Bye-bye Confucius Temple book market

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Bye-bye Confucius Temple book market

By Yao Minji (Shanghai Daily) 11:08, August 10, 2013

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Confucius, China’s greatest sage, might be dismayed that the beloved daily book market near his temple has been shifted to a remote area in Zhabei District. Yao Minji and Mari Watanabe report.

Zheng Ling, a 27-year-old sales manager, still remembers the times she spent browsing at the Shanghai Confucius Temple book market when she was in middle school.

When she was around 10, Zheng used to go almost every weekend with her father and sometimes her classmates. The market was crowded and bustling with newspaper booths and bookstore owners who bought wholesale, as well as book lovers seeking discounted books or rare volumes.

When it was built, the downtown market near the temple commemorating China’s greatest intellectual soon became a cultural landmark.

To the disappointment of many people, the market is closing and shifting to a better facilitated place in Zhabei District. The Sunday flea market for second-hand books will continue in the area.

The wholesale book market in the Old Town area of Shanghai opened in 1993 and was then at its peak. Nearly 90 percent of all newspaper sellers in the city bought their papers there.

The book market was even better known than the temple, a tourist site at 215 Wenmiao Rd. Many locals equate Wen Miao, the Confucius Temple, with the book market.

One frequenter was Pudong businessman Lu Huangao who often visited the Confucian Temple book market to hunt for vital historical materials for his private museum. “It’s really a treasure trove,” he says.

The Shanghai Confucius Temple itself, a few steps from the market, was founded in 1291 during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Destroyed in wars, it was rebuilt a few times, most recently in 1855.

Over the years, the temple has served as a place of Confucian worship, a school for Confucian scholars, a public garden and children’s palace.

Expired lease

The market’s lease expired this year and the market is being relocated to Daning Road in Zhabei District, a far less accessible location, around 45 minutes’ driving away from the current market in downtown.

Officials say the market was a fire hazard and drew neighbor complaints because of crowding, noise, traffic jams and potential security problems.

Most stores have already moved, some to the new market in Daning, while other booksellers hope to find places nearby, since they believe it is important to sell books downtown.

The once-crowded market is now empty; only a handful of stores are open while their owners and staff pack up their books.

“We probably won’t move to Daning,” says a shop assistant from a remaining store specializing in in-depth books related to culture and the social sciences.

She has worked in the market for 20 years since it opened.

“We will probably try to find a place nearby. The new place is so far away. We don’t want to lose our old customers. It is already difficult to sell books in brick-and-mortar stores today,” says the woman, who asks not to be quoted by name.

Sales have fallen sharply in the past few years, as they have for most stores.

“People don’t read books anymore, especially these books that take more brains,” the book lover says, adding that many people buy books online or read e-books.

“But I still prefer these paperbacks. Isn’t it wonderful to have a place to sell books near the temple for the great philosopher Confucius?” she says.

In recent years some non book-lover customers asked her to recommend books that would make a good impression on bookshelves, suggesting that the owner was a person of taste and learning. One customer bought many books and told her he sells bookshelves complete with books.

The popular Sunday flea market for second-hand books will continue in the plaza. Dozens of vendors sell a range of books, including English-language books, a big find in a city with only a handful of bookstores selling foreign books.

“The Sunday book market was a reward for me when I got good scores in high school. I bought and exchanged many comic books here. At that time there weren’t many places to find imported comics,” says Wang, a book vendor at the Sunday market,

“I told myself that one day I would have my own stall here too and I did it,” says Wang, who is in his late 20s. “It’s such a relief to know the Sunday market won’t be relocated. I won’t go so far to Zhabei with loads of books.”

Many store owners, old customers and book lovers were deeply disappointed to lose the cultural landmark, especially its relocation to such a remote area. The use of the land in the future has not been announced.

“I’ll really miss it,” says Zheng, who used to go there as a middle-school student. “And I regret I haven’t visited in the past five years. Now I realize what I have lost.”

Shanghai Confucius Temple second-hand books market

Date: Sundays, 7:30am-4pm

Address: 215 Wenmiao Rd

Admission: 1 yuan

How to get there: Metro Line 8 Laoximen Station