Jifeng Bookshop Documentary – From Shanghai to DC

A new documentary on the travails of Jifeng Bookstore (季风书园) originally founded in 1997 in Shanghai by Yan Bofei. The bookstore’s name, meaning “monsoon”, refers to “the seasonal prevailing wind, changing according to the climate in an endless way, [which] resembles the fate of modern China”. The government initially offered some support to Jifeng but that all fell away after 2014 and Jifeng, having established itself as a chain, ended up with just one location in Shanghai Library subway station. Then, following government pressure, the landlord turned on Jifeng too. It was too much – Yan closed the store and moved to the United States.

Jifeng Bookstore reopened as JF Books on September 1, 2024 on Washington DC’s Dupont Circle. They very graciously asked me to speak there at their newly inaugurated “JF Salon” in November that year when I was in America to launch my Wallis Simpson in China book, her Lotus Year. And what a great crowd turned out, bought books and supported me and Jifeng. Since then the DC store has gone from strength to strength with so many speakers, people discovering it, and as a node for anyone interested in China – mainland students in the US, those Americans studying China, old hacks back in town, former businesspeople, diplomats or those who’ve just started to find China interesting and want a great selection of English and Chinese language books. And long may their success continue…