Fang Suo Commune offers more holistic experience for lovers of modern literature

Take the escalator down through a giant tunnel and you will be stunned by the 4,000-square-meter paradise that Fang Suo Commune has built for book and art lovers in Chengdu, Sichuan province.

The underground space is divided into two floors. Bookshelves stretch for 100 meters by your sides, with exquisite handicrafts selected from all over the world displayed in the central open area.

Potted plants and flower arrangements add more color to the space.

And don't miss the cafe and clothing shop that further enrich your shopping experience.

The Chengdu branch of Fang Suo Commune had its grand opening on Jan 29, and during its two-month soft opening period it attracted 7,000 to 20,000 visitors per day, double the number at its first branch in Guangzhou.

The Guangzhou branch's monthly book sales can hit 1.5 million yuan ($240,000), far exceeding the prediction of only about 100,000 yuan per month that was made by people in the Chinese book industry, according to Fang Suo Commune Chief Consultant Liao Mei-li.

Book sales account for around 35 percent of the total sales at the Guangzhou branch.

"A brick-and-mortar bookstore that only sells books is unable to survive in the digital age. However, what's amazing about the book industry is that it can do crossovers with many other industries such as beverages and movies. There is a market for such cross-industry bookstores," Liao said at the Chengdu branch's opening ceremony.

She was a co-founder of Eslite Bookstore, one of the largest retail bookstore chains in Taiwan, and has worked in the industry for almost two decades.

"With a big market, the mainland is where talent in the cultural industry can give full play to its creativity to break the ceiling of the retail industry."

Before Fang Suo Commune, many other Chinese bookstores such as the chain O2SUN Bookstores had also tried to boost their business by introducing cafes and gift retails.

However, few have made it. O2SUN Bookstores collapsed just before Fang Suo Commune's Guangzhou branch opened in 2011.

In contrast, Fang Suo Commune will open its third branch in Chongqing in March and is going to enter Qingdao later this year and Shanghai in 2017.

"To achieve business success, a cross-industry bookstore needs a big enough scale. But most importantly, we need a professional team to operate it. The leading members in Fang Suo's team all have more than a decade of experience in the book or retail industry," Liao says.

Quan Jiyu, 29, and his girlfriend have already become fans of Fang Suo Commune's Chengdu branch.

"Fang Suo has a wide collection of books. I can have fun coming across some surprisingly good books here," Quan says.

"And many are imported books that are difficult to find in other bookstores or online."

Yang Ying, 28, Quan's girlfriend, is attracted to the fine handicrafts sold at Fang Suo. She bought a delicate Japanese ceramic teapot for around 900 yuan.

She got to know the bookstore from shopping center Taikoo Li's recommendations on WeChat, the country's most widely used mobile messaging app.

Fang Suo Commune's Chengdu branch is located in the upscale Taikoo Li mall, while its Guangzhou branch is located in the Taikoo Hui mall, the city's biggest cluster of high-end brands such as Hermes and Louis Vuitton.

"Reading and knowledge should be valued higher than the luxury brands," says Mao Jihong, president of clothing brand Exception de Mixmind and founder of Fang Suo Commune.

"Traditional Chinese culture values reading books, but this seems to have been forgotten by many people as they have been chasing wealth," Mao says.

"However, I still have a dream of opening a bookstore which is a public space where knowledge, science, wisdom and lifestyle are spread to the public."

In the Chengdu branch, Mao is going to conduct more exciting experiments, such as organizing poetry reading events and extending the business hours for a certain area for bands to stage performances.

"Fang Suo Commune well complements the upscale shopping mall. Consumers, especially young people, come to shopping malls for more than clothes and bags. They also seek somewhere to learn and get inspired," says Yang, the fan of Fang Suo Commune's Chengdu branch.

xujingxi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 02/16/2015 page14)