Long queues mark final day as Hong Kong bookstore closes after raid
An independent Hong Kong bookstore has shut its doors six weeks after a national security police raid, drawing long queues of customers on its final day following four years in business. Readers wound down the dim staircase of a Prince Edward tenement building on Sunday afternoon, with some waiting up to 45 minutes to enter the third-floor bookstore, Have a Nice Stay. The closure followed a…
An independent Hong Kong bookstore, Have a Nice Stay, closed its doors after six weeks of operation, drawing long lines of customers on its final day. The closure followed a national security raid in mid-July, which targeted the shop and a neighboring bookstore for alleged seditious behavior. Five individuals, including staff and the co-founder Sum Wan-wah, were detained but later released on bail.
Despite the challenges, the bookshop reopened from Wednesday to Sunday to clear its remaining stock and bid farewell to its loyal clientele. The shop, founded in 2022 by former journalists, aimed to promote journalism and provide a gathering place for those who remained in Hong Kong after the pandemic induced a mass exodus. The bookstore cited financial difficulties, uncertainty over its building, and the inability to comply with "elusive red lines" as reasons for its closure, even though it had largely broken even during its four years of operation.
Written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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