All ‘BOOK’-ED
- bey0ndM@gz!ne
- April 12, 2021
- Trending
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ARTI & SHONEE are the female dynamic duo behind Hong Kong’s beloved community bookshop, Bookazine. They were not always in the business of books, but were collectively inspired by their family business, and decided to take the reigns and build upon it’s legacy.
As the female-led dynamic duo behind Bookazine, what do you hope to achieve with the brand?
Our vision for Bookazine is for it to be Hong Kong’s community bookshop; a space where local writers and artists are able to launch and showcase their work. We do this by dedicating a large area in every store to local products and promoting our offer through events and social media.
As a brand, we are truly customer focused, both in terms of the service we provide and our ability to source new and innovative products that can excite and delight our customers.
What were you doing prior to joining the family business?
Arti – I worked at Hong Kong Tatler as a Graphic Designer and then at The Peak School as an assistant teacher. I found teaching very rewarding and was really passionate about painting so my plan was to study art at University and then get a degree in teaching. Unfortunately, I only got half way, obtaining a Bachelors Degree in Fine Art from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Upon returning to Hong Kong, and before applying for my teaching certificate, I had a few month off so I decided to join my father in his line of work. Sadly, my father passed away a year and a half later, and after having the best experience working alongside him, I never thought about teaching again.
Shonee – Prior to joining Bookazine, I worked in Membership Development at Amnesty International, at law firms, White & Case & Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett and on the legal side of Investment Banking at Credit Suisse.
What are your roles at Bookazine? How does your partnership work?
Arti – While I still love stacking shelves, these days I mainly focus on product sourcing and visual merchandising.
Shonee – I thrive on variety so like to focus on different projects from marketing and digital media to human resources and the enriching selection of books we
offer.
After nineteen years of working together, there is not much of an overlap between our roles but we do make all key decisions together, such as new store concepts and locations, key hires and general management resolutions.
How have books empowered you?
Our parents and our extended family in New York, Singapore and India all work in the publishing industry. Growing up, family reunions were always about bestsellers and publishers and our summer holidays were spent working in the shops or in the offices.
We took it for granted but looking back, we were very lucky to grow up around such great thoughts and ideas.
What are some of your favourite quotes from female written novels?
Arti – “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
Shonee – Not a novelist but my favourite poet is Mary Oliver. Almost all her poems centre around her daily walks in nature, through the woods, with vivid descriptions of trees, birds and other animals. In every poem she describes her subjects with a unique sense of awe – so everything is fresh and crisp. In spite of the many number times I have read her poems each time I pick one to read I am inspired and refreshed and manage to find something new to be awed by! I have so many favourite quotes, but this one sums it up, “Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell me about it”, by Mary Oliver.
You have launched two other ventures, Sweet World Hong Kong and Partytime. How do you feel as a female entrepreneur?
Arti – It was actually the stress of being a busy female entrepreneur that led to the creation of Partytime. The brand was born when I was struggling to organise a party for my daughter while also running a business. I did not have time to run around from shop to shop, looking for accessories around the theme, from a cake, to a piñata, balloons, while simultaneously having to attend meetings, do school pick-ups and organise play dates. I knew Hong Kong needed a one-stop destination shop where one could find everything for the perfect party under one roof.
I remember working in the store one day and a mother approached me and gave me a hug while expressing her gratitude, as her child’s party was the next morning and she had not been able to get away from the office until 6pm. Luckily, she had found everything she needed in our store.
Do you think reading or your love of books has made you a strong woman?
As far back as I can remember, there have always been strong female characters in fiction and non-fiction. These characters have been our mentors and our inspiration in real life. They are the reason we believe that anything is possible.
How do you curate the wide range of options available at Bookazine? What is the criteria?
Shonee – It is very tempting to let our own likes and dislikes influence the range and let our voice be the brand. Ultimately, however, we listen to our customers, and they are the ones who decide the choices at our stores. For example, we would not have chosen to sell the Kindle but it is something our customers asked for and so it is available. Similarly, we tweak the range of books based on what is selling and based on the demographic, offering a different range in across our multiple stores. We also try to be innovative and bring in products that are new and not readily available.
Being in the Netflix-era, how do you hope to encourage women to continue to read?
People have been reading less in the digital era but instead of fighting this trend we work with digital media to encourage people to read. We create a lot of noise on social media and even in-store we often have displays of books that have been adapted into Netflix shows, for example The Queen’s Gambit, Bridgerton, Lupin, Sherlock, All the Bright Places, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, You, to name just a few. Thank you, Netflix!
