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April 14, 2018

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State of the art in 1930 survives to entertain today

ON Nanjing Road Trail

Since I began writing this column on Nanjing Road last year, it has been undergoing a new round of urban regeneration. I’ve seen private toilets added to apartments in the century-old Ci’anli Building, three 1930s department stores renovated and the 1980s East China Electrical Power Building converted into a boutique hotel.

But none of those is more exciting to me than the opening of Shanghai History Museum built in the former clubhouse of Shanghai racecourse, which had shaped Nanjing Road and had a profound effect on the city’s urban development.

Nanjing Road was constructed in 1851 as Park Lane — from the Bund to the first racecourse on today’s Henan Road. It was widely called Ta Maloo which translates as “Great Horse Road.” The Maloo was extended to Zhejiang Road in 1854 and stretched further to Xizang Road in 1862 as the racecourse was relocated twice to its final place at today’s People’s Square.

The almost 1-square-kilometer grounds had been the former social center for Shanghai’s foreign population. After decades of regeneration, a congregation of racecourse buildings came into being.

In 1951, the racecourse and its neighborhood became today’s People’s Square, People’s Avenue and People’s Park, an area transformed into a political, cultural and entertainment center of the city-- “the heart of Shanghai.” The former shape of the racecourse is still maintained but a rainbow of new structures were built around it.

Park Lane was renamed Nanjing Road, and in 1945 the local government renamed the former Bubbling Well Road starting from the former racecourse to Nanjing Road W. — and the other end became Nanjing Road E. The entire stretch came to be known as Nanjing Road, stretching 5 kilometers.

Early Shanghai expatriates said if the Bund was like a bow, then Nanjing Road was the arrow, flying westward, which has been the direction that has guided Shanghai’s urban development.

After exploring the bow-shaped Bund, I walked westward along the 19th-century Nanjing Road E. that is undergoing a 21st-century regeneration.

With the grand opening of Shanghai History Museum, I decided to circle around the former racecourse before going further west along Nanjing Road.

Let’s follow the arrow of Shanghai and explore the heart of the city this spring!

SHANGHAI Concert Hall, a rare surviving example of a Western classic building designed by Chinese architects in old Shanghai, was the work of Fan Wenzhao and Zhao Shen, both graduates of the University of Pennsylvania. 

“They are representative figures of China’s first-generation modern architects,” says Tongji University associate professor Qian Feng.

The three-story concert hall was built in 1930 as the Nanking Theatre, a cinema, on today’s Yan’an Road E.

China Press called it “Shanghai’s New $500,000 Cinema” and said “its structure embodies most up-to-date features in construction” in October 1929, ahead of its official opening on March 26, 1930.

“The entire structure, which reveals many novel features both in point of artistic decoration and those designed with a view to the comfort of patrons, is being erected at a cost of more than $500,000 exclusive of the cost of the site,” the report said. “The most novel of these features will be the installation of an air-conditioning plant, by which air washed free of all dust will be circulated through the auditorium, at a temperature of from 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the years and its relative humidity will be scientifically controlled and adjusted. This apparatus is quite similar to those installed in the Roxy and the Paramount theaters in New York.”

Invested by Chinese-owned Shanghai Amusement Co Ltd, the cinema was equipped with Western electric sound projectors for Movietone and Vitaphone films. 

The building’s design is modified renaissance. The facade features arcades built with colored stucco and artificial stones. The structure had ancient Romanesque pillars and marble stairs in the north hall, a huge dome inside, as well as parapets with delicate carvings. During the early years of the theater, movies, acrobatics, circuses, dramas and traditional Chinese operas were put on here.

The China Press report said: “The arcades are surmounted by a sculpture panel with a suitable theme in relief. The side elevations are in Taishan face brick and artificial stone. The walls of the auditorium will be treated with a series of Ionic pilasters and arches decorated with rich draperies. The ceiling will be in rich, low relief. The lighting will be indirect.”

Professor Qian notes that both the architects changed to Chinese renaissance and then to an utterly modern style after creating the Western classic building.

Zhao returned to China in 1927 to join Fan’s firm. He later co-founded the Allied Architects, one of the two leading Chinese design firms in modern China — the other being Tianjin-based Messrs Kwan, Chu and Yang, designers of the Shanghai No. 1 Shopping Center on Nanjing Road E.

“Zhao’s style is pretty much like his personality — simple, sedate and elegant, stressing functionality and economic construction. It’s interesting that both Zhao and Fan took part in the competition for designing Dr Sun Yat-sen’s mausoleum in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. They both won prizes, but the mausoleum was finally designed by another Chinese architect named Lu Yanzhi,” Qian says.

As modern China’s first-generation architects, Zhao and Fan designed some “Chinese renaissance” buildings which incorporated both Chinese and Western elements, such as the YMCA building with its upturned eaves and large plate-glass windows.

“And they both gave up the style,” Qian says. “Zhao’s firm launched a campaign to abandon big Chinese roofs while Fan seemed even more radical. He called on correction of this ‘big roof mistakes,’ especially after European architect Carl Lindbom and Chinese architect Wu Zi’ang joined his firm.”

“After his 1935 tour around Europe representing China at the 14th International Housing and Town Planning Congress in London and the 13th International Architectural Congress in Rome, he fully embraced ‘international-style’ architecture that valued the concept of ‘form follows function.’ His 1941 work, the Majestic Theater on Nanjing Road W., was a very modern piece,” she says.

According to Fan’s granddaughter Maureen Fan, he spoke English at home, counted foreigners among his friends and had chairs designed by German modern architect Mies van der Rohe in his living room.

“On weekends, he took my father, uncle and two aunts to see the Marx Brothers or Johnny Weissmuller’s ‘Tarzan’ free of charge in theaters he designed,” Fan wrote in an article published in the Washington Post in 2009.

In 1950, the theater was renamed the Beijing Cinema and in 1959 embraced a new name and new role as the Shanghai Concert Hall. Since then, it has been a popular cultural venue specialized in presenting classical music, jazz and traditional Chinese music.

It co-hosted the city’s major cultural events including the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival and the Shanghai International Arts Festival. World-class troupes and artists, including the Juilliard String Quartet, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, violinist Pinchas Zukerman and pianist Maurizio Pollini, have performed there.

To make way for urban construction, the building was relocated in 2002. It was lifted and moved 66 meters southeast to sit in the Yan’an Road M. greenland before reopening in 2004. Some expansion and renovation was carried out during the project.

“At the same time as cleaning and restoring the original facade, we enlarged the stage from 100 to 298 square meters and added a sunken orchestra pit. Seats and modern facilities for artists and audiences to relax were also added during the project,” architect Zhang Ming wrote in an article.

Today, the concert hall still looks like the building China Press described in 1929.

It said then: “The main lobby is characterized by a marble staircase giving access to a spacious promenade on the mezzanine floor. Here marble columns will rest on a cain-stone base course. The ceiling will be richly ornamented. There will be a foyer on the east side of the building connecting with the main lobby beneath a beautiful rotunda. The main lobby may be viewed from the mezzanine floor promenade through a marble colonnade.”

Zhang says the ceiling, the rotunda and walls have been repaired with original materials according to their old look. Elegant tones of gold, grayish blue and beige were selected for the interior decoration to suit the ambience of the building.

“The building is more than a concert hall. It’s not only a 1930s building, but also has a story of floating and relocation. I’ve worked here for more than 10 years and often find our audiences enjoy taking photos of the building before or after a concert,” says Fang Liang, the venue’s general manager.

“This building is an entrance for people to get to know about Shanghai. We have a responsibility to preserve it well and share its stories. I hope visitors to Shanghai Concert Hall admire elegant music, meanwhile walk up the 80-year-old staircase, touch the handrails of the veranda and feel the warmth and depth of our city,” she says.

Yesterday: Nanking Theatre
Today: Shanghai Concert Hall
Address: 523 Yan’an Rd E.
Date of construction: 1930
Architects: Fan Wenzhao and Zhao Shen
Architectural style: Western classic style
Tips: The concert hall is open only to its audiences. I’d suggest you visit the building one hour ahead of a performance to admire it and have a drink at the cafe in the western hall, which was built during the relocation project. For ticketing information, visit www.shanghaiconcerthall.org.
Next building: Chinese YMCA Building, April 28




 

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