Shanghai Daily news

The Xiong Foxi Building (top) in the Shanghai Theater Academy used to be the German Club in Shanghai and witnessed several love affairs among celebrities. In the building, black wooden columns line the corridor, walls are a mix of gray and orange bricks and there are many other colonial-style elements.

An old house that was once the German Club in Shanghai has had other tenants over the years who are still remembered today for their sad love affairs, writes Michelle Qiao.
The Xiong Foxi building inside the Shanghai Theater Academy on Huashan Road will be converted into a club next year and become a place where the academy's alumni can sip coffee, appreciate the old pictures on the walls and reminisce about their student days. However, this eye-catching building will only be returning to its original function -- it once was a club, the German Club of Shanghai.
Black wooden columns march along its ample corridors on the first and second floors; the walls are a mix of gray and orange bricks; and there are many other colonial-style elements adorning this 760-square-meter house. According to ``The Dictionary of Shanghai Cultural Origins,'' the house's eventful past began in the 1920s, when it was built as an entertainment venue for German merchants in Shanghai. The club used to have a billiard room, bar, cafe, dance ball, cinema, outdoor tennis courts and a swimming pool. In the 1930s, French merchants purchased the German Club and, after renovations, it became a French Club.
``The first floor used to be sitting room with a gas stove for brewing coffee,'' recalls Fan Hesheng, a teacher at the academy who since 1999 has been in charge of renovations of buildings in the academy. ``The second floor was for billiards and there was also a cafe. We used to use the swimming pool until it was demolished in the 1980s.''
History expert Xue Liyong from the Shanghai History Museum says that the city's first German Club was built on the Bund.
``Early in 1866, more than 50 Germany merchants founded the German Club of Shanghai and later in 1904 they built a magnificent building to house it on the Bund when they had finally raised enough funds,'' Xue says. ``German architect Heinrich Becker designed the luxurious building which was one of the most distinguished buildings of the city at that time. Then, after World War I broke out, the building was purchased by the Bank of China and a new building was constructed on the site.''
After the war, the Germans moved to the west of the city and built a series of buildings along Yan'an Road.
``This area used to be rural,'' recalls Fan. ``When I came to the academy in 1973, there were still many farm houses nearby. The German-style architecture was mostly concealed behind tall, black bamboo fences. And there used to be a horse farm around Zhenning Road.''
It seems that the function of the German Club was always a place for fun or for producing fun.
In the 1940s it was taken over by the Central Film Studio and a galaxy of stars used to work here, including ``Golden Throat'' Zhou Xuan, film stars Zhao Dan and Shu Xiuwen.
The minister of culture at that time, Zhang Daofan, also chose the best sunny corner on the second floor to be his office. Zhang is perhaps most famous -- or notorious -- for his long love affair with Jiang Biwei, the ex-wife of Xu Beihong, one of China's greatest painters.
After Xu fell in love with Jiang, a young student of him, Jiang in 1936 fell into the arms of Zhang, a long-time admirer of her. She divorced Xu in 1945 and went to live in Taiwan with Zhang.
But at the time their affair began, Zhang was a married man although his wife and daughter had moved to Australia. On her 60th birthday, Jiang had to leave Zhang because his wife returned. She was forced to retreat into the shadows and only a lover, never a wife, and once again sacrificed herself for the sake of a man.
Jiang wrote a memoir about her failed relationships with the two celebrated men and it became an instant best-seller. It was said that the book drove Zhang, who had been ill, to an early death.
Before Zhang and Jiang began their affair, another renowned couple were also connected to the old German Club and their lives, too, did not have a happy ending.
It is said the legendary Chinese writer Eileen Chang used to go there on dates with her lover Hu Lancheng who lived next door to the club.
Hu was a huge fan of Chang and he won her heart shortly after they met. However, he later abandoned her for a much younger nurse. Heartbroken, Chang did not get married again until her later years in the United States.
The building's name comes from the academy's first president who had asked Shanghai's then mayor, Marshal Chen Yi (who was also former minister of Foreign Affairs of China), to allow the academy to be moved from Sichuan Road to Huashan Road.
``The house was in a poor condition because it had been used as offices, a costume warehouse and faculty residences,'' says Fan who also has renovated Hudec's House, another historic building in academy. ``I took many pictures before the renovation and tried my best to return it to its original look. We have replaced the deteriorating wooden columns with concrete columns but sheathed them in wood. We also bought bricks in the same colors as the originals from Liaoning Province to recreate the same brick patterns and carved round corners.
``It's a pity that we have thrown away all the old copper knobs and locks due to a lack of experience.'' However, Fan made up for this oversight in Hudec's House by finding the old knobs and locks and putting them back where they used to be.
This 50-something former art teacher insists on circling the 19 original stone column bases around the Xiong Foxi building as a memory.
"I love this building very much,'' Fan says. ``The ceiling is high and the balcony is so nice. It always puts you in a happy mood. I will apply to work here after my retirement.''
And in that way Fan hopes to continue his relationship with a beloved building that he truly understands and has worked to preserve.