HONG KONG – "Small" beats "big" in terms of courage among the operators of Hong Kong’s Chinese bookshops. Too many book merchants deprive their customers of desirable choices by refusing to carry books on topics deemed “sensitive” by the Chinese mainland government.

Ida Chan, a Hong Kong TV executive, has noticed this grim reality. Recently, she wrote and published June 4th: 20, a 270-page book (2009, Chinese language, HK$60) about what has happened to the former Beijing student leaders who 20 years ago led popular street protests.

On June 4, 1989, the Chinese military crushed the protests, killing or injuring thousands of people. Ever since, the national propaganda machine has tried to downplay the protests and everything about the Beijing Massacre.

Ida’s book sells mainly at small Hong Kong bookstores. Larger book-sellers, those with mainland investment or business interests, don’t carry it because of the “politically sensitive” content. Despite Hong Kong’s alleged media freedoms, they fear angering the Beijing authorities.

“My book appears mostly in the second-floor bookstores, those run by individuals and located above street-level where the rents are lower,” Ida said. “Real book-lovers go upstairs to those small shops.”

When the larger book vendors with impressive street-side premises decide on stock, they focus on two factors. “One is commercial value – will a book be money-making?” Ida said. “The other is politics. They judge the political background.”

Bookshop bosses who timidly censor their stock for political reasons badly diminish Hong Kong’s freedoms. People on the streets won’t easily forgive them.

For readers, writers and bookshops, anyone too fearful to exercise their basic freedoms quickly loses them.



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