Hong Kong’s Indie Bookshops: Boundary Bookstore’s Human Touch

We’re shining a light on some of the independent bookshops that are keeping Hong Kong’s literary scene alive. Stay tuned for our upcoming Zolima’s Picks roundup!

Near the intersection of busy Nathan Road and Argyle Street in Mong Kok sits the Nathan Centre Shopping Arcade. Take the lift up to the 20th floor and you will be greeted by a wall adorned with posters of past movies, exhibitions and events. Walk a little further and you’ll be greeted by a dark brown sign: Boundary Bookstore (界限書店 gai3 haan6 syu1 dim3).

Since it opened in 2022, it has been dedicated to Hong Kong’s history, culture and identity. As you step in, you are welcomed by an assortment of Hong Kong-themed curios: maps, coasters and postcards. Further in, shelves of neatly categorised Chinese-language books spark curiosity.

At the far end of the shop, Leanne Liu is sitting at a small table draped in a greyish-green cloth. She’s one of three store managers who took over in 2024 when the bookstore faced closure after its founders relocated to Canada. Together, they became co-owners and business partners in 2025. Calm and collected, Liu says goodbye to a friend, then looks up with a smile and invites us to sit down and talk.

Having originally planned to become a teacher, Liu’s journey into the book industry took time to develop. “After graduating in 2021, I didn’t find a job right away,” she recalls. Instead, she joined classes under the now defunct One Seventh Bookshops programme. 

Launched in 2022 by shop owner James Chong after his own store’s bankruptcy, the project mentored aspiring booksellers. Through it, Liu learned the fundamentals of running a bookstore: from curating book selections to organising events and liaising with publishers. “It was there I met my two current business partners, Amber Cheung and Lester Lau,” she says. “The skills we picked up through that project have continued to serve us well in running Boundary.”

A human touch

Each bookshop in Hong Kong stands out in its own way. Parenthèses offers a calm haven with a personal touch, guiding Hong Kong’s French community not only through literature and book-related events like Guy Delisle’s exhibition at the Hong Kong Central Library, but also in everyday life. Epic One, meanwhile, is the city’s only comic bookshop exclusively dedicated to Hong Kong manhua, fostering close ties between local prominent artists including Tony Wong and enthusiasts.

Boundary tells a different story. Its name — a nod to nearby Boundary Street — also signals a desire to break from convention through hands-on reader experiences. The store focuses primarily on promoting Chinese literature from the diaspora including works from Malaysia, Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong, while also selling some English titles. (It also helps clients order Japanese textbooks.) Typically, when choosing to read literature, Liu finds that local readers tend to gravitate toward Japanese books or Western classics. “But we believe Hong Kong has its own distinguished writers and a younger generation of writers worth discovering,” she says.

Alongside selling books, Boundary has another speciality: it publishes them. By way of illustration, Liu walks to a nearby collection and returns with a 2024 publication, 神話香港史. Written and illustrated by local artist and author 化外 (Faa3 Ngoi6), and edited by Liu herself, this entry-level guide unpacks Hong Kong’s diverse religions — from the deities people revere to the city’s plethora of sacred buildings and their layered histories. 

What sets Boundary apart from other bookshops is the level of detail behind its book display and curation — a quality that helps readers decide what they are looking for. Unlike traditional bookstores that sort titles into categories like fiction or philosophy, Boundary organises its shelves around creative themes. With a human touch, each book is meticulously annotated with delicate diagrams and multisized cards that share playful details, from top three picks of the year to quirky “Did you know?” notes about key characters. More than merely a shop sparking curiosity and conversation, it is an experiential space that encourages readers to explore interesting books.

Every season, roughly every three to four months, brings a new theme. Past ones have explored book weight (lightest to heaviest), typography and design. For example, in summer 2025, the theme was “Reading Everywhere,” urging enthusiasts to read in any setting — at home, on the bus, or en route to school or work. 

The latest theme is “Composition.” It features four sub-categories highlighting authors from across the Chinese-speaking world: different perspectives on aesthetics, authors sharing their writing journeys, their first books and classic writers. Together, these elements underscore Boundary’s ongoing effort to spotlight voices and patterns that shape the evolving landscape of Chinese literature.

Inspiring readers

Running a bookshop in Hong Kong means navigating high rents and a shrinking local and international readership. For Boundary, these pressures are unavoidable — but they choose to face them head-on and proactively.

Liu says that when the three co-owners took over, one way that they brought the shop’s name beyond its enclosures was that they went to different schools to hold book fairs and lectures. They also opened WhatsApp channels and added teachers in them, sharing with them what are the latest books to introduce to students. 

The trio are also looking beyond schools to promote books further. They are scouting a larger venue for an independent book fair later this year (distinct from the 2025 Hunter Bookstore event), voting for titles in the first annual independent bookstore recommendation award (第一屆獨立書店推薦賞), and producing social media videos, including YouTube content that covers topics like book reviews and podcasts. Boundary remains committed to bringing literature to wider audiences and redefining reader connections.

Sparking dialogue

Yet this passion for connecting people through books goes well beyond events and thrives in moments when readers and writers meet in more intimate settings. Recently, there was a sharing session with local author Lee King-hang, senior lecturer at the School of Humanities and Languages at Saint Francis University Hong Kong and the author of 謎樣的森林——與你沉迷文學導賞36則, a book that wanders through a “forest” of texts and rediscover the pleasure of reading with curiosity and emotion.  

At the end of events like these, Liu encourages participants to approach authors and the bookshop owners to share their thoughts. Through these interactions, she hopes to spark curiosity and an active reading culture reminiscent of a reading club. After all, these moments of engagement cannot simply be bought. “When you own a bookshop, it’s not just a commercial endeavour — you’re also creating an experience,” she says. “You don’t need to buy a book; you can sit, read, share with staff over a drink, or discuss with authors and friends.”