Culture and Leisure
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Courtesy of Cattle Depot Artists' Village
A different choice for booklovers
by Zhang Zheng
The Cattle Depot Book Fair just ended in October has provided a unique reading environment and refreshing cultural experience to bookshoppers, different from usual book events, visitors said.
The book fair has been co-organised by 1a space and Zuni Icosahedron at the Cattle Depot Artists' Village in To Kwa Wan for the third year . It has been supported by upstairs bookstores such as Mackie Study, which is known for its strong cultural atmosphere. The book fair is distinctive not only for its books, but also for its concerts, talks and movie shows.
Angel Xue Anqi, a statistics student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who has visited the book fair, said the Cattle Depot Artists' Village had a unique atmosphere because the buildings looked very primitive.
¡§The pace of Hong Kong is too fast. The book fair, especially the flea market, made me feel relaxing and comfortable. In such an environment, you can gradually calm down yourself and think,¡¨ she said.
She added that the books were good. ¡§I like the flea market. I was surprised to find that there were some old and classical books, for example some books of Lu Xun that were published decades ago. The pages had already turned yellowish. I was really moved when I saw those books.¡¨
The fair was launched in July 2003 to compete with the Hong Kong Trade
Development Council's annual Hong Kong Book Fair for visitors.
¡§The Hong Kong Book Fair is just a place for big bookstores to sell their
overstocked books. It doesn't give a feeling of culture and won't provide an alternative to real booklovers,¡¨ said Cally Yu Ruomei, an organiser of this year'sCattle Depot Book Fair.
Long Tin, the organiser of the first Cattle Depot Book Fair, has argued for the ideals of the book fair in his writing: ¡§A real book fair should provide a chance for readers to discuss the attractiveness and the related culture with the booksellers. Readers should comment on their favourite authors' works and find rooms for improvement for them instead of just asking them for autographs. The exhibition hall should enable multimedia discussion related to books and reading. Books are more than a tool for self-learning and entertainment. We don't want a commercial-oriented book fair dominated by consumerism.¡¨
The first trial two years ago enjoyed a certain level of success. This encouraged the organisers to launch the book fair in 2004 with the theme: ¡§The Practice of HongKongness¡¨.
Eric Ma Kit-wai, associate professor of communication at the Chinese University , said: ¡§ Hong Kong people were searching for a new identity after SARS in the previous year. There was a huge debate on the core values of Hong Kong people. Therefore, this theme was an echo to the general public.¡¨
The theme for this year's book fair was: ¡§We Read, Reunion with Our Bodies¡¨.
¡§The term ¡¥body' is a metaphor,¡¨ Yu explained. ¡§We are not referring to the physical body only. We define it in terms of culture, history and society. It is the beginning of thinking and theory. It is the most basic thing owned by everyone.¡¨
Ma, who gave several speeches at the book fair, said the topic ¡§body¡¨ was quite fashionable in a theoretical sense. ¡§The organisers want to bring new concepts to the reading public,¡¨ he said.
Yu considered that reading was not restricted to books.
¡§We read the outside environment and read inside ourselves. The ¡¥body' of the book fair stands for the Cattle Depot Artists' Village. This place has been listed as a historical building. However, people know little about it,¡¨ she said.
The book fair's ¡§body¡¨ also referred to the flea market that allowed readers to show their collections of books, posters, CDs or any other readable stuff. They could buy or sell by means of barter or cash.
¡§In other words, this strengthens the local cultural industry. We want to bring different people here and provide them a place for conversation and communication,¡¨ Yu said.
However, most visitors' main targets were not the books. They were drawn by activities like the concerts.
¡§It was like a rock music concert. It was very modern and fashionable ¡K I don't think the music was very closely related to the theme, although it did attract a lot of people there,¡¨ Xue said.
Yet, the organiser had a different view.
¡§Last year, a total of 10,000 people visited the book fair. Most of them came for the concert, like visiting a carnival,¡¨ Yu said.
¡§They came to enjoy themselves. There were not many book buyers. But we have to consider both the standard and number of our visitors. Even if they don't buy books, it doesn't matter.¡¨
aniDa, a performer at the concert, agreed with Yu. ¡§The concert could attract visitors who do not read books of culture and literature very often. When they come and have a look at our books, they may have a basic idea of what cultural reading is. Thus, they are more likely to be interested in cultural reading,¡¨ aniDa said.
The book fair's readership, however, is still limited to the cultural circle and is commonly regarded as the ¡§non-mainstream¡¨.
Although the Cattle Depot Book Fair has yet to make a significant impact on society, such an event is important because it provides another choice for booklovers.
The book fair at the Cattle Depot Artists' Village attracts many booklovers.
Courtesy of Cattle Depot Artists' Village