Albert Wan and Jenny Smith and their childen pose in front of their bookstore Bleak House Books. Photo by Sara Remington
BY DEB AND TIM SMTH
Over the years we have written stories on dozens and dozens of local businesses, but we’ve never covered anything quite like this. One line that we absolutely have never used before would be, “They are in the process of moved from Hong Kong to Honeoye Falls.” Yep, they moved from a space on the 27th floor of an office building in Hong Kong to a space on the 1st floor of 5 West Main Street in Honeoye Falls. The good news is that they’ll be spending a lot less time on the elevator!
Bleak House Books is owned and operated by Albert Wan and Jenny Smith and at this point allow us to rewind and connect a few dots for you. Albert and Jenny and their two children, now ages 11 and 13 moved from Atlanta to Hong Kong in December 2016. Albert had his own solo law practice in Atlanta doing civil rights and criminal defense work. Jenny was a history professor at Georgia Tech, but got a new teaching position at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which was one of the main reasons they moved to Hong Kong.
At the time, Albert already knew he wanted to start a bookshop but wasn’t sure about the how or the when. He built up a small collection of books and comics right before and after moving to Hong Kong and starting selling them at local markets with Jenny’s help. They had a pretty good reception to what they were doing and so decided to open a physical bookshop, which they did on the 27th floor of an office building in San Po Kong, which is a semi-industrial area in Hong Kong. They sold books in the bookstore and also through their website www.bleakhousebooks.com.hk (which is now just www.bleakhousebooks.com).
Their new bookshop has the same name as their old one: Bleak House Books. It is located on 5 W. Main Street in the village of Honeoye Falls, also known as the Wilcox Dann Building (built circa 1882). They have a mix of new and second-hand books and other paper and stationary goods.
Yes, they are an old-fashioned bookstore in some ways, which was what their bookshop in Hong Kong was like as well. In addition to the business of bookselling, they are hopeful that the bookstore can serve the community. In Hong Kong they helped curate and source books for school book fairs. They also regularly hosted events at their bookshop with writers, scholars, and booklovers and this is something Albert and Jenny hope to continue doing here in Honeoye Falls and beyond.
At this point you may be wondering why Albert and his family left Hong Kong and they were pretty straight forward in acknowledging that it was primarily due to the prevailing political climate whereby many of the former freedoms enjoyed by the residents have fallen victim to an increasing desire on the part of the government in Beijing to exert control over the former British colony of Hong Kong.
Because of the unfortunate circumstances of how they had to close their former bookshop, their new bookshop has in it, in some shape or form, a part of their old bookshop, as a way to remember what they once had and what they and their community in Hong Kong had lost. This ‘artifact of memory’ is represented in both a physical sense (for example, the design of the new bookshop contains some kind of re-creation of their old bookshop) and also a cultural sense (for example, in the kinds of books they curate and stock for their readers).
Albert summed up his family’s experience in Honeoye Falls as follows… “It’s now almost three years since we first opened our doors to the community. Having left Hong Kong under less-than-ideal circumstances, we can understand how hard and painful it can be for families to have to uproot themselves for reasons beyond their control. For us, in Hong Kong, it was political turmoil and creeping authoritarianism. But thanks to the warm welcome and support we’ve received from folks near and far during the past few years, we feel like we can at last call Honeoye Falls home — home for our family and for Bleak House Books.”
