The 2016 Hong Kong book fair, a week-long annual affair organized by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, had a markedly different tone this year compared to last year’s, according to the Guardian.

Since the mysterious disappearance of five booksellers from the city late last year—Gui Minhai, owner of the Mighty Current publishing house and of the Causeway Bay Books shop, is still in detention in China—fewer stands selling political and banned books were present. Causeway Bay manager Lam Wing-kee recently skipped bail after being returned to Mainland China to obtain documents, and denounced the country’s actions at a press conference saying, “Hongkongers will not bow down before brute force.”

However, despite the subdued presence of book publishers at the book fair, two major publishers were in attendance.

“We have had no problem in printing or distributing our four volumes on Zhao Ziyang,” said one editor at CUHK Publishing to the Guardian (who asked to remain anonymous). “But the impact on the fair is very strong. The controls on travellers have been strengthened, and many who came to Hong Kong to buy books censored in mainland China have stopped buying them, as they may get into trouble at the border.”

A representative of New Century Press, Bao Pu, echoed these concerns. “We now have problems at both ends of the book chain,” he told the Guardian. “Printers are not willing to print politically sensitive books throughout the Hong Kong printing industry. This is a very serious situation.... I think that Hong Kong is no longer a place that supports independent publishing, since the Causeway Bay Books event.”

Some of the contraband books sold at the event are listed at BBC’s website.

Despite reports that there were fewer publishers, the book fair managed to draw in a record attendance of almost 1.02 million visitors according to ACN Newswire.

Related reading: A southern Chinese court sentenced Hong Kong journalists to up to five years in prison on Wednesday, the Washington Post reports.

Photo Credit: South China Morning Post.