As a holy place in the minds of literary and artistic youth, Old Paradise is undoubtedly a bookstore with the strongest literary atmosphere in Shenzhen. Books, music, movies, coffee, these flesh and blood that make up the body of literature and art have become the label of the old paradise. Founded in 2004, the old paradise has gone through more than ten years, the address has been moved from Huaqiang North to OCT, and the area has expanded from the original 8 square meters to 208 square meters today.
The location of the Old Paradise is a bit unique, it is located under a wooden staircase, so that the direction of the space is consistent with the direction of the staircase inclination, low in the east and high in the west. Books, posters and music tapes are displayed in the glass window of the bookstore, and outside the window, a potted plant encloses an outdoor space of less than 10 square meters, and several small tables and chairs are placed for readers to read and reminisce. When you open the door, you can see the four big characters hanging on the wall of the door, "full of craftsmanship", which means that Old Paradise is not only a bookstore, but also a grocery store and café. A wall a few meters away from the door divides the bookstore horizontally into two parts, the narrow bookstore area to the south, and the more spacious café to the north.
The bookstore area is not large, there are no seats, and the books are placed in an orderly manner. The book recommendation area at the entrance is dominated by literature, history, and poetry collections. The bookshelves in the central area are divided into art, movies and other sections, and the book wall next to the cash register and the book wall opposite the door reach the roof, and most of the books placed are humanities and social sciences.
On the wall by the shop window, there are some retro cultural and creative products, tapes, "old friends idle records" and so on. The tapes cover a wide range of genres and eras of music at home and abroad, from Teresa Teng's pop music to black American jazz, and the memories of several generations are gathered here in a row. The vinyl section is located in the easternmost part of the bookstore, that is, at the bottom of the staircase, and the genres include domestic and foreign folk, jazz, classical, electronic, film, psychedelic, etc., surrounded by a number of music-related books, including Bob Dylan's biography, "On Bach", "John Lennon's Letters", etc. A copy of "Thirty Years of Rolling Stone Records 1981—" lies there quietly, which records the records released by Rolling Stone in the past few decades, which is almost the youth memory of the post-8 and 90s.
Compared to the more cramped bookstore area, the café is much more spacious. Here, there are coffee snacks, a comfortable reading environment, and a midnight party. In addition, the bookstore will also hold some cultural and artistic activities on a regular basis, inviting some music and cultural celebrities and readers to share some things.
Many people say that because of the old paradise, Shenzhen is no longer a cultural desert. This inevitably sounds a bit hypocritical, but it also reflects its status in the hearts of Shenzhen people and among literary and artistic youth. However, what may disappoint pseudo-literary and artistic youths who are keen on taking pictures and punching in is that photography is forbidden in bookstores.
In addition, it is also worth mentioning that since the old paradise is in the OCT Creative Culture Park, in addition to the bookstore itself, there are many creative exhibitions, art exhibitions, and art exhibitions nearby that are worth seeing, and readers who come here should remember not to miss it.
