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Readers in Hong Kong saved a French bookshop that was in danger of closing. Parentheses has been open for nearly four decades.
In April, the bookstore wrote a post on their website that read: “This message is a cry of alarm because Parentheses is in peril ... After 37 years of serving our community, your bookstore could close its doors for good at the end of the year.”
The message encouraged the community to increase their visits and order books from the shop.
Madeline Progin is the store’s general manager. She has been running Parentheses since 1990. She was grateful for everyone who helped the bookshop stay open.
“For me, it’s not a job; it’s much more. And I suppose if [customers] are all here after so many years, it’s really because you like it,” she said.
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A history of serving French learners
According to Progin, Parentheses was Hong Kong’s first French bookshop. It opened in 1987 in the Duke Wellington House in Central. At the time, Progin said, they sold books alongside items like wine and chocolate.
Progin took over in 1990. Then, the shop moved to a larger space in the same building to focus only on selling French books.
“After a few years, it was full until up to the ceilings with books,” said Progin, who has lived in Hong Kong since 1979.
Progin said they started by selling books to schools and other people who wanted to learn French. Today, they still have a large section on teaching and learning French as a foreign language. They also have books for children, young adults and adults.
“We even got some from primary [schools] already [learning] French,” she said.
Hong Kong’s university entrance exam still offers French. But Progin said the language had become less important in schools.
“The syllabus here has changed. French lost its importance for Mandarin took a lot of space,” she said.
A change in trends
Progin said there were two reasons that the company had not been selling as many books in recent years: online shopping trends and the Covid-19 pandemic.
“[Many] of the French people living here have left [after the pandemic],” she said.
Progin said their sales “dropped by half” after the pandemic. It became hard for them to pay the rent.
To save the bookshop, Progin said they reached out to everyone they knew in Hong Kong’s French community.
“We had a lot of people coming and supporting, and now we just touch wood and hope,” she said.
“I think Hong Kong needs to keep these kind of places. Not only us, but ... there are many old places that are closing, and I think it’s sad.”
One supporter was Camille*. She moved from France to Hong Kong six years ago. She discovered Parentheses after the pandemic and “immediately loved the shop”.
“The two ladies [working there] always find some time to chitchat with the clients. The young local shopkeepers remember what you ordered,” she said. “We would hate to see this old Hong Kong centre of culture [disappear].”
She added: “What we wish is for Parentheses to be a place where more people meet by chance and talk about what ... we read.”
The jump in customers has saved the store for now. Progin, her employees and their customers are relieved. But she is unsure how long this can last.
*Name changed at interviewee’s request.
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