In July 2021, Hillway Press received complaints from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council that some of the titles it was selling at the Hong Kong Book Fair might be in breach of the city’s National Security Law, which Beijing passed in 2020 after widespread anti-government protests that were sparked by proposed changes to Hong Kong’s extradition law.

Put your Kindle down: 5 of the best independent bookstores in Hong Kong

Hillway Culture and Hillway Press persevered. But in December, a social media post announced both would cease operations at the end of that month.

The post said the decision was not to do with politics, but because one of the co-founders, Sam Cheng, was emigrating. Hillway Culture did not respond to a request for comment.

The same month, Mount Zero, one of Hong Kong’s most well-known independent bookshops, said in a social media post that it would close at the end of March 2024, having received an avalanche of letters from different government departments about alleged legal infringements.

The complaints were over minor matters, it said, such as a small, tiled platform in front of the shop that was deemed “an illegal occupation of government land”. The bookshop claimed the platform was already there when it moved into its premises in 2018, and that its founders had tiled its uneven surface for safety reasons.

Mount Zero declined to comment, citing a “focus on bookshop daily operations” before its March closure.

In early January, Prejudice Bookstore announced on social media that it would close at the end of that month, having received notice from the Lands Department that it was in breach of its lease agreement.

Prejudice Bookstore was founded in 2017 as a second-hand bookshop that operated on trust. Open round the clock, the shop was never staffed; anyone who wanted to buy a book was asked to place money in an honesty box.

Letters to the bookshop and neighbouring retailers said they were not allowed to operate in a factory building.

However, owner Samson Fan was able to find a new home for his shop, which reopened on February 4 in Kwun Tong’s Yue Man Shopping Centre. The bookstore did not respond to a request for comment.

In response to that and some of Tse’s other points, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said “disregarding a suitable law-abiding awareness” in the city must not become a “habit”.

It’s not all doom and gloom for independent booksellers, however. New ones are emerging as they use novel business models to satisfy book lovers in the city.

Dexter Tse founded Lion’s Ink Bookstore in 2022, which focuses on the history and culture of Hong Kong. It also carries titles on Macau’s history, historiography and related social issues.

“The history of Hong Kong is almost non-existent in our formal education, and people lack the proper channels to learn about it as there are very few reliable sources of information,” Tse says. “It’s a shame that people in Hong Kong know so little about the history of their hometown.”

Tse was a public historian with connections in academia and the publishing industry, and he follows new research and publications closely.

“I source books from local and overseas publishers, mainly in Taiwan, the UK and the US, and particularly academic and university presses. By handpicking what I think is accurate, I hope to provide a reliable source of information for the general public.”

Lion’s Ink Bookstore operates primarily online, but also occupies a corner at A Book Club, a bookstore in Sham Shui Po, West Kowloon.

Gentle Books is a second-hand bookshop that began in 2023 as an online store. It runs monthly retail pop-ups at Common Ground, a cafe in Sheung Wan, and occasional community events at other locations.

“It started out of a love for vintage and second-hand items,” co-founder Diane Wang says. “Our mission was not only to save books from the landfill, but also to see whether we could build a different model of a bookshop, both from an operations and community standpoint.”

The “mobile bookshop” is mostly online, but turns “in-person on the weekends”, Wang adds.

“It gives us flexibility and allows us to activate a variety of spaces and bring people together.”

Wang chooses about 200 English-language books, both fiction and non-fiction, for each pop-up, and encourages discussion among readers.

Gentle sends books it cannot sell to partners such as Rebooked, which deals in second-hand English-language children’s books, or – in the case of books that are in poor condition – to recyclers in Hong Kong.

Yolk Bookshop and Art Goods opened recently in a wet market in Wong Tai Sin and caters mainly to artists and designers by selling photo books from emerging Asian creatives.

Founder Michael Cheung says its current titles come from photographers, artists and publishers in Hong Kong, Indonesia and Thailand; more from other Asian countries are on the way.

“Beyond offset-printed books [a type of printing technique that produces high-quality images], we are also introducing books and paper goods that are risographs [stencil duplications resulting in a unique aesthetic], which is relatively niche in Hong Kong,” Cheng says.

Yolk currently opens on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, but Cheung says small groups are welcome on weekdays if they make an appointment in advance.