Rick Simonson

Beijing, Day 1: Schemers and Dreamers
January 15, 2008

BEIJING, Sunday, January 6

Waking up hungry on Sunday morning in the state-owned China Travel Services Hotel, there was a distinct feeling of hunger and a vague memory that there hadn't been food after the previous evening's arrival in Beijing. There was further the vague memory of Paul Yamazaki and I getting checked into our sleek, very modern, environmentally-savvy building, throwing things onto beds (or wherever), making sure we were properly bundled in new coats and then setting off on foot. Maps in hand, but having to squint with watery eyes (the cold), we managed in short order to get lost - not that we didn't have an enjoyable time doing so.

There was a first night goal of at least arriving at Tiananmen Square, center point of the country's center points, past and present. It took a cab to get us there, but once there - even with the square closed in the wee hours as we were there - there was much to take in ... and much walking. Certain respects were paid, again past and present. Food (or drink, for that matter) did not seem so important. We were here.

Sunday morning was the first of almost three full days Paul and I would have before the official duties of visiting the Beijing Book Fair, touring publisher offices and bookstores, and participating in a booksellers' forum ('speeches' we are to give), which are to take place later in the week.

Most of the first two days, it is just Paul and I. We see and greet a just-arrived Allison Hill of Vroman's in our hotel lobby on Monday - she already on the way out with her first-day plans.

Paul's and my first day, Sunday, had us returning to Tiananmen Square, where we'd been the night before, with nary a soul to be seen except patrolling soldiers, then some other astounding (to our eyes) sights, taking in what we could where we could - then making a return to our hotel by 2 pm.

Though it wasn't part of our official visit, we had been invited to attend a special, second annual awards ceremony for private booksellers - co-presented by China Publishing Today and a software company.

It's our appointed moment for the award ceremony when we make it back to the hotel by taxi - we are awaited. No going up to the room to drop stuff off: we're guided through an entry - sign in, are handed things, handed business cards (and attempt to hand out our own), vaguely feeling something being pinned on, and quickly being led through a meeting room full of 100+ people. We've got places marked, seats saved right up front. There's something funny in this right-off - Paul and I are determined back of the room people, standing usually. I do like being able to take in who all is in a room. We're not at a good vantage for that here.

Proceedings are about to begin but there's time for quick introductions, most notably with Ou Hong, editor-in-chief of China Publishing Today, clearly the one who's imagined this all into being (Lance Fensterman doing major aiding and abetting). She is gracious about her welcome, as she will prove to be gracious about everything in the coming week.

If not said before, China Publishing Today is akin to Publishers Weekly. Though where PW is owned by Reed, which has its interests in related arenas of interest to some of PW's domain, China Publishing Today is held by three companies with deep ties in bookselling and publishing - Sichuan Xinhua Winshare, Jiangsu Distribution Group, and Jieli Publishing House. Sichuan Xinhua Winshare is a state-owned enterprise now on the Hong Kong stock exchange,  ties in newspapers and magazines, and has 25 large bookstores and more than 200 small ones throughout China. It also wholesales. Jiangsua Xinhua, also state-owned has more than 2000 branches of stores in China. Jieli ... only does publishing, most of it in children's books.

It is just the beginning of some educating for us that won't conclude with this trip's end. Here is a magzine owned in great part by these state-owned companies, helping sponsor awards for what are called private bookstores and book distributors - or nonstate. It is almost analogous to the chain/independent division of retailers in the US - almost,  but not quite. As we come to see, there are ways of doing business, of being in the same room with others, of being sponsored (as our visit is, in great part, by Sichuan Xinhua Winshare), of being forthright or not being forthright, that seem distinct and unique to China.

As this second awards ceremony begins, Huang Xinping, the China Publishing Today correspondent who has done much of the logistics and literal legwork in having us here, is on my left, providing notes paraphrasing what we're watching and hearing. Awards ceremonies in whatever language have some universal tendencies - the speeches that go on too long being notably recognizable.

It's a three-hour ceremony. Don't ask how something that would have driven me batty sitting through it in English in the US is fascinating and more comprehensible (perhaps a positive use of jetlag) than I would have thought. The emceeing is good, alternating between a man we will later meet - Xue Ye, president of the China Private Book Industry Committee, and a woman who I believe was from China Machine Press (which also has at least one bookstore). The awards are announced by different people on the stage, given with musical flourishes. And short speeches ensue. You soon see how many similarities between the Chinese and US counterparts there are: the people from the more corporate enterprises are there in dark suits, the men usually with ties. Those from the smaller stores tend to be in jeans.

Interspersed amidst the almost 20 awards given ('Best professional bookstore,' 'Best chain bookstore,' 'Best online bookstore,' 'Best small bookstore,' 'Best children's bookstore') are intermittent state of the business talks given by different invited individuals. One who catches my attention by her forcefulness and extemporaneous talk is Sun Chi, owner of the 02 Sun Bookstore (which our group will later visit). Xinping gives a bit of her talk, all drawing on the theme of 'I have a dream.' The urgency of that you could feel through what she was saying, never mind my not knowing the words as she said them.

Some of the other speakers give cautionary remarks. Wong Changjun of Sichuan Shanghe says it is the hardest time for the private book industry. Li Guoqing of dangdang.com (mentioned below) cites the market share of the private stores' as in decline (sound familiar?).

It is all very spirited, inspiring, even. Even with the barriers of language and our knowing little of the specifics, we feel both the fears and ambitions/aspirations here. This - the private segment of the book business in China is still new - starting in the 1980s. All its segments for all their differences - the small, single independent stores, the larger private chains, the online stores, the specialty ones - all seem to feel joint purpose. We will later hear fears of the impact of the online enterprises - but here, it is pride in the success of dangdang.com, whose head Li Guoqing will speak (both as award-winner and as speechifier). There is 'local' pride in their success and wanting them to prevail over Amazon's Joyo.com competition.

For all the more obvious categories of awards (as cited above), Xinping, in rendering these awards and comments on the fly, comes up with some charming other categories: one such is 'Best Book Schemer,' given to a bookstore for its co-promotional efforts with a publisher. A bookseller also gets a 'Schemer' award for outlining strategies for success. Interestingly, there are no award winners for two announced categories - reps and bookbuyers.

For both Paul and I it is intensely eye-opening. I do have a chuckle looking over at him at one point during the proceedings, think how cute he is with a corsage that had been pinned on as we arrived. Then I remember - I have one on. Outside of some family weddings, I don't know that I have ever sported such.

When it is over, we meet and are introduced to people, not always much more than 'Ni hao' said, and business cards exchanged. Li Guoqing hears I am from Seattle and says he has been there - of course: someone serious and in the online retailing business would go there and know what one could of Amazon. His background, preceding dangdang, includes twenty years in the book business.

We are seen off at the end of it all by Ou Hong - who feels like someone I've known before - and Xinping. Our thanks given, they seem to appreciate our being there, even before our real 'work' begins. No, no, we say, this is why we're here. We won't see either until Tuesday evening, when our whole group should be on hand for a welcoming dinner. Xinping, meanwhile, will presumably seeing others of our delegation, as she is much involved in getting people in from their flights.

With that, Paul and I are back to our rooms, off with our corsages, then soon back out on the streets. A chilly evening out there beckons. We hope not to get as lost as we had the night before ... 

Posted by Rick Simonson on January 15, 2008 | Comments (4)