The former home of a celebrated Chinese playwright and screenwriter Xia Yan on Wulumuqi Road S. in Shanghai will be converted into a culture and exhibition center, Shanghai's Xuhui District officials said.
Part of the building had served as the residence of Xia Yan (1900-95) from 1949 to 1956. The Zhejiang Province native was also a literary critic and social activist, and became Shanghai's vice minister for culture in the 1960s, but later spent eight years in prison during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76).
The most famous of his dozens of plays and screenplays include "Under the Eaves of Shanghai" and "The Fascist Bacillus."
The two-story complex at No. 178 Wulumuqi Road S. was built in the 1930s. It was used as the office of Xuhui District People's Political Consultative Conference.
The project is part of the district's plan to preserve historical architectures in the area and make more space available to hold cultural activities.
"It had been a residential building, and the renovation will protect its appearance as well as the cultural and historical value," Xuhui District Committee Secretary Mo Fuchun said over the weekend.
Mo said the people and the history behind the buildings is what made them charming.
The district has been working on the residences of some of the celebrities who lived in the district and revamping them as a venue for cultural promotion.
Among them are well-known Shanghai cartoonist Zhang Leping (on Wuyuan Road) and dramatist Ke Ling (on Fuxing Road). They will also be restored to recreate the way they lived and exhibit some of their original works. Mo said they will open to the public before Spring Festival in February.
Shanghai currently owns more than 1,500 buildings that are the former residences of famous people, but nearly half of them have not been included into protection programs. Many of them are on Wukang, Yuqing and Wulumuqi roads.
Mo said improper use of the old building can damage the structure and its cultural values.
The government is responsible for their protection and was paying big compensation to tenants to move out from the historical structures.
