A Hong Kong literary organisation has said it was forced to call off a book fair, citing “factors beyond our control.”
The House of Hong Kong Literature, a non-profit that promotes the city’s literary scene, said in a social media post on Monday that the event would be halted immediately.
“We express our regret and apologies to our reading fans, and we thank everybody for their support,” the post in Chinese read.
Tang Siu-wa, writer and co-founder of The House of Hong Kong Literature, told HKFP on Monday evening that the non-profit decided to cancel the event earlier that afternoon. She said she did not wish to publicise the reason.
“I’ve been [holding book fairs] for over 10 years,” she said in Cantonese. “We are sorry [to our fans], because some of them told us that they would come tonight, that they would come after work. But now they’ve missed it.”
According to The House of Hong Kong Literature’s social media pages, the event opened on Friday and was scheduled to run for 10 days at its location in a San Po Kong industrial building.
The cancellation on Monday means the book fair ran for only two days – Friday and Saturday – as the Typhoon Signal No. 10 was in force on Sunday.
Tang said profits from this book fair were intended to go towards the money they need for relocating, as the non-profit is moving out of their current location. She said the sudden halt affected their fundraising and encouraged readers to purchase books from their online store.
She added that the non-profit would need to think more carefully about holding events in the future.
Tang said the local publishing industry contributes significantly to the city’s GDP, and she hoped not to see too much “negative news” relating to the books sector, as that could affect Hong Kong’s image.
Founded in 2014, The House of Hong Kong Literature promotes the city’s literary scene through publishing books and organising events featuring local writers.
The House of Hong Kong Literature’s book fair coincides with the city’s official book fair, a week-long event organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC).
In recent years, independent publishers have accused the Hong Kong Book Fair of censoring them, having been barred from taking part or told to remove certain books.
In 2022, the HKTDC turned down applications from at least three independent booksellers, Hillway Press, One of a Kind, and Humming Publishing. They had published books with the 2019 pro-democracy protests and unrest as their theme.
Since then, some independent bookshops and publishers have organised an alternative book fair at Hunter Bookstore, run by a former pro-democracy district councillor.
Long lines were spotted outside Hunter Bookstore on Saturday, as readers rushed to browse books before the typhoon was forecast to strengthen the next day.
