I'm proud of my city because of the street vendors selling...

When I want to read books in English, what do I do in Shanghai?

I could go to the Internet and go to Amazon, have fun browsing through and then order a few books, the only fallback is the transportation fee of the books often out run the cost of the books so you often end up paying double for the books.

I could also go to the official Shanghai Foreign Language Bookstore. Nowadays it’s pretty good at storing quite a collection of current popular titles. If you’re looking for a book you heard in the media, there’s a good chance you could find it there. The price of the book will be roughly the list price in U.S. dollar translated into the local currency, so not bad either.

Or, I could stop at a street vendor, peer into the bookcase he lays on the sidewalk to see if there’s something catches my attention. My neighborhood is by no means a high-end neighborhood and I don’t see too many foreigners hanging around, but there’s one street vendor carrying English books, often stationed himself just outside the supermarket. He must have more than one station spot, coz he does not come everyday, if I assume he works everyday. But what amazes me is the array of books that he carries. He has only two case of book, so in total perhaps only two dozen or so titles. One of the cases contains mainly pop culture/business non-fictions ranging from the classic “Men from Mars, Women from Venice”, to “How to speak to everyone”, or “How to Get Yes”, to Jack Welch's autobiography. Another case devotes to fictions, sporting from the classic “Gone with the Wind”, “God Father” to the current “Twilight” series.

The price of these books are benchmarked to the normal price of a book in Chinese, about 20 to 30 in RMB, or a fraction of the list price of its original in the official foreign language book store or Amazon. And the printing quality is so good I almost couldn’t decide if it is a “real” copy or not. The only slight weakness that betrays its counterfeit root is the paper, it’s often rawer than the real ones. But to me what really matters is the quality of the print, and when I finish a whole book, spotting none or only one minor typo, I would give it a pass and decide to trust this vendor in the future.

Now what I bought in the past year from him include: “Charlotte’s Web” (a children’s story), “The Little Prince”, “Outlier” (a new book from the author of “The Tipping Point”), “Lipstick Jungle” and “One Fifth Avenue” (by the author of “Sex and City”), and finally, a booklet by Jung that I didn’t finish and already lost. The last time I stopped by him I was surprised to find several copies of George Orwell’s “1984”. Of course I have heard of this author and this book, but if I didn’t see it with my neighborhood vendor (and so cheap), I don’t think I’ll ever read it in my lifetime.

And there’re books I SHOULD have bought from my neighborhood vendor but I have unfortunately bought months earlier from Page One on my trip to Hong Kong: “Twilight” series, “Brideshead Revisited”, “Sex and City”, “Devil Wears Prada” and “The Kite Runner”.

The other day I was at the Foreign Language Bookstore and I almost bought a copy of “Chasing Harry Winston”, on the cover of the book there’s a trademark high-heel, as on the cover of “Devil Wears Prada”, but this time, the high-heel is sharp green, not bloody red like “Prada”, then I remembered I might have seen it with my neighborhood vendor, so I put the copy back.

A few days later I met the street vendor again and I searched in his cases but was disappointed when I didn’t find “Chasing Harry Winston” and I meant to ask the guy. I suddenly got stuck because I’m sure he couldn’t read English and wouldn’t know if I ask him about “Chasing Harry Winston”. Catching a glimpse of inspiration, I asked him, “Do you have the book with the green high-heel on the cover?” “I did before, now I only have the red one”, “Could you get me a green one me next time?”, “Sure”. See, very easy communication.

So I’m almost proud of my city because of the street vendors selling English books, until I saw another vendor. The other day I was shopping on South Shanxi Road, the most bustling shopping street at the very heart of downtown Shanghai. And amidst a troop of street vendors taking the sidewalks selling everything from stockings to counterfeit VCDs, I spotted a vendor with one case on the bike, selling English books, one quick glance gave me a big surprise: he has a whole case of nothing but…Harvard Business Review.

Now I’m officially proud of my city because of street vendors selling English books. How many cities in this world have street vendors selling Harvard Business Review on their bikes!

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