In 1926, a young teacher named Wang Sishun cleared the ground floor of his family home at No. 52 Wenming Street in Kunming. Having studied under Hu Shi at Peking University and marched in the May Fourth Movement, Wang wanted to spread scientific and progressive ideas. He hung a sign calligraphed with the name Dongfang Bookstore, meaning "Oriental," signaling China's place in a modernizing world.

Step through the weathered wooden entrance, beneath a poetic couplet celebrating virtue and reading. Underfoot, replicated printed tiles cool the soles of your feet. The air carries the dry, sweet scent of ink and aged paper. Nearby, on Yongdao Street, a teenage Nie Er, who would later compose China's national anthem, spent his afternoons reading here.

When war forced the National Southwest Associated University to relocate to Kunming in 1938, this two-story wooden structure became a sanctuary. Scholars like Wen Yiduo, Fei Xiaotong, and Lin Huiyin climbed the narrow wooden spiral staircase, their footsteps creaking on the steps. To help impoverished students, Wang Sishun hung a high-wattage lightbulb outside, casting a warm, bright glow over the street so youth could read through the dark nights. Inside, a second-hand book exchange flourished. The writer Wang Zengqi famously bartered his English dictionary here to buy a hot bowl of chicken rice noodles. Wang Sishun’s daughter, Wang Runshang, remembered a wealthy woman in a silk qipao arriving to trade her precious, silk-wrapped thread-bound volumes for cash to survive the wartime inflation.

The original shop eventually fell silent. In 2018, media professional Li Guohao rebuilt the bookstore at its original location. He relied on old photographs and the vivid memories of an elderly Wang Runshang to replicate the wooden beams, counters, and retro bookshelves. Today, the second floor houses the Southwest Associated University Scholars' Study, displaying historical photographs of its famous patrons.

The bookstore maintains its traditional spirit through a strict "Eight Not-to-Sell" policy, refusing to stock commercial self-help books, success manuals, or low-quality history. Named one of Yunnan's most beautiful bookstores in 2023, Dongfang Bookstore remains an active cultural hub where the past is preserved in ink and wood.