For many years in a row, Luck Win Bookshop and Elmbook, both independent bookstores, had been allocated almost the same locations at the main exhibition hall of the annual Hong Kong Book Fair held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. As usual, they had made the booking for the same presence in this year’s event, which will be open on July 15.

They paid the deposits as required. Holding hopes for another success, they placed orders for more books from overseas suppliers – only to be given the red card in late June. They were booted out before the event began with no explanation given. The usual places where their bookstores were often located at previous book fairs have been turned into huge reading areas for visitors.

Beginning early this month, both Luck Win and Elmbook have offered big discounts on all books. In its Facebook on the sales campaign, Elmbook announced they will close down their shop in Mong Kok in April next year after its current lease expires. It did not elaborate. Their staff sidestepped reporters’ questions on whether the imminent closure had anything to do with their denial of entry into the Book Fair.

Informed figures in the industry told reporters the two bookstores had imported a huge number of books from Taiwan for the book fair. In its announcement, Elmbook said several hundreds of boxes of books have arrived at their Mong Kok shop.

One media report said Elmbook had been able to reap more than HK$1 million profits from each previous book fair, which was vitally important in funding their operation for the whole year. It will not survive if they are not able to participate in the Book Fair.

Both kept a distance from politics

News of the eleventh-hour disqualification of the two bookstores have come as a surprise to political watchers, readers and ordinary citizens.

This is despite the fact that three independent local publishers, including Bbluesky and Boundary Bookstore, were barred from participating in the book fair in 2025. In 2024, some bookshops and publishers participating in the fair were told to remove certain titles from the shelves after the fair was open.

Both Bbluesky and Boundary Bookstore, which are smaller in scale, have been seen as having stronger inclination towards the pro-democracy camp. They gained prominence within the pro-democracy circle after the 2019 political unrest.

Luck Win and Elmbook are long-time bookstores located at upper floors in Sai Yeung Choi Street, one of the busiest streets in Mong Kok. Luck Win has another “upstairs bookshop” in Causeway Bay. They have kept their heads low, selling politically sensitive books in a low-key manner.

Hong Kong Trade Development Council (TDC), a semi-official statutory body, which runs the annual book fair, has declined to explain why the two bookstores had been disqualified.

In their reports on the disqualification saga, media outlets cited an article published in pro-Beijing Wen Wei Po in July last year, which singled out Luck Win for attack. The newspaper said their reporter found the bookshop had quietly sold a massive number of titles that smeared the SAR government, incited people’s hatred towards the central and Hong Kong government and promoted “soft resistance.” The report named one of the books was written by a regular columnist in the now-defunct Apple Daily.

A pro-Beijing online media had published a commentary in 2023 that called for a ban on the sale of books that violated the national security law. The article named several bookstores including Elmbook that sold copies of the Chinese version of “The Hong Kong Dairies” written by last governor Chris Patten.

The blistering attacks against Luck Win and Elmbook had not gained a lot of attention after they were published. Both were seen by pundits as likely targets of crackdown on independent bookstores because they had kept a distance from politics.

The silence of the TDC over the surprise disqualification of the two bookshops speaks a lot of the turbulent undercurrents in the waters of culture and publication.

The salvos by pro-Beijing media outlets have emerged as the only plausible reason behind the decision to kick out the two long-time participants of the book fair.

The tolerance has been shrinking

Coming in the wake of raids of two independent bookstores (Book Punch and Hunter Bookstore) by national security police this year, the plight of Luck Win and Elmbook is indicative of intensified crackdown on independent bookstores that are deemed as a medium of “soft resistance.”

The tolerance of bookstores that dare to take the risk of selling titles either with sensitive content or are written by sensitive figures or both at their shops by the power-that-be has been shrinking.

Like political activism and civic activities, freedom of choice of citizens when it comes to books and bookshops is increasingly in fetters, making a mockery of the avowed goal of holding book fairs to help enrich wisdom and broaden vision.

▌ [At Large] About the Author

Chris Yeung is a veteran journalist, a founder and chief writer of the now-disbanded CitizenNews; he now runs a daily news commentary channel on Youtube. He had formerly worked with the South China Morning Post and the Hong Kong Economic Journal.