In Hong Kong’s densely packed Causeway Bay district, a red sign with a portrait of Chairman Mao looms over the bustling storefronts and shoppers. The sign indicates that there is coffee, books and Internet on offer inside.
Customers go past a window where travelers can exchange foreign currencies, up a narrow staircase and into a room stacked high with books. The walls are painted red and decked out with 1960s Cultural Revolution propaganda posters and other Mao-era memorabilia. The aroma of coffee and the sound of jazz waft over the book-browsing customers.
This is the People’s Bookstore (in Chinese, “People’s Commune”), run by Hong Kong entrepreneur Paul Tang. Tang got his start selling Chinese-language books from the mainland in 2002. A year later, China’s government began allowing individual mainland travelers to visit Hong Kong. Previously, they were only allowed to go in tour groups.
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/02/03/465284407/the-hong-kong-bookseller-whos-keeping-banned-books-on-his-shelves
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