The annual Hong Kong Book Fair opened on Wednesday (July 19) after opening at the Wan Chai Convention and Exhibition Center, attracting a large number of books to buy books every day.But for my writers like me, the seven -day Hong Kong Book Fair is more like densely at the meeting. In the field, I always meet some of my colleagues and friends who have not seen each other for a long time.

Remember that when the anti -repair campaign broke out in the second half of 2019, the demonstrators were on the street every day in July, and the atmosphere of the Hong Kong Book Fair was also nervous.One day, I met a friend to meet at a coffee shop downstairs in the book fair. When I left, I met Lu Feng, the master of the Hong Kong Apple Daily, who had been on a business trip overseas when I left.

Lu Feng criticized the Hong Kong government almost every day in the newspaper; but what he saw on the same day, he was also serious.Everyone lamented that after seeing the endless demonstration screen on TV every day, I was in a depressed mood, hoping that this social movement could end as soon as possible.

Four years have passed, peach blossoms still laugh at the spring breeze, but Lu Feng has been imprisoned.Last Friday, I went to the Book Fair to hang out, and I happened to encounter the article "Jinghai Hou", which is said to reflect the view of Beijing."Jinghai Hou" just wrote a few days ago to criticize Hong Kong's "generalization" of the Hong Kong National Security Law, which caused a heated theory in Hong Kong's politics.He also chatted with him.

I met the pen of democratic newspapers at the Hong Kong Book Fair four years ago. Four years later, the same "official media" that may be the official background in four years. This coincidence is just a change in Hong Kong's political atmosphere in recent years.True portrayal.The only unchanged is that the Hong Kong Book Fair, as a major event in the cultural community in Hong Kong, can gather all the publishing houses and authors every year, as well as a group of people with common hobbies to come and communicate.

There were more than 70 writers' lectures during the entire book fair this year. The lecture of the famous writer Yu Hua was arranged on Saturday to facilitate more readers to communicate with Yu Hua.More than 3,000 seats were arranged at the lecture site. Unexpectedly, the "pilgrimage" of more than 10,000 Hong Kong and foreign readers finally attracted more than 10,000 Hong Kong and foreign readers.

In order to allow the readers outside the field to do this, the organizer -the Hong Kong Trade Development Bureau decided to divide the lectures on the same day and free up more seats.This small storm also reflects the role of Hong Kong Book Fair as a cultural exchange, and has not changed so far.

But compared with the epidemic, some changes in the Hong Kong Book Fair this year.

The first is that there are obviously a lot of people participating in the book fair.For more than 30 years in the Hong Kong Book Fair, the number of entrants has continued to increase.Many book fans are lining up every year to enter the venue, or return, or "nailing", is to participate in this annual cultural event.

This year's Hong Kong Book Fair is the first book fair after the epidemic is recurring. According to the reason, a large number of fans who have been suppressed in the past three years will be supported.However, from the news reports, the entire book fair rarely appeared in the past.Although there are many people in the field, they are not too crowded, and citizens can still shuttle each stall freely.

The staff of the participating publishing house believe that there are not many crowds on the venue. This year's book fair sales are similar to the period of the crown disease epidemic last year. It is likely that citizens' habits in the epidemic are changed and economic downturn.However, I have seen what I have seen on the court, and the more important reason may be related to the Hong Kong immigration wave in recent years.

In the past three years, more than 100,000 Hong Kong people have moved to overseas due to political reasons, and many are middle class.The Hong Kong Book Fair is missing these former supporters, and the flow of people and business has naturally decreased greatly.Coupled with the three years after the epidemic, the people in mainland China were gradually lost in Hong Kong, and mainlanders who came to the book fair did not think so much.No wonder the Hong Kong Trade Development Agency set a low target for the number of people's entry this year -800,000, which is 20 % less than 2019 compared with 2019.

The second is that the book fair is gradually moving to politics.In the past, the Hong Kong Book Fair had a lot of political irony books for sale; after the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law, the political publishers of the people and the people were rejected by the exhibition.Political books this year are almost extinct.

Remember that when Hong Kong media did the news of the book fair, they all liked to interview the "Second Cultural Hall" that had published political comics that had published political comics.The publishing house has been participating in the exhibition since the first Hong Kong Book Fair, but this year, there are no reports of Hong Kong media.I was curious about the online investigation and found that the original "Second Cultural Hall" no longer participated in the exhibition since last year.President Peng Zhiming explained that in recent years, he has not published new books, so he chose not to participate.

Objectively speaking, the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law has made the Hong Kong Book Fair more peaceful this year.From another perspective, the Hong Kong Book Fair has always given people a lot of flowers and hundreds of disputes, which has attracted a large number of overseas and mainland readers to come here. Now the books sold by book fairs are "politically correct", and the attractiveness to some people is naturally great.reduce.In this way, can the Hong Kong Book Fair retain the original characteristics and value?Many people have doubts.

The Chinese government clearly supports the construction and consolidation of Hong Kong's "eight centers" in the "Fourteenth Five -Year Plan", including "supporting the development of Hong Kong's development of Chinese and foreign cultural and art exchange centers", which has entrusted Beijing officials to officially develop the future cultural development of Hong Kong in Hong Kong.expect.What is the future positioning of the Hong Kong Book Fair, and how to maintain the characteristics of the "two systems" under the "one country"?These problems are testing the official wisdom.