These bookshops let Chinese readers question their country - now the doors are closing

AFP via Getty Images The owner of Hunter bookstore, pictured here, was arrested in late June Abel U BBC ChineseHong Kong When Chen Zhu heads to Hong Kong from mainland China every month, there's one place she always goes: Hunter Bookstore. Founded four years ago by a former councillor, the independent bookshop has earned a reputation for stocking what authorities would consider sensitive books - from accounts of Hong Kong's pro-democracy campaigners, to famous allegories on authoritarianism, such as George Orwell's Animal Farm or Hajime Isayama's Manga series Attack on Titan.

It's a short journey from Zhu's home in Guangzhou on China's southern coast to the crowded street in Hong Kong's Sham Shui Po district, where Hunter is sandwiched between fabric sellers, garages and trendy cafes. But, for the 23-year-old, it is also a passage into a different, freer world - where she can find answers to forbidden questions. When she learned the bookshop had been raided by police in late June, Zhu broke into tears: "I was devastated." Hong Kong saw a boom in independent bookshops after huge pro-democracy protests rocked the city in 2019.

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