Visitors to Shanghai are often struck by the visible traces of
history throughout the city. Historic architecture attracts with
its mystique, its stories to tell and its beauty. Though there is
increasingly more information on Shanghai's history and historic
architecture, still curiosity is often left unsatisfied.
Ten years ago, three expats recognized this gap in knowledge and
created a group to address it - the Shanghai Historic House
Association. This year it is celebrating its 10th anniversary with
a series of events and a new name.
Historic Shanghai, as it is now known, will focus on not only
bricks and mortar, but also on the people, cultures and ideas that
made Shanghai what it is today.
The celebratory year begins with a panel discussion this Sunday
at the Glamour Bar. The title: "Shanghai Ren, Shanghailanders and
Other Interlopers: The People who Made Shanghai, 1800-2000."
It will concentrate on three types of people who contributed to
Shanghai: the mix of Chinese who settled in Shanghai, foreign
business people, missionaries and expatriate "Shanghailanders," and
the diverse group of others - sailors, adventurers and people of
mixed ethnicity who are often overlooked in stories of old
Shanghai. The talk is an example of the group's wider focus on
history and society.
"Architecture will be a jumping off point to explore more areas
of Shanghai history," says Patrick Cranley, one of the group's
co-founders.
The Shanghai Historic House Association was founded by Americans
Tess Johnston and Cranley, and Singaporean Tina Kanagaratnam in
1998. It's a not-for-profit labor of love that the founders
organized in their spare time. Initially its purpose was "the study
of aesthetics," according to Cranley, or the appreciation of beauty
in Shanghai's historic architecture.
Cranley and Kanagaratnam, principals at the communications
consultancy AsiaMedia, arrived in Shanghai in 1997 and were
immediately intrigued by the historical legacies all around
them.
Digging deeper for information they found all roads led to
author and long-term Shanghai resident Tess Johnston. She wrote one
of the first books documenting Shanghai's architecture pre-1949, "A
Last Look: Western Architecture in Old Shanghai" (1993).
The meeting of these three history enthusiasts gave rise to the
association. In most cases appreciating beauty naturally leads to
an interest in protecting it, and the association was no exception
- it has had a long, though often frustrated preservationist slant.
"We have always emphasized the immense value of old buildings, but
we call ourselves a group of like-minded preservationists with no
power to preserve," says Johnston.
Over the past decade this expat group even managed to attract
the support of Professor Wu Jiang, deputy director of the Shanghai
Urban Planning Bureau, who presented to the group the city's ideas
for historic preservation planning.
Without any real lobbying power, however, the association was
limited to raising awareness through lectures, walking tours of
lane neighborhoods and guided tours of grand old Shanghai
institutions. These include the former French Club (now part of the
Garden Hotel) and the Morriss Mansion (now part of the Ruijin
Guesthouse) in the former French Concession.
Ten years on, however, the group's focus changed again. "In the
1980s foreigners coming to Shanghai could not help but be struck by
the old buildings that were here." says Kanagaratnam. "That's
because from 1949 until the 1980s there was little property
development.
"Our role then was to help people understand the history that
was around them. But with all the development of the past decade,
the present and the future have overshadowed the past. Our mission
now is to help people find history."
The group's attention to Shanghai's constructed heritage will
continue, but the rebranded Historic Shanghai will also concentrate
on people-focused topics, literature, industry and the arts,
"things not usually associated with Shanghai," says
Kanagartnam.
In terms of preservation, Cranley is optimistic about the
future. "The main problem is that there's little public or private
money for preservation," he says, and no incentives for developers
to do historically correct renovations.
"It's always cheaper to tear old buildings down." The progress
in awareness is evident, though. While 15 years ago there was only
a handful of protected buildings, today the list contains more than
630 buildings and neighborhoods.
"It's a case of seeing the glass half empty or half full," says
Cranley, "but the trend is positive."
"Shanghai Ren, Shanghailanders and Other Interlopers: The People
who Made Shanghai, 1800-2000"
Date: January 27, 4pm
Venue: Glamour Bar, Zhongshan Rd E1
Price: 50 yuan, includes a drink
Tel: 6350-9988
E-mail: info@historic-shanghai.com
(Shanghai Daily January 23, 2008)