Forced to leave Shanghai, a beloved bookstore is finding a new home in Dupont

D.C. has long been a home for mom and pop bookstores, often nestled in the nooks and crannies of the city. Sooner or later, every District bookworm becomes familiar friends with the likes of Capitol Hill Books, Busboys and Poets, and Second Story Books.

On Labor Day, one more store joined the city’s lineup of iconic bookshops: JF Books, D.C.’s first and only Chinese-language bookstore. 

JF Books is located in the heart of Dupont Circle at 1509 Connecticut Ave., next to Kramers, another quintessentially-D.C. bookstore. Two signs, one in Chinese and one in English, emit a soft green glow in the storefront windows. Inside, postcards line the right wall, calligraphy scrolls hang by the doors, and soft piano notes accompany your browsing. At first impression, it is abundantly clear that the space radiates an air of history, care, and culture.

This curated atmosphere can be credited to the bookstore’s venerable history: formerly Jifeng Bookstore, the independent bookstore was founded in 1997 and opened multiple storefronts across Shanghai, China. 

By 2017, however, only one remained, following an end to the Chinese government’s subsidies for brick and mortar shops in 2014. Nestled inside the famous Shanghai Library in the heart of the city, the remaining location became a hub for Shanghai’s thinkers and scholars to ruminate on their latest findings. 

“In the last five years in the Shanghai Library, we have run more than 800 cultural events, including lectures, forums, documentary screenings, and a small concert, to give readers more excuses to step into a physical bookstore,” Miao Yu, who managed the Shanghai Library location from 2013 to 2018 and now owns JF Books, said.

Jifeng Bookstore was abruptly shut down in January of 2018, marking a sudden end to its 20-year residence after government regulations around the use of state-owned property prevented the Shanghai Library from offering Jifeng Bookstore a lease extension.

The store’s opening in D.C. represents rebirth for the owners and enthusiasts alike; the postcards that cover the right wall are written by patrons of the original store. A handwritten letter dated Sept. 1, the D.C. store’s opening day, is taped next to the notes. It reads: “Today, these postcards carrying blessings and hopes, have crossed the sea and traveled across six years, arriving at the Reborn Jifeng.”

JF Books’s D.C. reopening is news for all readers in the District, but the store’s novelty has brought an additional level of anticipation for the city’s academics. 

“There was a whole crew of us China Studies faculty from Georgetown and other nearby universities […] and word got out that it was going to open,” Philip Kafalas, a professor in Georgetown’s Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, said. “We all went, because it was a big thing for us.” 

Kafalas visited the Shanghai location numerous times during his travels, always returning with armloads of classical Chinese literature.

“You can’t just go into a bookstore anywhere in the United States and buy that sort of thing. To have that right where I go to get on the Metro on the way home from school every time I come in is a major miracle for me,” Kafalas said.

The excitement of unlocking access to new texts hasn’t just resonated with academics and teaching faculty—it’s also struck home with students. 

“About 70% of the readers who step into my bookstore are young people,” Yu said. “There are students from nearby universities—your university [Georgetown University], GW [George Washington University], AU [American University]—and they said it has been a long time since they have stood in front of so many various Chinese language books. And many of them are not Chinese students—they’re non-Chinese readers, young people, from Asian countries or just the local community.”

There’s something uniquely meaningful about being able to physically browse literature, whether as a native speaker or a language learner, Yu said.

“You may know some titles of books you are interested in. You can search for such titles online. But if you step into a physical bookstore, you may find some books you’ve never heard of,” he said. “If you read some pages, you will find that that’s the right book you are interested in.”

Kafalas echoed a similar enthusiasm about his students being able to experience that cherished moment of discovery. 

“I sent out an announcement about their opening to every Chinese major and minor at Georgetown because I wanted them to go,” Kafalas said. “I’ve been teaching here for 27 years. There was never a chance to send my students to a bookstore just to browse Chinese. I wanted them to know that they’re lucky.” 

There’s also something special about the store opening up in D.C.; as the nation’s political capital, the District is a hub for intellectual diversity. JF Books, which was already known for its intentionally-selected and distinct catalog in China, endeavors to foster dialogue by providing books about critical topics. “We encourage 茄駱昑 [experimentality],” Yu said.

Beyond the forward content of their texts, part of JF Books’s mission is to foster community. Just like how the Shanghai Library hosted many lectures and screenings, JF Books has already hosted events with several visiting professors and authors, all of which were met with an overwhelmingly positive reception. 

“We think if people step into a bookstore and meet some book that can move their mind, that’s great joy,” Yu said. “If we attend some cultural events, meet some old and new friends, have some different perspectives from others—which can broaden our thought boundary, the boundary of our imagination— that joy is also great.”

While embodying the warm, homey, and welcoming environment normally found in independent  bookstores, JF Books is distinct from the likes of other District bookshops; it doubles as an intellectual oasis for an otherwise dispersed community to gather. By a second-story window overlooking the hustle and bustle of central D.C., there’s a table with chocolates, cookies, coffee, flowers, and a stack of empty postcards. Next to the stack is taped that same Sept. 1 letter, which ends: “Write a postcard and leave it here. Once again, let’s create the possibilities of another era, together with JF Books.”