Beijing's old book market revived by new wave of collectors

Cultural lineage

Baoguo Temple's old book market proves that even non-bestsellers are worthwhile to someone.

Sun Yutian, CEO and founder of Kongfuzi Jiushu website, said a significant number of book enthusiasts aren't scholars or professors. However, many are contributing to the documentation of cultural changes in their own way.

One market customer recently purchased an old book and found a 1987 junior high school graduation diploma inside. They posted it on the social media platform RedNote and found the person who owned the diploma. "They weren't just saying diplomas existed; they were sharing stories related to them," said Sun.

The underlying purpose of this community of book collectors is the preservation and inheritance of traditional Chinese culture, he said.

An important function of the market is the protection of historical and cultural documents, ancient texts and old books — even those from before the founding of New China, Sun said.

"Their purpose isn't necessarily for you to read them cover to cover. They exist, instead, to show that the inheritance of Chinese civilization and culture lies within these materials," said Sun. "This is because their primary value isn't their content or specific editions, but rather what they represent."

Considering China's millennia-old civilization, there's a continuous, unbroken cultural lineage that includes the nation's publishing history.