Zhu Jinxiu:Turning the Page

In Hangzhou and even the entire cultural community of Zhejiang Province， Zhu Jinxiu and her book store are legends. After she was diagnosed with terminal cancer， she decided to start a book club and named it “The Age of Innocence.” Today it has evolved from her final wish into a cultural landmark of Hangzhou. Over the following decade and a half， Zhu not only survived to spend 16 years with her book club， but the club injected hope into the sluggish paper book industry.

In 1999， 44-year-old Zhu was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer. Facing a short time left in her life， she didn’t want much. After a year of treatment， she left the hospital weak but alive， with symptoms that could flare up at any time. “I survived， so I decided it was time to do something meaningful，”she said.

With the help of her husband， Sheng Zichao， then president of Zhejiang Academy of Literature， Zhu’s book store finally opened to the public on September 28， 2000. However， because lack of business experience， Zhu and her husband had a hard time running the business in the first couple of years. Luckily， their rent was reasonable， so they could usually break even. In 2008 when rental prices began soaring and sales of brick-and-mortar book stores plummeting， the club began recording losses every month. The Age of Innocence， like many other small traditional book stores， absorbed a severe blow in the internet era. To save the store， Zhu decided to switch focus to cultural management.

Famous Chinese writer Wang Meng has noted that the convenience of online book stores made a huge impact on their brickand-mortar competitors， but that the latter could continue to attract customers as municipal cultural landmarks and salons by providing diversified environments and rich services， and Zhu agreed.

Thanks to her husband’s authority as a famous writer and literary critic， many writers flock to their shop to give lectures and hold book signing events. With this business model， even without managing to turn profitable yet， the strong cultural ambience became alluring to many bibliophiles and intellectuals from Hangzhou and beyond. After years of hard work， The Age of Innocence not only introduced many excellent books to readers， but also gradually became a popular communication platform to share book reviews and travel experiences as well as to study.

“We want to organize more attractive book reading activities so more and more people will learn to enjoy reading and sample the poetry of life，” insisted Zhu. Since its founding， The Age of Innocence has facilitated a variety of activities one after the other， such as book releases， readings， lectures， and film salons. The large flow of people brought increased demand for catering and conference reception， which in turn supported the operation of the book club.

“If we stick to the traditional operating methods like other brick-and-mortar book stores， we probably wouldn’t be around today，” admits Zhu. “By combining recreation， reading and other activities， we built a nice business step-by-step. Many dream of opening a book store， but stay with it.” Now the major focus of the book store is to present reading events to inspire greater numbers of people to read books.

Since founding the book store， Zhu’s health has improved remarkably and she is now cancer free. Seeing her calm and smiling face， no one would ever guess she was once given only months to live.

Times are changing， as are people’s reading habits. But Zhu still holds firmly to her original dream， “to hang a lamp at the dusk of the brick-and-mortar book store industry，” as she has once described her book store. Thanks to the encouraging story of The Age of Innocence， she hopes to provide a new method for struggling traditional book stores to survive in the bleak book store industry.