From Shelf Awareness:
Lam Wing-kee, one of the five Hong Kong publishers and booksellers kidnapped by China in 2015, was attacked yesterday by a man who threw red paint at him, days before he was to open a bookstore in Taiwan.
. . . .
“I was attacked with red paint in the cafe,” Lam told Reuters. “Some people don’t want me to open the bookshop in Taiwan.” He described the attack as a threat by supporters of Beijing.
Last week, Lam said he plans to open Causeway Bay Books, named after the original store in Hong Kong, this coming Saturday, April 25, in Taipei.
Lam moved to Taiwan last year, when a law that would have allowed people to be sent to China for trial came close to passage in Hong Kong. Mass protests led to the withdrawal of the law. But in recent days, Hong Kong authorities have arrested many pro-democracy activists.
The five owners and staff members of publisher Mighty Current and its bookstore, Causeway Bay Books, were kidnapped and detained in 2015 by China, which was unhappy that they published and sold books critical of the Chinese leadership. In 2016, Lam was released on bail and allowed to return to Hong Kong to retrieve a hard drive listing the bookstore’s customers, but he went public, telling about being blindfolded by police and being interrogated for months.
Link to the rest at Shelf Awareness
PG thinks it’s good to be reminded that, as difficult as the book business can be for authors, publishers and booksellers in Western nations, our challenges are minuscule compared to those doing the same things elsewhere in the world.
Here’s a 2016 article about this same subject, from The Bookseller:
Author publishes missing Hong Kong booksellers’ title online
The author of a controversial book on China’s president has released the title online.
The provocative book, believed to be the reason five booksellers from the Mighty Current publishing house in Hong Kong went missing between October and December 2015, is a tell-all about the love life of China’s president, Xi Jinping, entitled Xi Jinping and His Lover.
Its US-based Chinese author, who writes under the pseudonym Xi Nuo, told the BBC he published it online to challenge the Chinese authorities and that the publishers should not be held responsible. His co-author has not been named in the interests of safety.
The book was completed in 2014, but publisher Gui Minhai decided against releasing it, according to Xi Nuo, following a visit from a Chinese government agent.
Described by the BBC as “written in simple and almost vulgur language”, the title is presented as a work of fiction but includes real life figures, with details of purported affairs of China’s leader as well as “alleged incidents” within his marriages.
Xi Nuo told the BBC: “I decided to publish this book. I want to tell the Chinese authorities and Xi Jinping, the president of China, that you are wrong. Completely wrong. You better release the five guys. Let them go back home.”
The author of a controversial book on China’s president has released the title online.
The provocative book, believed to be the reason five booksellers from the Mighty Current publishing house in Hong Kong went missing between October and December 2015, is a tell-all about the love life of China’s president, Xi Jinping, entitled Xi Jinping and His Lover.
Its US-based Chinese author, who writes under the pseudonym Xi Nuo, told the BBC he published it online to challenge the Chinese authorities and that the publishers should not be held responsible. His co-author has not been named in the interests of safety.
The book was completed in 2014, but publisher Gui Minhai decided against releasing it, according to Xi Nuo, following a visit from a Chinese government agent.
Described by the BBC as “written in simple and almost vulgur language”, the title is presented as a work of fiction but includes real life figures, with details of purported affairs of China’s leader as well as “alleged incidents” within his marriages.
Xi Nuo told the BBC: “I decided to publish this book. I want to tell the Chinese authorities and Xi Jinping, the president of China, that you are wrong. Completely wrong. You better release the five guys. Let them go back home.”
Link to the rest at The Bookseller