With its purple-dominated decor and floral prints, even if you didn’t know the store’s name you’d be able to tell that Beijing’s Lady Book Salon is not for men. Its slogan painted on one wall - "Be a literary lady!" - drives the point home.

凭借其紫色的装饰和印花，即便你不知道书店的名字，你也能辨认出，北京女性书友沙龙不是为男性开设的。墙上印着它的口号——“做一个文学女士！”——一语道出了真意。

The first bookstore to focus solely on women in the Chinese mainland, Lady Book Salon provides a tailored service for its readers, offering them guidance in choosing books.

中国大陆首家只聚焦女性的书店-女士书友沙龙，为它的读者提供定制服务，为她们挑书提供指南。



Its owner Xu Chunyu says many people questioned her decision to open a bookstore as "selling books is hard and yields little profit. And concentrating only on women would make me lose half of the customers."

店主徐春雨说，很多人质疑她开书店的决定，“因为卖书很难，利润很低。只关注女性会让我失掉一半顾客。”

Now 10 years later, she has opened eight stores around the country and has thrived by finding her niche in the market.

如今，书店已经开张十年，她在全国开了八家书店，通过在市场中找到自己的立足点，她的事业蓬勃发展。



But Xu sees that behind the growth of her business is women’s expanding demand for spiritual sustenance.

但是，徐看到事业增长的背后，是女性日益扩大的精神需求。

"Compared to men, modern women who are sandwiched between society and family are more in need of assistance to ease their internal conflict. The bookstore happens to have this function, to help them grow internally through reading," noted Xu.

徐强调道：”相比男性，夹在社会和家庭当中的女性更需要帮助来减轻内部矛盾。书店恰好就有这种功能，让她们通过阅读进行内在的成长。”



Meeting a demand

满足需求

Xu says that modern women, who have to manage their professional lives and traditional gender roles can find this balancing act hard to achieve.

徐说，试图平衡职业生涯和传统性别角色的现代女性，发现这种平衡很难达到。



"Women meet different problems and confusion at different ages, such as marriage, giving birth, and so on. They need different kinds of guidance in dealing with the world," said the bookstore owner, "It takes work for them to get inner peace and balance. And reading is a quick path to meet the demand."

店主说：“女性在不同的年龄会遇到不同的问题和困惑，比如婚姻，生育等等。她们需要和世界相处的不同指导。她们需要努力获得内心的平静和平衡。阅读是快速满足这种需求的路径。”

Xu has a team of trained recommenders to meet the needs customers have at different times of the lives, from 25 to 45.

徐拥有一支训练有素的顾问团队，满足25岁到45岁不同年龄阶段客户的需要。



The Lady Book Salon’s shelves are dominated by books about social science and literature and are divided into three categories: "books written by women," "books written for women" and "books women should read."

女性书友沙龙的书架上主要都是社科和文学书籍，它们被分为三大类：“女性作品”，“为女性而写的作品”和“女性应该阅读的作品”。

The first type of books refers to the works of female writers, such as the popular novels of Eileen Chang who wrote about 1940’s Shanghai and Japanese-occupied Hong Kong.

第一类书籍都是女性作家的作品，比如张爱玲关于1940年上海和日占香港的的流行通俗小说。



"Books written for women" are primarily books that teach women how to maintain their appearance, how to cook and how to care for children.

“为女性写的书”主要是教女性怎样保持容貌、做饭和照顾孩子的。

The last kind of books are books that Xu believes women need to read, and include texts on religion, philosophy and economics that can broaden women’s horizons

最后一类书是徐相信女性需要读的书，内容包括宗教、哲学和经济，它们可以拓展女性的视野。



"I’ve been against associating women only with make-up or weight loss. The definition of women is too narrow. So we call for women to be ’literary ladies’ to stress that women should cultivate their knowledge. We hope that women can build strong hearts to cope with outsider interruption and difficulties in life," Xu told the Global Times.

徐告诉《环球时报》：“我一直反对只把女性和化妆或者减肥联系起来。对女性的定义太狭隘了。所以我们把女性称作“文学女性”以强调女性应该学习知识。我们希望，女性可以练就强大的内心以应对外界的干扰和生活的困难。”

Despite these lofty intellectual goals, the store’s bestsellers and the most-borrowed books focus on family, children’s education, travel, philosophy and self-help.

尽管这些目标很崇高，书店的畅销书和借阅量最大的书集中在家庭，儿童教育，旅行，哲学和自助上。