I am fascinated by the 1920s and 1930s. The Jazz Age, the Great Depression, prohibition and the romantic musings of F. Scott Fitzgerald make up some of my favorite reading material. But lately I’ve been learning about the history of my adopted home. Shanghai was then known as the “Paris of the East” and was the fifth largest city in the world. The British and French had established thriving communities and business was brisk for the opium and tea trades. The local Shanghainese bourgeoisie flourished and many of them lived in two-story houses with stone gates called shikumen. Most of these houses went the way of the bulldozer, but the Shikumen Open House Museum in Xintiandi is a well-done recreation, complete with period furniture and decorations.
On the ground floor, visitors can tour the parlor, a bedroom with a traditional canopy bed and a rudimentary kitchen which looks out of place in the elegant home. The attention to detail in the decor give the impression the family has stepped out and will be back any minute.
Halfway up a narrow flight of stairs, between the first and second floors, is a bedroom and study that would have been rented out to a traveling scholar or artist. A small desk is set up with calligraphy brushes and other writing implements.
The third floor of the home features three large bedrooms that are interconnected with doorways, similar to the old railroad apartments of New York City, where you walk through one room to get to the next. Family photos, make-up kits and hair accessories give the space and intimate feel.
There is a traditional teahouse on the upper level, as well as an interesting exhibit on the history of shikumen houses and the Xintiandi neighborhood of today. Built in 1996 by a Hong Kong development firm, Xintiandi tries to blend the old with the new. Some of the facades of the original shikumen were kept while the insides of the dilapidated buildings were gutted and modernized to make way for shops and restaurants.
Not as minimalistic as I had imagined it to be. Is that the British influence?