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Today's Shanghai Sports Administration building was built in 1928 to house the Foreign YMCA. When it opened, it was said that “one hears nothing but praise for the interior of the building and all of its appointments.”
(Photo: Shanghai Daily)

The swimming pool on the second floor of the building. In the old days, men and women swam on alternate days because the men swam nude. (Photo: Shanghai Daily)

The Nanjing Road YMCA -the Foreign YMCA- was a community gathering place that nurtured mind, body and spirit in old Shanghai. Tina Kanagaratnam visits the 1928 building and finds whispers of the past.

The Bund was where old Shanghai worked -- but it was on Nanjing Road that they played. They raced their horses at the Shanghai Racing Club; danced in the ballroom of the Park Hotel, went to see the latest Hollywood movies at the Grand Cinema, and swam their laps at the Foreign YMCA.
Well, perhaps not everyone swam laps at the Foreign YMCA, because, after all, it did not have the prestige (or the dues) of, say, the Cercle Sportif Francais (now the Okura Garden Hotel) or the Columbia Club. And technically, it was not a club, in the way that the Cercle Sportif and the Columbia Club were -- it was the Young Men's Christian Association. It was a movement, it was a mission -- and it was in one of the loveliest buildings in the city.
The 150 Nanjing Road (formerly 150 Bubbling Well Road) is still one of the loveliest buildings in the city. It is hard to compete with the dramatic Art Deco magnificence of Ladislau Hudec's Park Hotel, but the YMCA, right next door, holds it own. The nine-storey building's beautiful beige brick facade is almost exotic; the designs on the brick have a Middle Eastern feel to them. But the building itself is more church than mosque -- and, given the YMCA's mission to spread Christian character, with good reason. Columns hold up its Romanesque arches on the ground level, and twin towers -- also embellished with arches and columns -- rise above. A third storey is tucked between the towers, with a garden in between.
The charm of the building was not immediately apparent to Shanghai residents when it was first built in 1928. In August of that year, Foreign YMCA Associate General Secretary Eugene Barnett wrote, ``criticisms of its front elevation design were rather mixed at the beginning, but they are becoming more favorable as time goes on.'' Although the YMCA itself catered to those less affluent, the Trustees and Board of Directors were made up of the cream of society. The Foreign Y building had been funded by Captain Robert Dollar (of the Dollar Lines, which went on to become American President Lines) and a Rockefeller, among others, and a reading of the occupations of the board reveals their rarefied positions in Shanghai, and sharply evokes the era: T.C. Wu, general secretary of the China Mission to Lepers; W.W. Yen, China's chief delegate to the League of Nations; Tong Kai-son, China's leader in the anti-opium crusade.
It was perhaps to the tastes of these men (and in that time, they were all men) that the building was designed, for this is no plebeian. Y. Barnett (the father of noted Sinologist Doak Barnett) proudly says that ``one hears nothing but praise for the interior of the building and all of its appointments,'' but sadly for the modern visitor, there is very little left of that interior. Still, there are bits and pieces of the old splendor in what is today the Shanghai Sports Association building.
One only needs to climb the stairs to the second floor to see the almost luxurious gilded original stair rails, still crowned by teardrop-shaped finials, and the massive, magnificent columns. The second floor, too, is where the gorgeous pool is located, although it is closed now, except for sports association training (although you can peek into one of the windows). Zoya Shlaykis, who grew up in Shanghai, recalls that men and women swam on alternate days, because the men swam nude. Up on the third floor, a steep staircase leads out to the courtyard between the buildings, a lovely little patch of greenery.
By 1934, W.W. Lockwood was able to describe it thus: ``Home and activity center of young men and women of the European and American communities. In 1933, membership of 923. Ladies' sports sections, budget of US$297,896 raised locally. Varied program of religious, social, educational and physical activities commands the attentive interest of a large constituency. Contests between Orientals and Occidentals (some on the Public Recreation Ground, across the street from the YMCA) in handball, basketball and volleyball promote mutual respect and goodwill among foreigners and Chinese. Lectures and classes on various phases on Chinese culture, often given by Chinese leaders, expose newcomer to best side of life. Sunday afternoon teas, discussion group among building residents; national prejudices toned down, fellowship promoted. Many get a new conception of the cosmopolitan character of the YMCA from their experiences in Shanghai.''
The YMCA, a Christian organization with a focus on ``mind, body and spirit'' as symbolized in their triangle logo, came to China in 1900. The late 19th century had seen an unprecedented influx of missionary organizations to China, but 1900 was not an auspicious year for Christian missionaries. That year, the year that the YMCA had chosen to arrive, the Society of Harmonious Fists rose up against the Christian missionaries in what would become known as the Boxer Rebellion.
In March 1900, they opened their first premises, four rooms on North Soochow (Suzhou) Road, and later that year, moved to Nanjing Road, to a shophouse that later made way for the Sun Sun Department Store.
W.W. Lockwood, the driving force behind the YMCA organization in Shanghai, described the situation when he first arrived in 1903: ``Shanghai was a city of less than one million, under Manchu rule and headed by a Taotai. Organizations did not cross provincial or trade lines, and education was limited to the classics.''
The YMCA, pointed out Lockwood, was handicapped at that time because of each of its characteristics: ``Young'' men's organization in a society that valued old men; a ``Christian'' organization in a society fresh from the Boxer Rebellion; an ``association'' in a time when all organizations were suspect and closely watched. But it was also a time of reforms, and a time when young men were going overseas to study -- and it was here that the YMCA found its niche. Nevertheless, bad management and the turbulent times caused the Foreign YMCA to close in 1910, only to reopen in 1928.
The 1930s and 1940s saw the continued flood of missionaries into Shanghai, as well as the continued globalization of Shanghai, and both these trends were positive ones for the YMCA. By the mid-1930s, there were four YMCAs in China: the Chinese YMCA, the Japanese YMCA, the Navy (later the Army-Navy Y) and the Foreign Y, the latter two for foreigners.
The Shanghai Sports Administration took over the building (and no wonder, with its fabulous pool and gymnasium) after liberation in 1949. It is, perhaps, not what its founders would have anticipated in 1928 -- but then again, the YMCA always insisted that they had to localize. And in a way, that is exactly what the Shanghai Sports Association in the old Foreign YMCA building is.