Thirty years ago, Zhang Bihan, a Chinese American who was born in Jiading, donated 11 artifacts to Jiading Museum. Since then, his children have followed in his footsteps and donated more items to the museum. With their support, the collection of Jiading Museum is increasing rapidly.

Jiading is considering building an art museum of Zhang Bihan, himself a celebrated artist, to exhibit his works and collections, and publish a book about the donated cultural relics from Zhang’s family to mark their love of the hometown.

Zhang’s family is known as devoted and patriotic. Now let’s take a look at Zhang’s family and learn the stories.

The artist Zhang Bihan

Zhang Bihan (1909-1995) was a Jiading native and graduated from Shanghai Hujiang University.

He studied painting first from famous local landscape painter Zhao Dingkui and later from painters Wu Hufan and Feng Chaoran. Together with some other painters, he established the Luyi Society, specialized in the study of Chinese painting and calligraphy.

In 1948 he moved to Hong Kong and worked as an art teacher at the Chinese University of Hong Kong since 1957. He retired in 1974 and moved to America in 1979.

Zhang specialized in the study of ancient calligraphy and painting and loved to collect them. His rich knowledge in the art field was widely recognized and was employed as a consultant by Hong Kong Museum of Art. His paintings enjoyed a high reputation among the painters.

When Zhang visited the Jiading Museum in October 1987 with his wife, Zhu Weicong, he decided to donate 11 cultural relics to the museum to show his deep love to his hometown Jiading.

The donations included a Jue cup in the Shang Dynasty (17-11 century BC) with animal patterns, a jar of Longquan Kiln from the Song Dynasty (960-1279), a pair of colored plates in the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and some other articles.

The Jue cup of Shang Dynasty was later designated as a national level cultural relic. There are only two such Jue cups found in China.

When Zhang passed away in America in 1995, His son, Zhang Shichao, and daughter-in-law Jin Yunqiu, donated more artifacts to the museum, including a pottery model of ancient pig farm from the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420 AD) and some stationery from the Qing Dynasty.

After the son passed away, his wife Jin brought over 100 artifacts from the America back to China in 2012, and donated all of them to Jiading Museum, including calligraphic works and paintings of masters and celebrities, such as Chen Chun, Weng Tonghe, Zeng Guofan, Shen Zengzhi, Cheng Tinglu, Xu Beihong, Qi Baishi and Wu Hufan.

It was the largest donation of artifacts received by the museum ever since it was established.

The museum recently held an exhibition of the donated artifacts to appreciate the Zhang’s family for their contributions.

Members of the Zhang family came to the exhibition from America, Australia and Beijing.

During the exhibition, Zhang’s family donated again a group of calligraphic works and paintings by some cultural celebrities, including those by Dong Qichang in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Zhang Zhaoshu of the Qing Dynasty, Cheng Shifa a contemporary artist, and Zhang Bihan himself.

(Jin Rong and Momo Pan) The educationist Pan Yangyao

Zhang Bihan’s uncle

Pan Yangyao, Zhang Bihan’s uncle, was born in 1893 in the Ximen area of Jiading District. He used to learn from the Chinese ancient literature master Tang Wenzhi and graduated from Shenzhou Law and Politics School.

With a solid foundation of Chinese studies, he joined the South Society, a famous Chinese scholars’ society in the early years of last century.

In 1914, Pan visited Japan as a member of Jiangsu provincial education group. He was interested in the vocational education of Japan and suggested developing education to save the country.

After he returned, he was appointed as the president of Jiading Educational Association, director of Jiading Educational Bureau, curator of Jiading Library and editor-in-chief of the Liu Bao newspaper.

In 1917, together with Huang Yanpei (1878-1965), the founder of Chinese modern vocational education, Shen Enfu and other local educationists, Pan set up China Institute of Vocational Education, the country’s first institute of vocational education.

Shang Ding, secretary of Huang Yanpei, said that although the leader of the institute was Huang Yanpei, the main characters actually were those Jiading people with vision. Without them, there would be no institute at all.

The institute was supported by Jiading educationists from the very beginning, including Pan Yangyao, Gu Shusen, Hu Juewen, Huang Shoufu, Pan Zhixing, Yang Zhuofu, Pu Yong and Zhang Naixuan.

Apart from the work in the institute, Pan also took part in the building of the Zhonghua Vocational School and became the headmaster in 1924. Sometimes he also gave lessons as a guest professor for Shanghai Business University, Daxia University and Jiangsu Commercial Vocational School.

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Pan was elected the council member of the institute for successive two terms and continued the contributions to the vocational education for the young generations.

(Tao Jiming and Pan Zheng)

The entrepreneur Zhang Songzhou

 Zhang Bihan’s father

My grandfather, Zhang Songzhou (1888-1970), was an orphan. He was abandoned at an orphanage and adopted by Zhang Jingyin and his wife, who treated him as their own child. My grandfather used to study in an old-style private school and later at Nanyang Public School.

When he was 16, his foster father passed away, and he had to stop schooling and earn money for the family. However, he didn’t stop studying, and began to learn by himself the Chinese and western culture after work every day. He used to work in a bank and later, he became a comprador for Shanghai Chase Bank until his retirement. He died at 83 in Hong Kong and was buried in his hometown Jiading, as he had wished.

In early 1920s, the Chase Bank of America set up an office in Shanghai. Recommended by Wang Boyuan, president of the Land Bank of China in Shanghai, my grandfather got a job in the office, providing financial services for foreign and domestic institutions. When the office developed into a big bank, my grandfather suggested a Chinese name “Da Tong Bank” for it. The name has been preserved and widely used, and “Da Tong Bank” is still serving Chinese people all over the world.

In 1934, my grandfather and his friends established the Jiafeng Textile and Dyeing Factory, the first modern factory integrating textile manufacturing and dyeing in Jiading. The factory later became famous for its good quality.

Former Residence

My grandfather’s home in Shanghai was called Zhang’s Garden, at current Zhennan Road and Jiaotong Road. According to Zhenru Town Annal, Zhang’s Garden was located in Jinan University and was the villa of my grandfather Zhang Songzhou. The garden was composed of main residences, pavilions, ponds and rockeries. It was a delicate garden. During the Chinese war against the Japanese invaders, the surrounding buildings were all destroyed, but the garden was preserved.

Zhu Xiaozang and Long Yusheng, two scholars of that time, used to visit the garden. Zhu also created a poem titled “Spring of Han Palace” for the garden.

After 1949, my grandfather, who had retired and lived in Hong Kong, donated the one-hectare Zhang’s Garden to the government unconditionally. The garden later was reconstructed and became Dazhong Middle School and Shanghai Police School.

My grandfather liked to help poor people. He set up tea stations at docks and crowded streets to offer free tea for rickshaw pullers and dock porters. His behavior was praised by politicians and businessmen at that time, but he didn’t pursue power and fortune and maintained his integrity as a patriotic banker.

My grandmother, Pan Huiqing, was the sister of Pan Yangyao, a famous Jiading educationist. Pan’s house was in the Jiading Hotel and is now listed as unmovable cultural relic of Jiading District.

My grandfather paid a lot of attention to the education of children and grandchildren. His first son, Zhang Bihan, was a famous traditional Chinese painter and connoisseur of ancient painting and calligraphy.

Children of Zhang’s family are now scattered all over the world, but their hearts are always linked with Jiading, their hometown.

(Written by Zhang Shiheng, Zhang Bihan's daughter)