"Independent booksellers emerged and developed rapidly across China since the mid-2000s. Unlike independent booksellers in the West - which generally means a store that isnt part of a chain like Waterstones or Barnes and Noble - independent bookstores in the Chinese context are rarely privately owned and instead share the goal of facilitating the free expression of ideas. Independent booksellers are extraordinary because they rose in a time of economic challenge for the bookselling business due to online retail, but also because they created a market - capitalism with Chinese characteristics - alongside and antithetical to Chinas state control of the book industry. In Cultural Mavericks, Zheng Liu takes readers into the fascinating world of independent bookselling in China. In doing so, she investigates how independence exists in an authoritarian society. She demonstrates how independent booksellers can help to nurture alternative ideas and critical debate through strategic and innovative cultural practices, a process made possible by autonomy from the state and resources and opportunities made possible by market forces. The book is based on interviews with owners, managers, and staff at 55 independent bookstores in six Chinese cities followed by participant observation. The books chapters include an overview of cultural production in China, the unique nature of Chinas publishing industry, the moral bookseller, the political bookseller, and how the bookstores remain in business.

Cultural Mavericks concludes that independent bookstores are the exemplar of how to be independent in an authoritarian, capitalist context"-- Provided by publisher.