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Garden venues for leisure, opera, mini films
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The Xu Garden in Zhabei District is recorded to have held the first public film screening in China in 1896, and it became one of a handful of scenic venues that offered operas, short films and variety shows.
Many private gardens like Xu Garden were open to public and became important gathering places around 1900, around the time when foreigners introduced parks, theaters, ice-skating rinks and large entertainment centers to Shanghai.
These gardens were designed like traditional Chinese gardens to imitate nature through meticulously arranged rocks, streams, trees and flowers, offering attractive views for contemplation in limited space.
But instead of appealing to a few literati, they offered the most fashionable Western entertainment, including movie screenings, photo stands, traditional Chinese opera and tea houses.
As Shanghai developed, these gardens became extremely popular.
Xu Garden was located on today’s Tiantong Road. It is now a residential longtang (lane), with few traces of its early prosperity. Visitors can still get a feeling, however, of amusement areas from the Zhang Garden on Weihai Road.
According to records and written accounts, Zhang Garden was an early film venue as well as an important public magnet for speakers expressing a wide range of views about China and the changing times. It was known as China’s Hyde Park.
Since it was located in the international settlement, Chinese policemen were not allowed to operate there. Many progressives and young leftists gathered there for public speeches and discussions.
The venue was built by a British merchant in the 1870s and later bought by Shanghai merchant Zhang Shuhe, who expanded it to around 40,000 square meters.
Zhang Garden started showing films as early as in 1897 and screenings soon became one of its biggest attractions. Owner Zhang also hired photographers to take photos of visitors in the garden and offered them ancient costumes for rent and classical backdrops.
In the early 1900s, Zhang Garden also had early roller-coaster rides, which attracted many foreigners.
Astor House, or today’s Pujiang Hotel, was another screening venue on the Bund. Expatriates gathered to watch films about the Queen.
Early, “proper” cinemas were part of the “iron house” (the nickname for the enclosed space that could seat about 200 viewers) built in 1908 by a Spanish merchant and ice-skating rink in Hongkou District.
In the next 30 years, many cinemas emerged all over the city, appealing to different moviegoers. The upscale expensive cinemas showing only Western films included the Cathay Theater on Huaihai Road M., Nanking Theater (Shanghai Concert Hall) on Yan’an Road M. and Grand Theatre, which was designed by L.E. Hudec and co-founded by Albert Warner, one of the famous four Warner Brothers.
Zhang Yuan
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