Book Stores of Shanghai: Lekai Books
A letter from China by Tom Bowden
Shanghai is a city that has developed without Western notions of “rational grids”—no blocks based on rectangles with regular sides or regularly spaced concentric circles. Instead, it has meandering streets, narrow byways that look like alleys (and probably are alleys) but are crammed with small shops and restaurants. In other words, the best way to be surprised by little treasures within Shanghai is to avoid the main streets, which too often cater to name-brand merchandise and international chain stores, with rents too high for mom & pop restaurants and goods catering to interests beyond the pedestrian.
With that in mind, we discovered Lekai Books, located off a street the length of which has high-end furniture stores, on the second floor of an arcade devoted to bad knock offs of, say, Monet (“You like Waterlilies? These paintings triple the number of flowers!”) and Van Gogh (“You like a vase with a flower in it? How about a flower vase with a kitty cat next to it!”). Despite the kitsch surrounding it, the owners of Lekai Books stock their shelves with literature, art criticism, and aesthetic theory in translation, plus books on various forms of traditional popular and commercial art. It’s a small store, maybe 20’ x 40’, but loaded with surprises. (All in Chinese, so my eyes were attracted mainly to the books on the visual arts.)
I picked up only a few books—I’ll need to buy another suitcase for the return trip home just for the books I buy—but I’ll return: a copy of Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan translated into Chinese, a hardbound book on the history of Chinese toys (the text is in Mandarin, but it’s lushly illustrated and autographed by the author), and a two-volume set on pre-War commercial art in China.
I spoke briefly to Lulu and his wife Snail, the couple who own the store—the wife doesn’t speak English but the husband knows a little. I’ll be back soon!