Readers visit the Sanlian Taofen Bookstore on Tuesday night, the first day of its 24/7 trial run. Photo: Li Jingjing/GT

Between e-readers and online ordering, China's bookstores are facing a depressing market. In response, one of China's oldest publishing companies, the SDX Joint Publishing Company, has decided to keep the doors of its Sanlian Taofen Bookstore open 24 hours a day as part of a nationwide event to promote reading.

Although the official ceremony will not be held until April 23, as of the trial run that began on Tuesday, the Sanlian Taofen Bookstore is currently the only 24/7 bookstore in Beijing.

Insomniac Beijingers can now find a comfy alternative to Web-surfing or dubious KTVs. The layout of the bookstore has been changed to be more suitable for reading at night with some bookshelves being replaced with desks, chairs and lamps.

Additionally, various price reductions and special offers are now given for nighttime buyers. The Sculpting in Time Café within the bookstore is also open 24 hours and will hold promotional events with the bookstore from time to time. 

Silver lining

Over the past years, many physical bookstores have closed down one after another after the long-term disruption in business due to the fierce competition with e-bookstores and e-books. It brought about nationwide concern for the failing situation of the brick-and-mortar bookstore market.

In a move to help these stores, the Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration jointly issued a new decree exempting wholesale tax and value added tax for books sold at bookstores, which took effect from January 2014.

Last year, State authorities launched a pilot program in 12 cities to support quality bookstores, particularly private ones.

Local governments including Zhejiang and Jiangsu have been pioneers in supporting medium- and small-sized private bookstores with good reputation and clear specialty orientation in the past few years, putting millions of yuan into the funding. 

In addition, Premier Li Keqiang also included the popularization of reading among the general public in the government work report for the first time in March.

According to Fan Xi'an, general manager of the SDX Joint Publishing Company, in addition to the new tax reduction rules, government support has also come in the form of a 1 million yuan ($160,000) special fund for the development of the cultural industry given to the bookstore.

Fan explained that he did a lot of research before finally implementing the 24/7 plan. Part of this research involved visiting the very successful Eslite Bookstore chain in Taiwan.

Zhang Zuozhen, general manager of the Sanlian Taofen Bookstore, revealed they have invested about 3 million yuan into the 24/7 plan. He believes that the bookstore has certain advantages that will help promote reading.

"As an old and well-known brand, many readers have a special place for this bookstore in their hearts. Located in a prosperous cultural and business area, the National Art Museum of China, Beijing People's Art Theater and Wangfujing Street are all nearby, so many people will be able to come here after watching shows and going shopping," Zhang said.

Mixed attitude

A reader surnamed Wang who came to the store on Tuesday night told the Global Times that he has been coming to this particular store for more than 20 years.

"I grew up around here, once I heard about the news I immediately decided to come," said Wang. But he also said that sometimes he still chooses to buy books online due to the considerable cost advantage.

Another reader surnamed Liu said that she will visit here frequently since bookstores provide a comfy place to read at night, but she prefers to buy books from the Internet.

"We respect readers' choices. We are just providing services for them. It doesn't matter if they don't buy it, somebody has to keep culture going," said Fan.

Fan also expressed that they are not looking to make a fortune off this idea as their goal is to help promote cultural concepts. "We will keep on doing this even we lose money."

However, there are also other voices. "I really love reading and studying at night, but before this, bookstores always closed while I was still reading," said a reader at the bookstore named Hao Ruitian, adding that in order to support brick-and-mortar bookstores, she has decided to not buy any books from the Internet.

The bookstore made more than 14,000 yuan in sales with around 150 transactions during the first night of the trial run, according to China News Service.

Literacy crisis

Reading has become a major concern nationwide. In the 10th national reading survey released by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication in October 2013, the average Chinese citizen aged between 18 and 70 read only 4.39 books in hardcopy in 2012, and 2.35 e-books. Although those numbers were slightly increased compared with 2011, they were still much lower than many other countries.

China's literacy rates have also seen a slight dip over the last decade in absolute terms, according to economist Huang Yasheng.

Apart from the worrying numbers, the choice of reading material is also a concern to cultural critics. Books about "success inspiration," or "chicken soup for the soul" occupied many shelves in bookstores. Readers look for spiritual comfort from these easy reads, but critics see them as empty and pointless.

"We picked the books carefully here, there will be no low quality ones, all the books here could improve the readers' taste," said Fan.

Many other stores are struggling to lift literacy. One Way Street Library, Page One, Sculpting in Time Café are all holding cultural lectures or promotional events to attract readers.

"As an old brand bookstore like Sanlian, the only thing we could do is to help make people more cultured," said Fan.