ByLIYINGXUE
[email protected]
A
fter squeezing herself into
an overcrowded subwaycar
atBeijing South Railway
Station at 9 am,Gao Xiang,
25, tookTheArt ofLovingbypsycho-
analyst and social philosopherErich
Fromm out of her bag to read, despite
not having a seat.
Thirtyminutes later,when she got
off the subwayat Xizhimen Station,
Gaohadread2 0 pages of the book.
Commuting to and fromwork on the
subwayhas provided herwith a regu-
lar reading session since she graduated
from college in 2 0 16.
She boughtTheArt ofLovingon
Duozhuayu, an online used-book recy-
cling and selling platform, and plans to
sell the book back to the platform after
she has finished it.
Young readers have become a major
book-buy force ining China, and they
are raising the circulation of used
books.
Gao, a project manager in foreign
trade, initiallyplanned to spend 1 00
yuan ($14.5 0 ) a month on books.
But for the past three months, she
has spent more than 500 yuan each
month, accounting for about 7 percent
of her income.
“Iused to buynewbooks on online
platforms, such asAmazon orDang-
dang. Since myfriends recommended
thatIuseDuozhuayutwoyears ago, it
has become mymain platform to buy
books,” she said.
Gao thinks used books are reason-
ablypriced and generallyin an accept-
able state, since the platform refur-
bishes them and uses labels to state
their condition.
“There are differentversions and
conditions of books,with a range of
prices.If a book has stain marks or
somethingwritten on it,youwill know
about this beforeyou receive it,” she
said.
Founded in 2 0 17,Duozhuayunow
hasa6, 000 -square-meterwarehouse
in Tianjin to examine, refurbish and
store used books.
Chen Qiulin, 24, a staff member at
thewarehouse, said a recycled book
must undergo a four-step refurbish-
ing process before it goes back on the
bookshelf.
“The first step is cleaning. Some 5 0
percent of the recycled books are in
quite good condition, and 3 to 5 per-
cent are brand new, so each of our
workers can clean about 2 00 books an
hour,”Chen said.
The second step is polishing the
edges, before the books are sent to a
disinfection room. “Theyremain there
for 6 0 to 85 minutes for ozone disinfec-
tion. This room can hold 2, 000 books
at a time,”Chen said.
The final step is the addition of plas-
tic packaging for each book before it
is readyto be delivered to the reader.
“We have about 25workers in all
four processes, and theycan nowhan-
dle about 14, 000 books a day,”Chen
added.
Yan Shen, 23,whoworks for a film
company,enjoys receiving refurbished
books fromDuozhuayu, as she loves to
read used ones.
“For some newbooks,it’s not easyto
flip the pages over, but for used books,
it’s usuallysmooth,” Yan said. “Also,
whenyou see remarkswritten on the
pages,you feel connected to the previ-
ous owner,which seems romantic to
me.”
Yan places two to three orderswith
Duozhuayu each month, and as her
collection of books mounts, she plans
to sell some of them back to the plat-
form.
Gao has alreadystarted to resell
books, but has onlyselected those
she thinks shewon’t reread. Using
her phone, she scans the barcodes of
books to sell onDuozhuayu’s WeChat
progam, and it tells herwhether a
certain book has been recycled bythe
platform, and the purchasing price.Finalcheck
Acouriervisits her home to col-
lect the books and take them to the
warehouse in Tianjin.After a book is
checked,Gao receives payment.
Chen is responsible for a book’s final
check.He said that three out of 1 00
books are rejected, mainlybecause
theyare pirated.
“We record differentversions of
pirated books and also trace the legiti-
mateversion so thatwe can identify
pirated copies,”Chen said. “TakeMir-
aclesoftheNamiyaGeneralStore(a
2012 Japanese novel byKeigoHigash-
ino)asanexample. The inside cover
of the legitimateversion has awrinkle
effect,while the piratedversion does
not.”
Books that are rejected can be taken
back bythe users.Iftheychoose not to,
the books are destroyed.
Chen said thewarehousereceives
about 14, 000 books and sells 12, 000
to 13, 000 each day.“Even thoughwe
can sell most of the books,with about
1, 000 surplus ones each day,wenow
have almost 1 million books in stor-
age,” he said.
BaiDongyan,Duozhuayu’s market-
ing business development operator,
said that in 2 017 when the platform
was founded, it recycled 12 0 , 000 books
and sold 11 0 , 000 .Lastyear, it recycled
2.9 million books and sold 2.3 million.
Bai said that to reduce storage,
Duozhuayu launched a pop-up offline
book store lastyear.It also started a
project to enable readers to get books
that are not recycled bythe platform
for free.Payment is onlymade for the
shipment.Youngreadersturntoonlineplatforms
thatrecycleandsellprintedworks,
confidentoffairprices,faircondition
While modern bookstore chains are busy examining how they can increase their engagement with readers,
smaller, independent outlets are taking on the role of book selectors for their customers.
PHOTOSPROVIDEDTOCHINADAILYNextchapterfor u
SPOTLIGHT
16 CHINA DAILY GLOBA