[Photo 5168] We are currently on Hong Qiao Lu [虹桥路] 289 Nong. I am standing in front of a garage. A very old garage. There are a lot of bicycles parked inside. Right next to it is where my old apartment building used to be. This whole area is going to be demolished soon. There was a small room in our old house that was rented out to a young couple. I heard that there was an apartment that was almost like a little casino. You could call it a ‘mahjong room’ [棋牌室] nowadays. A lot of people went in and out of this mahjong room, mostly men. My mother said that they played card games and mahjong there. These kinds of activities were forbidden before, and I heard that even the police came to stop people playing these games. My old apartment was on the second floor.

[Photo 5180] When you stand next to the window you can see 2 doors. Standing in front of the big window on the second floor you will be able to see an alleyway leading to Hong Qiao Lu. The Gateway shopping mall and Eastern shopping mall are on Hong Qiao Lu, which was not here before. All the houses near my old house were built in the 1970s. They are not high, about 6 or 7 floors. Now, no one lives here anymore. If you look out another window you can see the neighborhood’s gate. Yi Shan Lu is right outside of the gate. If you go out from here it should be the ‘Liu Yuan’… Oh no, I think I made a mistake here…

[Go up the stairs to the second floor, turn left, go to the apartment at the end.] Right now, we are in my old apartment. It is completely empty now, so you can hear the echos. The window frames are all taken out but you can still see where the curtains used to hang. From here you can see there are a couple of trees outside of the window [Looking west] [Photo 5178]. These were planted by the neighbors around here. I buried my pet tortoises here – those Brazilian Colorful tortoises you can buy on the street. These trees should be ‘Pi Pa’ trees. When I was young, I used to love to see them blossom and fruit. People would climb up to pick the fruits. This road in front of the window [Looking south] should be Hong Qiao Lu. [Photo 5173] This road has been widened during the years. It used to be really narrow. There are many of these narrow roads around here. I would have to walk a long time and take many turns before getting home, but after [Hong Qiao Lu] was widened, all those small roads are gone. The KFC on Hong Qiao Lu, which should be the first KFC in Shanghai (1) used to be right next to the Eastern Mall but it is gone now because the business was not that good. This was the first fast food place I took my grandmother. My grandmother was very healthy then, I think she was in her 60s. We went one day after I finished school and we were both very excited. After walking in we were reading all of the menus. They had two set meals that we could choose from. One came with a free gift and one didn’t. I couldn’t really understand it and because I was so short I could not read the menu clearly so I just ordered whichever looked good. In the end, I found out that I got the wrong one. The free gift was a water bottle and I really wanted it. Grandmother didn’t read the menu either. After that, my grandmother got older and moved somewhere else in town so I saw her less frequently. I never forgot this outing we had together.

[Photo 5174] Our apartment is very dirty now, filled with construction garbage and full of mosquitoes. This corner is very cool even in really hot weather. I can hear the sounds of cicadas. When I was young and was home by myself I would stay in this room with my grandma. I started learning how to play the Chinese Harp since I was a kid, and the harp was put right in this room. Walls in old houses like this do not keep the sound in. We had a pretty good relationship with our neighbors so we could talk about anything to each other.

I started playing the Chinese harp when I was 6 and continued playing until my high school graduation. I stopped when I went to another city for University so it was tough to keep learning the harp. They say that kids who played an instrument since they were young do not have a childhood, and I know exactly what that means. My parents both had full time jobs so they were always at work. Only my grandparents were at home with me and they spoiled me, so they didn’t really care if I practiced hard or not. They would let me relax and watch TV. But I was always scared of my mother. She was very tough on me. She was always forcing me to practice because she had already spent money for the harp and also the lessons. It started at 10 yuan per hour then it slowly went up to 100 yuan per hour. Maybe it’s even more expensive now. I have not had a harp class for a long time. I am pretty sure my teacher must be in his 80s now, and has already retired. All my neighbors could hear me practice, so when my mother came home she would check up on me by asking the neighbors, “Did my daughter practice today?”. The neighbors could always tell her the truth because the harp could easily be heard through the thin walls. I bet the whole hallway could hear me practicing. During summer it would get really hot in the apartment so we would always keep the windows and front door open but the iron gate closed. The Ayi (2) from next door would come to call me whenever they had good food like watermelons, etc.

I lived here until I graduated high school. We bought a new house somewhere else but I actually liked living here more. Although the house is old, its central location makes it easy to get to popular places in the area. It’s just a short walk to Xu Jia Hui [徐家汇]. Nowadays, Xu Jia Hui is considered another center of Shanghai. It’s a major commercial area. When they do Shanghai’s weather report on TV, they would announce Xu Jia Hui’s weather as a separate area. I used to love the ‘Gateway Mall’ [港汇] (3) because it was so spacious and comfortable compared to the older malls such as ‘Huì Jīn’ [汇金] and ‘600’ [六百] (4).

Sometimes we would not turn on the air conditioner at home, so I would walk by myself at night to these malls to kill some time. Local Shanghainese have this habit, they would go outside and ‘Chéng Fēng Liáng’ [乘风凉] (5) in the summer winds, but we didn’t have this kind of tradition at home. My mother was considered a little ‘bourgeois’ and she thought it was tasteless to put a chair out and enjoy the wind outside. She thought it just looks bad. [Go down the stairs to the entrance]…”

Footnotes:
1- According to some locals the first KFC was opened in People’s Square.
2- Pronounced ‘Ah–Yee’. Literally ‘Auntie’ but generally a polite way to call older women.
3- A.k.a. ‘Gang Hui’ [港汇].

4- These malls also are in Xu Jia Hui.
5- Shanghainese pastime where people would sit outside and enjoy the cool breezes. Usually in the early evening or when ever it was cool outside.

5168- Old garage across from apartment building.

5173- View from apartment looking south.

5174- Inside the apartment.

Recorded July 3, 2009 10:00 a.m.

When I first started this project, I didn’t know where it would lead or what type of people I would meet. My first walk was with my Shanghainese friend, Maggie, who told me she was interested in participating in this project.

From the beginning, I knew this walk was going to be amazing. We started in an abandoned apartment complex that was ready to be demolished for the future expansion of Xu Jia Hui–a growing epicenter of shopping malls and electronics stores. The complex was quiet, save for a few families who still reside here amidst the derelict buildings. The government relocated most of the residents around 2002 and have since gutted and prepared these buildings for demolition. It was her first time there since she had left and it was interesting to see the actual locations where her memories were took place.

We continued along the route she would take to go to her nearby language school. The streets were bustling with daily life, with the sound of restaurants preparing for the coming lunch hour and with people returning home from the local vegetable market to cook for their loved ones. Her memories along this road were quite small and intimate–buying stamps at the local post office and the vegetable market where her mother used to shop. As we got deeper into the residential neighborhood, the amount of street noise dropped, and gradually crept back as we get closer to Pan Yu Lu.

Since this was the first recording, it was edited more than the others. Portions where the recording was paused have been deliberately emphasized this with a few seconds of silence as an indication that a small amount of time has passed.

Please be very careful when walking through the apartment. There are scattered nails and broken glass on the floor.

* Please note that the apartment building was currently accessible at the time of this writing. However, it may not be upon your visit.

Photos by Weina Li.

Here is an excerpt from the translation:

[0:09] Go to 21 Nong on Yi Shan Bei Lu, north of Hong Qiao Lu, east side of road.

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