‘Collapse’ put down to chilling effect brought about by disappearance of Hong Kong booksellers, but not all agree
OLIVER.CHOU@SCMP.COM
UPDATED : Friday, 11 March, 2016, 6:33pm
The disappearance .of bookseller Lee Po and four others have hit the sensitive mainland China book sector. Photo: SCMP Pictures
The city’s politically sensitive book industry “has been collapsing” as a result of the missing booksellers, a major China book publisher has claimed as new titles, including those on Causeway Bay Books itself, continue to emerge.
He Pin, founder and chief editor of New York-based Mirror Books, one of the largest China books publishers in the market, lamented the nosedive of sales since the disappearance of five booksellers from Mighty Current and Causeway Bay Books.
“Our circulation has dropped 60-70 per cent. New titles are stuck and published titles returned in large numbers,” He told the Post by email.
“All of our subsidiary publishers have recorded losses. That’s the first time since [our founding in] 1991,” he added.
He, a Canadian-Chinese, said 12 titles had been published in the past two months, but the number would be reduced in future.
“Simply put, the Hong Kong [political] book industry has been collapsing mainly due to the Causeway Bay Books incident,” he said, referring to the disappearance of five associates of Mighty Current, the controversial book publisher that owns Causeway Bay Books, since last October.
He said the case involved an abuse of freedom of publication for some, “but the real problem at stake is the act of cross-border kidnapping by China’s ‘powerful agencies’, resulting in many suffering,” he added, using an expression coined by Beijing’s Global Times newspaper in January on a country’s extraordinary means to bring a person in for investigation.
His grim estimate coincided with a finding by US-based dissident poet Bei Ling, who was recently in Hong Kong to investigate the city’s freedom of publication after the disappearance of the booksellers, including his long-time friend Gui Minhai.
“I believe as many as two-thirds of politically sensitive books have been affected since the bookseller incident, though I think Beijing’s interference in this industry is nothing new,” Bei, president of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre, said before he left on Thursday.
Bao Pu of New Century Press, which has published banned books such as the diary of former premier Li Peng, said he would continue to publish political books.
“Of course I am worried [about my safety] but my publishing plan will go on,” he said, adding he had not published any title in the past two months.
Woo Chih-wai, an author of over 120 books and the last staff member at Causeway Bay Books before owner Lee Po vanished last December, said the banned book business would die hard.
“I did a survey and there were altogether 45 new political books on China in January alone, so the market is still prosperous,” the 75-year old said.
Three recent titles included extensive coverage on the case of Causeway Bay Books.
“Underground publishing is still active after the demise of Mighty Current,” said Paul Tang, director of People’s Bookstore in Causeway Bay.
“The book business has slowed down by about 10-20 per cent, but that’s more because of the aftermath of the Lunar New Year than the Lee Po incident,” he said.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1923468/banned-books-hong-kong-publication-industry-collapsing-says
