Ho Chi Minh City Book Street - "a symbol of soft culture"

The 10-year experience of the formation and development of Ho Chi Minh City's Book Street shows that, if properly organized, with a cultural vision and appropriate operating mechanisms, book spaces can still become attractive and sustainable destinations, contributing to nurturing the spiritual life and urban identity. From this, many valuable lessons can be drawn for organizing and operating other book streets across the country.

A distinctive urban culture model

Established in 2016, Ho Chi Minh City Book Street is the first true book street in the country, marking an innovative step in developing a reading culture space in a major urban area. Although only a little over 100 meters long and located right in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City, it quickly became a familiar meeting place for book lovers, students, researchers, artists, and domestic and international tourists.

A visit to Ho Chi Minh City's Book Street by elementary school students (PHOTO: QUYNH YEN)

After 10 years of operation, Ho Chi Minh City Book Street is not just a place to buy and sell books, but has developed into a comprehensive cultural space: introducing new books, author-work interactions, thematic exhibitions, academic seminars, skills education activities, children's activities, art events, etc.

With a stable flow of visitors, the revenue of publishing houses has been maintained, and the image of the book street has become a "soft cultural symbol" of Ho Chi Minh City. More importantly, this model has inspired many other localities to build book streets, book districts, and community reading spaces.

One of the core elements contributing to the success of Ho Chi Minh City's Book Street is its correct positioning: the book street is first and foremost a cultural institution, and only then a business space. From the beginning, the goal of spreading reading culture and improving the spiritual life of the community has been prioritized. As a result, activities here are not dominated by short-sighted thinking or excessive commercialization. Books of academic value, children's books, history and culture books, and research books still maintain their rightful place alongside entertainment books.

If book streets are viewed merely as "special retail streets," it will be difficult to maintain their long-term vitality and make a significant social impact. A crucial lesson here is: You must understand who your audience is and what they need. Furthermore, if book streets only sell books, they will struggle to compete with e-commerce channels.

The success of Ho Chi Minh City's book street stems from its consistent focus on organizing numerous activities tailored to readers' needs: author meet-and-greets, book launches, reading festivals, activities for children, students, and the elderly, exhibitions, and cultural events. These activities transform the book street into an experiential space where readers not only buy books but also meet, exchange ideas, learn, nurture their emotions and knowledge, and cultivate their aesthetic sense.

Suitable location, harmonious space.

Ho Chi Minh City's Book Street is situated amidst important cultural and historical landmarks, with convenient transportation and a relatively quiet, private space. The overall plan emphasizes landscaping, greenery, pedestrian walkways, reading areas, and community spaces.

In reality, location and spatial design are crucial to the effectiveness of a book street. A book street that wants to attract the public should be easily accessible, safe, friendly, have its own unique identity, and be suitable for the local urban lifestyle. Most importantly, it must answer the question: after visiting the book street, where else can we go? Simply copying a model without considering specific conditions will lead to low visitor numbers and sluggish operation.

Visitors enjoy traditional dishes at an event held at Ho Chi Minh City Book Street ( Photo : QUYNH YEN)

A highlight of Ho Chi Minh City's Book Street is its ability to connect schools, libraries, educational organizations, and tourism businesses. Many extracurricular programs, tours, and reading experiences for students are regularly organized. International tourists view the Book Street as a distinctive cultural destination in Ho Chi Minh City. This shows that the Book Street should not exist independently but should be integrated into the local cultural, educational, and tourism ecosystem. In doing so, the economic and social value of the Book Street will be amplified.

Flexible management mechanism

The Ho Chi Minh City Book Street is managed through a collaborative model involving state management agencies, businesses, publishing houses, and social organizations. The management board plays a coordinating role, creating a legal framework, maintaining cultural direction, and listening to feedback from individual stalls and readers. This mechanism helps limit the "bureaucratization" of cultural activities while maintaining effective management.

Over the past 10 years, Ho Chi Minh City's Book Street has undergone many changes, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic and the explosion of digital technology . Organizing online events, promoting through social media, and combining online and offline book sales have helped the book street maintain its connection with readers. This is an important lesson for other book street models: boldly experiment with new approaches, leverage technology to expand your sphere of influence, as long as you preserve the core values ​​of reading culture.

The success of Ho Chi Minh City's Book Street after 10 years of operation demonstrates a reality: under any circumstances, reading culture still has a place if nurtured with the right mindset, perseverance, and creative approaches.

A book street is not just a place for books, but also a place to nurture knowledge, character, and community identity in the context of the current development of urban society.

NGUYEN MINH HAI

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/duong-sach-tphcm-bieu-tuong-van-hoa-mem-post831886.html