Well-wishers post notes on Hong Kong book shop after booksellers’ disappearances
Visitors leave notes at Causeway Bay Books and wonder why the proprietors went missing
The Hong Kong banned bookshop where five staff vanished one after the other over recent weeks remained closed on Tuesday, despite handwritten instruction from its major shareholder Lee Bo to resume normal business operations.
In the bustling Causeway Bay shopping district where the store was located, a few curious Hongkongers and mainland tourists came by and walked up along its dark and narrow staircase now and again to check on the status of bookseller Causeway Bay Books.
Notes and wooden tags expressing hopes that the missing booksellers would return and airing concerns over their welfare were hung on the shop’s iron door.
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“Come back to Hong Kong and be united with us!” read one message. “Hope all of you are okay.”
University student Dave Lee, 20, told the Post: “I barely read banned books as I think many of them are not very evidence-based, but I have heard of this bookstore before and am wondering what has really happened to Lee Bo.”
Lee added: “Lee Bo said he had crossed the border ‘in his own way’, but if he could do this, we all don’t need a home-return permit to travel to the mainland.”
Lee’s wife approached the police on Monday afternoon but withdrew her request for police assistance, claiming Lee had been in contact, it had been learned.
It was not immediately known if Lee was in Hong Kong or in Shenzhen, or if he was safe or not.
Last night, the Central News Agency published a handwritten letter said to be faxed by Lee to a bookstore colleague, saying he returned to the mainland in his own way and asking the staff to continue operating the bookshop.
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Taking a picture of the store’s exterior, Lee said he wanted more transparency as to what happened. He said he and would pay a visit again when it reopened.
Kivi Li, a mainlander on holiday in Hong Kong, said she learned of the news during the weekend, and, out of curiosity, dropped by the store to have a look with her friend while shopping in Causeway Bay.
“Does it have anything to do with what they’re selling?” Li asked.
A tourist from a northern region of the mainland who only wanted to be identified as ‘John’, citing the “sensitivity of the case,” browsed rows of banned books displayed at a news stand near the entrance.
“I’ve heard of the ‘bookseller mystery’ and the names of some of their banned books,” he said. “Is their disappearance associated with anything highly classified? I have no idea.”
