Road of books & revolution
(HE YURONG)
09/13/2002
As one of the oldest streets in Shanghai, Fuzhou Road has preserved a considerable number of traditional ways of life, alongside being a cradle for many of the ways of life accepted by locals today. The last 20 years of the 19th century witnessed the rapid development of Fuzhou Road. Adopting a Western-city planning style, foreign residents of the British Concession turned the newly built downtown vicinity into a clean-cut network of streets. Called by Chinese businessmen "Qipan Jie" or "Chessboard Streets", Fuzhou Road was one of these Chessboard streets. Fuzhou Road attracted lots of scholars and intellectuals with its many bookstores, presses and newspaper offices. A guide to Shanghai published in 1946 listed 31 bookstores in the whole city, 14 of which were on Fuzhou Road, with another 11 dotted along Henan Road (M) and Shandong Road (M), both of which meet Fuzhou Road at different junctions. Adjacent to Fuzhou Road and Shandong Road, "Wangping Jie" was home to all the most important publishing houses in China, including the Commercial Press, Zhonghua Press, and Kaiming Bookstore. For more than half a century, Fuzhou Road has been central to the production of a large proportion of the books sold throughout the country. The first-rate culture of Fuzhou Road drew first-rate intellectuals. When the Reform Movement of 1898 was in embryo, the leading thinkers Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao organised the Qiangxue Society in Shanghai and published "Shiwu Bao", calling for support and stirring enthusiasm among young people for the building of a new China. Zhang Taiyan, called "the Revolutionary Writer" by the press in Shanghai, also lived here. He took advantage of the freedom of speech in the Concession and wrote many breathtaking essays for Su Bao and other newspapers and magazines, stirring the masses to join the revolution. In the 1911 Revolution overthrowing the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Shi Bao Press became the place where revolutionaries met to hold their discussions. It was also the key information centre and the temporary headquarters of the revolution. In addition, Fuzhou Road was the birthplace of Shanghai's southern school of Peking opera. Liu Weizhong, a wealthy businessman, invited many famous actors from Beijing to give performances, using much of his family's wealth in the process. The Dangui Theatre opened on Fuzhou Road, attracting opera-lovers. Many renowned artists were invited to perform here and made Fuzhou Road a fetching sight. The prestigious opera star Li Shaotang once performed here. Those celebrities not only improved the locals' aesthetic tastes, but stimulated the development of local opera schools. Almost every type of opera could be heard up and down Fuzhou Road at that time. Serving as a melting pot of old and modern cultures, Fuzhou Road afforded a haven for thought with its mystery, romance and secularity.
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