Lala Huo had two problems. He loved reading Chinese-language books, but it was hard to find them, even in the Bay Area. He also loved organizing events for the community, but finding a location was a scramble every time.
On a quiet stretch of San Francisco’s Chinatown at 38 Waverly Pl. between Clay and Sacramento streets, in a storefront that used to sell Chinese medicine, sits Huo’s solution: Unbound, a shop that’s part bookstore, part coffee bar, part community living room.
It’s been quietly open since December of last year, but Huo is planning a grand opening party at the end of June.
Unbound is currently the only independent Chinese-language bookstore in Chinatown.
Eastwind Books & Arts, at 1435 Stockton St. on Card Alley, shut its doors in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Louie Brothers Book Store, at 754 Washington St. near Grant Avenue, closed shop in 2023 after operating for 35 years.
Sino-American Books & Arts Co., a longtime fixture at 3130 24th St. at Jackson Street, closed permanently after its owner, a Taiwanese grandma known to regulars as Mama Jiang, died in early 2024.
The idea for Unbound began taking shape around the same time, in early 2024, Huo said.
Huo, 30, first came to the United States for school in 2010, attending college in the Midwest before heading to graduate school in California. Getting his hands on Chinese-language books has been a struggle since he came to the U.S.
He’d stock up whenever he visited China, or would order in bulk from JD.com, a Chinese online shopping website that ships internationally. But online book shopping never compared, for him, to the simple pleasure of browsing in a physical store and discovering books he might not even know existed.
Huo was also active in the Bay Area’s Chinese community, attending events and panels hosted by the Bay Area Chinese Culture Salon, a local nonprofit, or the feminist open-mic series Wan Nü Stand Up.
Huo wanted to organize more events for the Chinese community himself, but found it always meant the same headache: looking for a venue.
Public libraries, Huo said, would offer free space, but only if booked at least one or two months in advance. Private venues are expensive, and every event seems to always take place in different corners of the Bay Area.
It was hard to find a place that was affordable, consistently available and conveniently located. Huo wanted a fixed space, easy for people to find, that could host events on a regular basis.
“So we are hoping for a more modern, independent bookstore, that is also a public space,” Huo said in Mandarin Chinese. “Not just a place filled with piles of books.”
Huo’s vision for the store is different from other Chinese-language bookstores in the U.S. — like the famous Jifeng Bookstore in Washington D.C. — that rely on donations.
He deliberately structured Unbound as a for-profit LLC, hoping to give it multiple revenue streams by selling books, coffee, and crafts from local Asian artists.
So far, said Huo, the shop has drawn not just Chinatown regulars but also tourists picking up a cup of coffee and some souvenirs.
Huo has curated a mix of books from independent publishers in the United States, alongside books from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
An avid reader of nonfiction, Huo has recently become obsessed with “The Snakehead” by Patrick Radden Keefe, which tells the tale of Sister Ping, a variety-store owner in New York’s Chinatown who became a human-smuggling kingpin.
The English edition has been a strong seller at the store, but Huo is excited that it is finally getting a traditional Chinese edition from a Taiwanese publisher.
Programming is central to Unbound’s identity, Huo said. Early on, he ran a “White Wall Project,” inviting friends and passersby to respond to one of eight questions, writing their answers directly on the store’s walls. The answers are still there, though some are blocked by bookshelves.
Now there are events at Unbound every week, including a silent book club every Thursday, used-book exchanges, movie nights and author talks. At a recent event, writer M Lin discussed her 2026 short-story collection, “The Memory Museum,” then sang karaoke with the audience.
Unbound’s grand opening at the end of June will feature a collaboration between Huo and Washington Post graphics journalist Youyou Zhou.
They’re creating a timeline of Chinese immigration to San Francisco, from the construction of the transcontinental railroad and the Gold Rush era to later waves of international students and white-collar workers.
The timeline will be installed atop the store’s bookcases, and visitors will be invited to climb up and mark the year they arrived in the U.S.
The celebration, Huo said, will also feature firecrackers, a traditional ritual for newly-opening Chinese businesses meant to ward off evil spirits, invite good fortune, and announce the shop’s arrival to the neighborhood.
“We want to take a down-to-Earth approach for Unbound,” Huo said. “We want to satisfy our own reading and social needs and focus on serving the local community and the needs of local Chinese residents.”
The interview was conducted in Mandarin Chinese. At the request of Unbound’s owner, who fears censorship from mainland China, Mission Local is using a pseudonym.