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5 buildings added to Xuhui heritage protection listing
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XUHUI District added five buildings built in the 1920s-30s to its cultural heritage protection list yesterday, including an entrepreneur’s home that served as a base for a group of celebrities prominent in opposing the Japanese occupation.
The home of Li Zukui at 1 Kangping Road, was the center for a group known as the Jiawu Tonggeng Qianling Association.
The group was formed during the Mid-Autumn Festival in 1943. The name refers to the fact they were all born in the Jiawu Year of the Chinese calendar and were all 50 at the time — adding up to 1,000 years.
Members included famous Peking Opera actor Mei Lanfang and well-known painters Zheng Wuchang and Wu Hufan, as well as others from cultural, artistic, educational and commercial backgrounds.
Mei is famous for refusing to perform for eight years during the war against the Japanese, including refusing invitations from the Japanese.
Li headed a matchstick company and was also a renowned collector of precious Chinese silk tapestries and Tianhuang , or field yellow stones.
He refused to sell them to the Japanese and later donated them to the Chinese government, said his son Li Mingci. Other association members sold their poems or paintings to raise money or directly donated to support the war effort. The junior Li said the group met regularly at each other’s homes or in restaurants, but his father’s home was the main venue.
The family left the home in 1953 after his father died and later donated it to the government.
“It’s new identity as a cultural heritage site is a recognition of its historical and cultural value and will bring more efforts from both government departments and the whole community to protect it,” said Ou Xiaochuan, deputy director of Xuhui District’s culture bureau.
Li said: “We can do more besides protection and repairs for the buildings. We need to dig out the stories behind them so as to help visitors better understand their cultural and historical values, which will in turn further promote social awareness in protecting them.”
The other four buildings are the garden houses at 59 Gao’an Road, 542 Shaanxi Road South and 569 Yongjia Road, as well as the former site of the Shanghai Cement Plant.
The former three were recognized for their special 1930s architectural style and the cement plant for its links to the career and life of patriotic entrepreneur Liu Hongsheng. The cement production line remains largely intact.
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