Summary

Feng Rusong’s reopening is not a bet on a recovery in paper-book retail, but on the continued need for a “spiritual landmark” around a university. 丁永勋 believes a bookstore’s first job today is to give people a reason to show up: reading, meeting, attending events, team-building, birthday parties and even taking photos all count. The store sees roughly 300–500 visitors a day. In internet terms, he summarizes the operating sequence as: “Get DAU first, then find the monetization model.”
Less than a year after opening, the store’s daily revenue has stabilized at around RMB10,000, nearly enough to cover operating costs excluding rent and property fees. Investors originally gave the team roughly 7 years to reach that target, leading 李翔 to say it had “completed the mission 6 years early”; but rent accounts for about 50% of costs and staff for more than 40%, so the full model is still not at break-even once rent and property fees are included.
Books contribute about 70% of revenue, but buying inventory at 65% of list price and a major e-commerce platform’s former requirement that merchants sell at no more than 40% of list price make it difficult to build a profit pool from books alone. Feng Rusong initially believed its curation and reader support could offset the price gap, but later admitted the idea was “naive” and that it “couldn’t rely on sympathy.” It now uses 12%-off memberships and 15%-off purchases above RMB2,000 to ease price resistance, while exploring coffee, cultural products, events, space rental and exclusive books.
Curation is necessary, but it is difficult to turn into an exclusive moat. Feng Rusong is anchored in the humanities and academic books, leaving out the mass-market, popular and utilitarian categories of test prep, textbooks, programming and job hunting. Wansheng’s model is to build its own “knowledge tree” through classification, display and selection, but bookstores naturally overlap in their titles. The real value is helping readers filter worthwhile, rereadable books from information overload and a vast volume of mediocre publishing. “Curation matters, but it’s not that important.”
Inventory turnover matters more to a bookstore’s survival than whether “I like this book.” Wansheng carries roughly 80,000 titles, 80%–90% of which sell only 1 or 2 copies a year. At Feng Rusong, monthly sales of 20 copies can put a title on the in-store bestseller list, and ordering 20–30 copies is already considered a large print run for the store. 丁永勋 warns that ordering hundreds of copies based on personal taste usually just piles cash into the warehouse.
Every sustainable bookstore is breaking its core capabilities into more revenue streams. Some lock in sales through RMB500 annual blind-box memberships; some make a profit from a single event with 500 tickets and 150 signed books; others do custom libraries, cultural-tourism projects, book curation and supply, communities or livestreaming 365 days a year. The common thread is turning curation, space and trust into paid services.
The industry’s pricing rules, property conditions and patient capital are all effectively part of the brick-and-mortar bookstore business model. 丁永勋 relays the industry’s long-running calls for price protection, arguing that platforms demanding 40% pricing force publishers to raise list prices, leave the channels or cut corners; Beijing is reportedly allocating more than RMB100M a year in subsidies to physical bookstores, which also signals that bookstores are viewed as both commercial and public-cultural institutions. “If you stay alive for 10 or 20 years, you’ve succeeded. You’ve become a landmark.”
Reading demand is stratifying: ordinary book-buying frequency is under pressure, but classic paper books and high-ticket curation services still have room to grow. 丁永勋 estimates that people in China read roughly 3–5 books a year on average; books are not necessities and are easily displaced by e-books when the economy weakens. At the same time, some business owners are willing to buy books in bulk for home or office libraries, sometimes without asking for a discount. Paper books may not win by reaching the mass market, but by building value around classic reading, curation and customized services.

Deep dive

1. Feng Rusong Revives Through the History of a Knowledge Community

Feng Rusong was founded in 1995, growing out of the academic group Culture: China and the World. At the time, original works of Western philosophy and art were difficult to find. Members including 陈平原, 刘小枫 and 甘阳 had a strong unmet demand, and 王炜, then the group’s secretary-general and its most capable operator, eventually stepped forward to open the store.
李翔 recalls that when he lived near Peking University’s West Gate in 2003, readers could spend “an entire afternoon” at Feng Rusong, sitting wherever they liked, even on the floor. Scholars including 季羡林 and 张岱年 were regulars. It was more than a retail store: it was a shared intellectual project riding the afterglow of an academic community.
王炜 died suddenly in 2005. His family later handed the bookstore to a businessman, and it closed around 2011 after poor management, leaving a group of suppliers unpaid and triggering a number of commercial disputes. The trademark was also allowed to expire and was later registered by a Shanghai alumnus.
丁永勋 took over the trademark from that alumnus, and Feng Rusong reopened on March 28, 2024. The brand had disappeared in bookstore form for roughly 13 years; its return was driven first by several founders’ memories and emotional attachment to it.

2. The Reopening’s Product Is Not Shelving but a Spiritual Landmark Beside Peking University

丁永勋’s answer to “Why open a physical bookstore today?” is that the function of a bookstore has changed: “Its main function may no longer be as a place that sells books.” Every good university should have at least one bookstore that comes to mind when people think of the school, serving as a street landmark and even a “spiritual landmark.”
Feng Rusong made Peking University students and faculty its core audience, then extended its reach into Haidian and the education-heavy areas west of the city. The team set a hard location rule: no more than 1 kilometer from Peking University, while retaining a clear target readership rather than turning into a generic commercial space.
The basement at the original location could not be restored because of fire-safety requirements, while Peking University’s own properties were no longer available for commercial leasing. The area around Haidian Book City had become an entrepreneurship district, and other locations had issues with gates, signage and noise. The final store is about 980 meters from Peking University, just within the 1-kilometer boundary.
The team had wanted to rent the ground floor, but rent there was more than twice as high as upstairs, and the previous tenant, a Moutai flagship store, had already left. The current sublandlord is also a Peking University alumnus. He not only supported the project but allowed the bookstore to use the public courtyard downstairs for free.

3. Two Pieces of Advice from Veteran Booksellers: Build a Knowledge Tree and Stay Alive Long Enough

When 丁永勋 sought advice from 刘苏里 of Wansheng, the first thing he heard was: “Why would you want to open a bookstore?” After the joke, 刘苏里 gave a candid breakdown of inventory, rent, utilities and book damage, including risks as granular as books being stolen, lost or simply impossible to locate.
刘苏里’s first piece of advice was deliberately dialectical: “Curation matters, but it’s not that important.” Curation defines a store’s positioning and ambitions, but a general bookstore will struggle to carry a completely different list from its peers. Wansheng’s real moat is the “knowledge tree” formed by its classification, display and editorial choices.
Feng Rusong consequently made the humanities and academic books its foundation, leaving out test-prep materials, textbooks, and popular or utilitarian titles on programming and job hunting. Poorly produced or poorly reviewed books should also stay out. A space-constrained bookstore cannot beat the internet on breadth or price; it can only make choices through its philosophy and system.
The second piece of advice consisted of just 2 words: “Persist.” 刘苏里 cited Third Pole Bookstore as an example: its early investment and momentum were substantial, yet it disappeared quickly. Neither sentiment nor capital guarantees longevity. “If you stay alive for 10 or 20 years, you’ve succeeded. You’ve become a landmark.”

4. RMB10,000 in Daily Revenue Is Near Break-Even on a Narrow Basis, but Rent Still Eats the Model

Feng Rusong’s daily sales have stabilized at around RMB10,000. Based on the store manager’s experience at different bookstores, that is “a little above normal.” 丁永勋 does not have enough comparable-industry data to make a rigorous comparison, so he remains cautious about judging whether the level is good or bad.
Investors originally gave the team roughly 7 years to reach the goal of “supporting itself excluding rent.” On that basis, excluding rent and property fees, the store has more or less achieved it. The distinction is crucial: it shows that operations can turn over, but does not mean the full-store model is profitable.
Fixed costs are primarily rent, property fees and personnel. 丁永勋 roughly estimates that the first 2 account for about 50% and staff for more than 40%, leaving utilities and other costs as the remainder; renovation and initial inventory also tie up additional capital. A bookstore is a knowledge-intensive service business, but can offer little more than coffee-shop or restaurant wages, resulting in significant staff turnover.
Daily traffic averages roughly 300–500 people, with more on weekends, holidays and event days. Revenue is broadly correlated with traffic, so the team’s current priority is not pushing each customer to buy more, but bringing more people through the door: “Get DAU first, then find the monetization model.”

5. A Reason to Visit Comes Before Purchase Conversion; Events Are Still Both Content and Cost

Publishers and authors often approach the store about new-book launches and author talks. Feng Rusong also plans to curate high-quality events on a regular basis, using guests and content to build the brand. Events may not make money directly, but they provide a clear reason to visit.
The space can seat roughly 40–50 people when full. 李翔 notes that events are now livestreamed as well, and getting 20–30 people on site is already a good result. The bookstore is also used for alumni children’s birthday parties, team activities and meetups, showing that readers are buying a spatial relationship, not just access to shelves.
Feng Rusong’s events are currently free, so they remain a cost item. Many people have suggested following One-Way Space and charging for venue rental or team-building events: fees could cover part of the cost while filtering out activities with weak demand and limited appeal. The team has not yet implemented the idea.
Subscriptions could also monetize curation directly. One bookstore offers a blind-box membership for around RMB500 a year, mailing 1 or 2 undisclosed books each month. The model can sell 2 books in monthly volumes of 200 and 400 copies, while at a normal physical bookstore, monthly sales of 20 copies for a single title may already qualify it for the bestseller list.

6. Books Still Generate 70% of Revenue; Coffee and Cultural Products Cannot Take Over

Feng Rusong’s revenue mix is roughly 70/30: books account for 70%, while coffee, cultural products and related categories contribute 30%. The team and investors share the principle that “books must remain at the center.” The sharper formulation is: “A bookstore whose purpose isn’t to sell books is just playing games.”
Coffee may offer more margin, but for now it is mainly used to serve readers. Peking University students can buy drinks for no more than RMB9.9 with a student ID, and receive 15% off books. The discounts also reflect the store’s original priority of serving Peking University students and faculty.
丁永勋 does not reject models like Fangsuo, which use clothing, food and beverage or other businesses to support a bookstore. He only emphasizes that Feng Rusong “comes from a different place.” Others may be clothing brands that choose to open a bookstore; Feng Rusong wants first and foremost to remain a bookstore that works with books.

7. Buying at 65% of List Price Against a 40% Selling Price: Offline Stores Cannot Rely on Sympathy

Feng Rusong focuses on new books and orders small quantities, resulting in an average buying price of around 65% of list price. A major e-commerce platform once required merchants to sell at no more than 40% of list price to participate, leaving brick-and-mortar stores almost no room to make money from books themselves.
The team initially believed that its knowledge system, curation and instant access would persuade readers to accept list prices: some people could not wait for delivery, while others were willing to support a high-cost store. But 丁永勋 later called that belief “naive,” and investors made the point clearly: “You can’t rely on sympathy,” because sympathy is neither the objective nor sustainable.
Feng Rusong subsequently introduced pricing tools: a RMB100 membership offers 12% off, while a single purchase above RMB2,000 receives 15% off. Even if the store still cannot beat e-commerce, the psychological difference between full price, 10% off and 12% off is significant.
The team is also considering exclusive custom books and participating in publishing plans to create products unavailable online. Feng Rusong has the relevant qualifications, but planning and editing require dedicated staff, and it has not yet truly entered this business.

8. The Bookstores That Survive Break Their Capabilities into More Revenue Streams

After attending a bookstore-industry conference in Shenzhen, 丁永勋’s impression was that “everyone is suffering.” But those still in the business often have 20 or 30 years behind them and have survived multiple cycles. They have not found one common answer; instead, they have extended outward from procurement, curation, channels and space.
A peer in Jinan orders only 3–10 copies of each title, does not obsess over new books and buys wherever prices are lowest, keeping selling prices at around 50%–60% of list. The owner uses 7 phones to manage roughly 35,000 WeChat contacts and continues to write long-form recommendations. Even a 1% conversion rate would be meaningful.
Wild Grass Bookstore near Peking University has eliminated its physical store and moved its office to a warehouse in Langfang, quoting prices and shipping directly through Moments and group chats. Shanghai Yi Bookstore searches publishers’ warehouses for overstocked books, cuts costs and livestreams “every day, 365 days a year,” closing sales in an auction-like format.
Larger bookstores such as Qingyuan take on local cultural-tourism and school-bookstore projects, providing curation, procurement and wholesale distribution. Other stores offer “custom libraries,” handling everything from book selection and purchasing to delivery and bookshelf design for homes or offices. These customers buy in volume and may not even ask for discounts. What they sell is no longer just a book, but years of accumulated judgment about lists, supply chains and operations.

9. The Price War Also Compresses Content Quality, Talent and Reading Nationwide

丁永勋 says publishers and booksellers share a demand for legislation protecting book prices. He cites Germany, Japan and some Nordic countries, where new books cannot be discounted for 3 years and prices are broadly aligned across channels, giving physical stores a chance to compete through service and curation.
Competition at 40% of list price creates a vicious cycle: publishers either leave the platforms and build their own distribution channels, or raise a book’s list price from RMB100 to RMB150 so that a 40% sale still leaves a profit. Some publishers have also proposed books sold exclusively to physical bookstores and not online, saying, “We put real care into making a book, only to have someone else sell it for the price of cabbage.”
丁永勋 relays that Beijing’s subsidy budget for physical bookstores is reportedly more than RMB100M a year, subject to requirements such as operating for at least 1 year, meeting a minimum floor area and maintaining a minimum proportion of space for books. The subsidies acknowledge that bookstores have cultural value beyond their commercial function, while inevitably raising the question of how to prevent funds from being siphoned off.
Demand is under pressure as well. 丁永勋 estimates that people in China read roughly 3–5 books a year on average, compared with potentially more than 10 in Germany and Japan. Reading is not a necessity, so when economic conditions worsen it is among the first expenditures to be cut or shifted to e-books. Low-paid jobs that require knowledge of books and publishing, as well as sustained passion, leave the entire industry—from investors to shop assistants—dependent on “sentiment.”

10. Sales of Classics and New Books Both Depend on Curation and Audience

丁永勋 requires himself to read at least 50 books cover to cover each year and write notes so that he can recommend them to others. Early in the store’s life, he followed publisher developments and favored new releases. He later realized that new books had not yet been tested by time or readers; once the basic inventory was in place, replenishment began to shift back toward classics.
Wansheng has operated for roughly 30 years and carries around 80,000 titles, of which 80%–90% sell only 1 or 2 copies a year. At Feng Rusong, ordering 20–30 copies of a title is already a large quantity. The lesson from Songshe in Zhengzhou was that when the owner ordered hundreds of copies at a time based on personal taste, the growing inventory eventually overwhelmed the business.
Feng Rusong’s bestsellers since opening have included 李娟’s work, driven by topical interest, as well as 史铁生’s To Me at the Temple of Earth and Notes from Illness, and books by 莫言, Márquez and 余华. Why Nations Fail, which resurged after its author won the Nobel Prize, along with older titles such as Guns, Germs, and Steel and The Biography of Su Dongpo, has also remained on the list. New-book sales, by contrast, are highly fragmented.
A counterexample is 陈冲’s memoir, priced at RMB168. 丁永勋 liked it, pushed the store to order more and sought signed copies, but sold none in a month. Staff said that some students born in the 2000s did not even know who 陈冲 was. By contrast, books about family histories and Peking University’s Yandongyuan neighborhood sell well around the campus, showing that curation must also match the local audience.

11. Sustainable Bookstores Generally Fall into Chains, Independents and Space Operators

丁永勋 divides bookstores into several broad types. Xinhua Bookstore, Sanlian and similar operators own their properties or benefit from an integrated “front shop, back factory” setup. Commercial chains like Sisyphe study traffic and individual products; children’s picture books, toys, cultural products and paper editions of online fiction sell well, and the chain maintains roughly 300–400 stores nationwide. Wansheng and One-Way Space depend on stable fan bases, branded events and independent taste.
Another type uses other businesses to support the space directly. Bian’an Bookstore divides its premises into more than 10 rooms of different sizes and styles for freelancers to work and meet. Nearby users treat it as a study outside the home, while the curated book selection does not have to carry the entire revenue burden.
Slow Reading Room in Suzhou opened with roughly RMB250,000 and has operated for nearly 20 years without additional investment, in a space of just over 100 square meters. It brought the author of The Child from the County School to the store, sold roughly 500 tickets and 150 signed books, and turned a profit from the event alone. Low fixed costs and strong content conversion offer another form of equilibrium.
So when booksellers joke that “if you hate someone, trick them into opening a bookstore,” 丁永勋 does not end on a pessimistic note. Those who truly survive have all discovered the value in the business. For a bookstore to last, the key is to “find the form that best matches everyone’s needs.”

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