Youth League memorial hall reborn
The reconstructed memorial hall of the Socialist Youth League, forerunner of the Communist Youth League, opened to the public on Monday.
The memorial hall is in a shikumen (stone-gated) building at Yuyangli, an old neighborhood on downtown Huaihai Road M.
The memorial hall has undergone eight months of work and now has new structural features and interior decoration.
The slope of the roof and columns inside the building were restored to their original look, and the wooden window shades and humble lamps hanging from the ceiling echo the shikumen style.
The permanent exhibition now has more interactive features and new exhibits related to historical figures. These include an iron-framed bed of Yu Xiusong, the first secretary of Shanghai Socialist Youth League. The bed, originally in Yu’s home in Xinjiang in 1935, was given to the memorial hall by his heirs.
The former site of the Socialist Youth League, which is next to the memorial hall, is a historic place for the Communist Party of China. Besides serving as the office of the first Socialist Youth League led by the Party, it was also the site of the first cadre school and the first news agency of the Party.
The shikumen neighborhood where the memorial hall is located
The inside of the memorial hall after eight months of reconstruction work
A painting on display in the memorial hall of the Socialist Youth League
A permanent exhibition in the reconstructed memorial hall of the Socialist Youth League has more interactive features and new exhibits.
