Zhou said his father Zhou Haiying had a strong wish to reopen the bookstore in Shanghai and he with his father had been in close contacts with Shanghai Municipal Publicity Department to express their wishes to reopen the bookshop before he passed away in 2011.
"Thanks to our efforts, the old bookshop was renovated and a memorial was set up at the original place, however, the fact that the bookshop could be reopened in Tianjin surprised us," he said.
Guo showed a recent publication detailing the history of his father, and said: "Some research records on my father indicate his friend Uchiyama Kanzo made great achievements in protecting the CPC members during the dark times in Shanghai and Uchiyama's sincere support to boost Sino-Japanese friendship in the 1950s."
Uchiyama Shin said he expressed his family's dream to help the bookstore return to China in 2015 when Zhao Qi, a journalist of Tianjin TV, shot a documentary on the bookshop.