman of Eslite after opening the bookstore chain’s third outlet in the city, at the Cityplaza mall in Taikoo Shing, on Wednesday.
“Until now, whether in Hong Kong, Taiwan or China, we can fortunately say we work independently,” Wu added.
Her remarks came after Eslite’s local competitor, Page One, was understood to have begun pulling reading material banned on the mainland from late November and as the mystery over the disappearance of bookseller Lee Bo remained unresolved.
The two-storey Taikoo Shing bookstore, which took up 49,000 square feet, was Eslite’s largest store in the city, bigger than both its first store in Causeway Bay and its branch in Tsim Sha Tsui, which opened last year.
According to Eslite, around 20 to 25 per cent of its books in Taikoo Shing, a middle-class neighbourhood with many expat residents, were in English.
In the store’s history section, a collection of books about politics in China could be found. Titles includedThe Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers by journalist Richard McGregor and Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of Dalai Lama.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/economy/article/1898383/taiwanese-bookstore-eslite-feels-no-pressure-pull-works-hong
