In a city that prefers balance sheets to Baudelaire and pays tribute to Mammon rather than Maupassant, Yves Azemar ploughs a lonely literary furrow.
From Indosiam, his first-floor antiquarian bookshop in a Hollywood Road tenement, the retired French schoolteacher has for the past five years carried on a passionate if hardly brisk trade in handsomely bound rare tomes - many in French - dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
'This is primarily my hobby, rather than a business, it's something I really love doing,' Azemar says. 'I have a collection of about 6,000 books - although most are at home and there are many I would not really want to sell.'
Azemar was recently surprised to find himself caught up in a torrent of interest in Asian literature of yesteryear. 'It started with Hong Kong's first International Antiquarian Books Fair in 2007 - when I first heard about it I thought it would be enjoyable but didn't for a moment think many people would attend,' he says.
'But I was amazed that major dealers from around the world were represented, and it attracted staff from libraries and universities as well as private collectors from the mainland.'
The next fair - to be held in January at the Convention and Exhibition Centre - is expected to be even more successful, despite the global financial tsunami.