A bustling hive of literary activity, The Bookworm is forever expanding its book offering – at the last count, we were able to boast 16,112 titles on our library shelves.
Our bookshop offers a wide range of sometimes surprising tomes, and our talks continue to beguile our audiences. Our restaurant is well loved for its tasty-yet-value-for-money menu, and spontaneous musical evenings are apt to bubble up from nowhere.
It’s easy to see why The Bookworm is such a hit among Beijingers; where else can you while away the hours savouring fabulous fare, browsing thousands of books, sipping good espresso, being regaled by eminent authors, catching up with friends over your favourite tipple, or simply just checking your emails? The spacious, interconnecting rooms with floor-to-ceiling books on every wall are light and airy in summer, yet cosy and snug in winter. And the roof terrace is perfect for yard-arm cocktails.
Booklovers, old China hands, newcomers, students and business travellers alike unite at The Bookworm. Our coffee’s always freshly ground, our chocolate cake voluptuous and our staff delightful.
So, why not drop in sometime and join us?
Biography of The Bookworm
The Bookworm was born years ago into humble surroundings.
Its founder, Alexandra Pearson, was running a one-woman outfit in a modest courtyard where she not only managed a small library and put on low-key events, but also handled the restaurant side of things herself. The library had a meagre collection of 2,000 books – mainly biographies and non-fiction – that Alexandra had actually collated for another venture back in 1998…but that’s another story.
One day in 2003, a curious journalist walked in to have a look round and almost immediately became member number 2. He soon fell under The Bookworm’s enchanting spell and found himself lending a hand around the place; planting daisies in the courtyard, reshelving the books as they grew in number. Three years later, that journalist was to become The Bookworm’s Business Partner and Co-owner, and open The Chengdu Bookworm, and then The Suzhou Bookworm the following year. He is none other than Peter Goff, and today you’re as likely to find him writing the quirky questions for Chengdu’s quiz night as moderating a talk by a celebrated scribe in Suzhou.
THE BOOKWORM: OTHER PROJECTS
THE CHINA BOOKWORM PRESS
The China Bookworm Press was founded in 2015 as an independent publisher of contemporary Chinese writing in translation. The Press seeks to publish leading contemporary fiction and non-fiction from China and make it available both in the original Chinese and to a wider international audience in translation.www.chinabookwormpress.com
www.chinabookwormpress.com
THE CHINA BOOKWORM LITERARY FESTIVAL
Since 2006, the Bookworm has presented The China Bookworm Literary Festival each March, a celebration of literature and ideas, featuring writers, thinkers, artists and performers from China and beyond. The events take place in the Bookworm venues in Beijing, Chengdu and Suzhou, and in other cities beyond as part of our Literary Caravan. The program includes book talks, panel discussions, writing workshops and performances – plus our children’s program with writing and drawing workshops and interactive storytelling sessions; a Chinese-language program presenting international authors to a Chinese audience; and our lively Footnotes prorgramme with, music, film, cinema and events that defy category.
www.bookwormfestival.com
THE MALA LITERARY JOURNAL
MaLa – the China Bookworm Literary Journal is a journal that presents perceptions of China from multiple angles, in the form of short fiction, literary non-fiction and poetry, supported by features, reviews, art works and photography. MaLa brings to light new work in translation by Chinese writers, as well as new writing in English by foreign residents of China and Chinese writers living overseas.
www.mala-literary-journal.com
FLASH EUROPA 28
In October 2014, the Bookworm launched the project Flash Europa 28 in association with the Delegation of the European Union to China in order to bring creative short fiction from all 28 EU member states to the interested Chinese reader.