Hong Kong independent bookstore Luck Win to shut Mong Kok branch by year end after half a century
Hong Kong’s decades-old bookstore Luck Win has announced the shutdown of its Mong Kok branch by the end of the year, becoming the city’s latest independent bookstore to close.
Luck Win announced on Tuesday that its Mong Kok bookshop would close by December 31 at the latest. It did not cite any reasons.
“Operating for 48 years has not been easy, and we are reluctant to say goodbye. We thank all our friends, new and old, for their support. We have to bid farewell. Until we meet again,” the Chinese-language post read.
Some of Luck Win’s customers commented on the post, saying that many titles on their bookshelves were bought at Luck Win over the years and that it was sad to say goodbye.
Photos posted by the bookshop showed that it is offering a discount of 55 per cent off for all books ahead of its closure.
One of Hong Kong’s oldest independent bookshop, Luck Win runs two branches in Mong Kok and Causeway Bay.
A staff member at the Causeway Bay branch told HKFP on the phone that the branch is still operating and that no decision has been made to close it.
Earlier in July, Luck Win and Elmbook, another independent bookshop that opened in 1997, was banned from participating in the city’s official annual book fair.
Soon after the ban, Elmbook said on Facebook that it was shuttering its physical store in Mong Kok. It is yet to announce the exact closure date, although it said the store’s lease would end in April next year.
Wave of closures
Independent bookshops in Hong Kong have been facing increasing pressure from authorities in recent years, with frequent checks from government departments and tax inspections.
The crackdown escalated earlier this year with the arrests of staff by national security police at four bookstores.
In March, staff from Book Punch were arrested, and in June, staff from Hunter Bookstore were apprehended.
In July, staff from Have a Nice Stay and Greenfield were arrested on the same day. A day before the arrests, Have a Nice Stay announced to close down after four years in operation.
Following the arrests, Greenfield also announced that it will shutter after its lease expires.
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Irene Chan is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press and has an interest in covering political and social change. She previously worked at Initium Media as chief editor for Hong Kong news and was a community organiser at the Society for Community Organisation serving the underprivileged. She has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Fudan University and a master’s degree in social work from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Irene is the recipient of two Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) awards and three honourable mentions for her investigative, feature and video reporting. She also received a Human Rights Press Award for multimedia reporting and an honourable mention for feature writing.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.