(Photo: former
residence of Dinglin)
May 18 was International Museum Day and on this
occasion Shanghai Hongkou District, in connection with this year’s theme of “super-connected
museums”, unveiled new commemorative plaques for a batch of historical
buildings in the North Bund area. Included among the list of the first 40 buildings
are the former residence of Ding Lin (1904-1986), a writer who joined the CCP
in 1932, well known for her feminine novels set in 1920s Shanghai, the Young
John Allen Memorial Church (Jingling Tang), the former home of the Comparative
Law School of Soochow University, and the former house of the Hongkou Branch of
the Commercial Press.
The reporter learnt during the unveiling
ceremony that, in order to provide a better narration of the stories behind
those historical buildings, Hongkou District has tried to digitally connect a
total of 120 buildings and former residences of celebrities to create an “unwalled
museum”. A QR code will be available for each historical building with a new
plaque attached to it and simply scanning the QR code will present a short
introduction along with pictures of the building.
As an area boasting rich historical, cultural
and humanistic treasures, Hongkou has been positioned by President Xi as the
origin of Shanghai’s avant-garde "East Meets West" culture. Li Qiang,
current Communist Party Secretary of Shanghai, also mentioned that historical
buildings are the living history of a city and he underscored the need to
preserve those historical and cultural heritages--the living memories of
Shanghai.
During the unveiling ceremony, the organizers
made an example by attaching a new plaque to the former residence of Dinglin
and scanned the QR code on the plaque. A guide with the Memorial Site of the
4th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party then recited Dinglin’s
prose titled “Wuyue”(Literally “May”).
After the ceremony, more than a hundred young
members of the Communist Party and the Communist Youth League escorted and
attached the new plaques to other historical buildings, showing that the young
understand the importance of remembering the old.