An independent Hong Kong bookshop founded by journalists has announced that it will close on August 30, citing financial losses and “hard-to-grasp red lines”.
In a statement posted on social media on Tuesday, the bookstore Have a Nice Stay said its decision was driven by the broader social environment, financial strain, staff development considerations, and the mental and physical well-being of its team and their families.
The statement pointed to what it described as “hard-to-grasp red lines”, citing previous remarks by Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung, who had declined to specify which titles might be prohibited.
“Our capabilities are limited – we cannot possibly review all books and decide which books could be ‘problematic’,” it wrote. “Books are a space for knowledge and thought, and that space should be without limits.”
Founded in 2022 by five journalists who had lost their jobs, Have a Nice Stay operates from a fourth-floor tenement property in Prince Edward.
Beyond selling books and promoting journalism studies and reporting literature, it often functions as a venue for workshops and sessions with authors. A year after it opened, it also began publishing thematic reports.
The statement also cited unnamed “enthusiastic complainants” and anonymous letter-writers who it said had long targeted the shop.
