Another Hong Kong Bookstore Turns the Page

Head over to Hong Kong’s Luck Win Bookstore (樂文書店) in the bustling district of Mong Kok this week and you are sure to find a deal. Books there are being sold at below half price. But don’t celebrate just yet. Luck Win, which has operated for more than four decades, announced on Wednesday that it will close its doors on or before December 31. The closure is just the latest sign of mounting pressure on the city’s publishing industry since national security legislation took effect six years ago.

“We thank our new and old friends for their support over the years,” the bookstore said in a message posted to social media. “We must say goodbye for now, but we hope to see you again.”

Luck Win’s announcement follows a string of similar closures and farewells in Hong Kong’s publishing sector. On July 29, two weeks after it was searched by national security police and two staff members arrested on suspicion of violating Article 24 of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, the city’s Greenfield Book Store (田園書屋) announced its closure. That incident came just weeks after Elm Books (榆林書店), founded in 1997, announced it would close its storefront when its lease at its current Mong Kok location expires in April 2027. This followed news that the store had been disqualified from taking part in the Hong Kong Book Fair by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), the fair’s organizer. 

Though the circumstances in both cases intimated pressure on national security grounds, Greenfield and Elm Books were not forthcoming about their reasons for shutting down. “The road ahead is shrouded in fog,” Elm Books said in its message to the public. “If fate allows, we will meet again.”

Luck Win, the latest casualty, has been equally guarded. Like Elm Books, Luck Win was disqualified in late June from taking part in the Hong Kong Book Fair. In its reply to Ming Pao (明報) at the time, the HKTDC said only that exhibitor decisions were handled according to standard terms — and that it would not comment on individual cases.

State-backed media were far less reticent, and their coverage spoke volumes about what booksellers would not say. A full-page undercover report in the Chinese government-backed Wen Wei Po (文匯報) on July 13 helps fill in the blanks: it alleged that Luck Win and Elm Books had stocked “independence books” (獨書) that disparaged the country, the Chinese Communist Party and the National Security Law.