About Us
We’re opening a Chinese independent bookstore in San Francisco.
We live in the San Francisco Bay Area; we’ve drawn nourishment from our cultural roots; the road that brought us here is crumbling behind us. The land beneath our feet prizes technology and efficiency, but often fails to offer a sense of belonging.
We want to tear open a seam in the chaos of life, to let in light—a place to anchor the spirit in the midst of weightlessness and suspension.
We imagine a bookstore, a space for events, a cultural field. Maybe it’s a place to easily buy Chinese books. Maybe it’s where we’ll meet like-minded companions. Maybe we just need somewhere we can drop by anytime. Maybe here, we’ll begin to build a new sense of home.
The naming process was long and winding—until “Unbound / 格外” emerged. It captured precisely where we stand: on the shore, looking back and forward—bodies stepping outside the box, spirits unshackled, sailing toward wild skies. We treasure what we’ve already reclaimed “beyond the boundary,” and all the possibilities that lie ahead.
Who says the Bay Area is a “cultural desert”? Many communities are already here—and so are we. We hope the bookstore can become a hub, a space that connects these communities with the public eye, where atomized individuals and new possibilities can unexpectedly meet.
We’ve been asking ourselves what kind of bookstore “Unbound / 格外” might become: a place where everyone has the chance to co-create, and where “we” is a concept that continues to grow.
Let’s go—see you at the market!
Social Media
Instagram: @unbound.bookstore
Visit Us
38 Waverly Pl
San Francisco, CA 94108