Home for drifting souls

[Photo provided to China Daily]

In the flagship store Librairie Avant-Garde in Nanjing, regarded as one of the most beautiful bookshops in the world, poetry collections are always given pride of place, "to show my respect for poets," he says.

"Poets are a special group of people. They are the torchbearers of our times. Poems are the desperate songs from their hearts," says the Jintan, Jiangsu province, native.

Sometimes when he talks, Qian appears to enter a different space from the here and now, before lapsing into a stream-of-consciousness: "Poets are lonely people, unique. I think only lonely people can fight with wolves. Poets are wolves in the wasteland, howling with despair. They compose poems from no other place than their lonely hearts."

It might be said that one of the worst disappointments in life might be the gap between one's words and deeds. But Qian has somehow managed to stick to his ideals in both his personal and professional lives.

Librairie Avant-Garde is a kingdom of poetry, says Qian, adding that he will often pay very high prices to obtain the right collections of poetry for his bookstores.

In September 2016, Qian visited Charing Cross Road in London, a street famous for its secondhand and antique bookstores, where he bought poetry collections by a 100 poets published in the 1820s, including William Wordsworth and George Gordon Byron.

"They were all fine little books. With these and the other works of poetry I have, I want to build a poetry corner at the Librairie Avant-Garde, and let readers absorb the brilliance of these poets in a dark corner, another world, within the bookstore," he says.

Qian has been at pains to create an air of academic solemnity at his flagship bookstore. Two large black crosses hang above the entrance and exit of Librairie Avant-Garde, while huge black-and-white portraits of literary giants such as Albert Camus and Franz Kafka adorn the walls, joined by a statue of The Thinker by Auguste Rodin. For him, a bookstore, like a church, is a space for people to take a spiritual breakaway from their daily business.

The quality and range of titles at the bookstore attracts many lovers of poetry. One-fifth of the more than 100 employees at Librairie Avant-Garde write poems, including Qian himself.

In the article "My Bookstore Is a River" written for the 20th anniversary of the store's opening, Qian includes one of his poems In the Street of Peking, which ends: "In the street of Peking/Watching the children, fathers, and grandfathers, who are lighting firecrackers/Reminds me of being alone, tears running down my face/… into the whole long night."

This year, Librairie Avant-Garde will help a staff member publish a poetry collection using crowdfunding. Next year, Qian will publish a book about his mother, which will include his poems.