Bookseller Yu Miao wanted Jifeng Bookstore in Shanghai to be a place for public discussions, with talks on topics from social issues to constitutionalism and religion.
“But some topics are considered taboo and sensitive to discuss in public spaces,” he says of the store that was effectively forced out of business in China in January 2018.
Years later, Jifeng has started a new chapter as JF Books in Washington, a rare source of Chinese-language volumes in the US capital, covering everything from sociology to China studies.
The bookstore originated in China in 1997, with up to eight outlets in cosmopolitan Shanghai at its peak.
But as Beijing tightened restrictions on booksellers and academics over the past decade, the store came under heightened scrutiny.
