Librairie Avant-Garde

Librairie Avant-Garde (Mount Wutai Branch) is a bookstore opened by Qian Xiaohua in 2004, now regarded as the most representative bookstore in Nanjing, China. It has become a cultural icon of the city, and because of the adjacency to Nanjing University and the popularity among students, it is dubbed as “the second library of Nanjing University”.

The bookshop is hidden in a former government parking lot underneath Wutaishan Stadium, which has been used as a bomb shelter. Covering 3780 sq meter, it provides a large volume of social science and humanities books that have been recognized by the literati and history, ranging from literature, history, philosophy, movie, music, photography, dance, drama, architecture, art, cartoon and advertisement to social science, business and journalism, while excluding reference work and other practical books.

After all the hardship of running the bookstore, bankruptcy in 2003 and the unpredictable, Qian Xiaohua restored energy and opened a flagship bookstore in an underground parking lot, on Guangzhou Road. Because at the time most friends of Qian were avant-garde writers, and he himself was an avid French literature lover, he named the bookstore Librairie Avant-Garde, in which Librairie is a French word that means library. He hoped the bookstore could serve as a spiritual guide for the people making their way in darkness. “A good bookshop should provide space, vision and nurture the city with its humanitarian spirit,” owner Qian Xiaohua tells CNN. “It’s a place for people to have dreams in the city.”