Shanghai Daily news

The villa on No 150 Fenyang Road, now a Japanese restaurant, was built in the 1930s.

The historic Shanghai Arts and Crafts Museum was built in 1905.

Interior settings and one of the museum’s artdeco windows, and stairs at the restaurant.

No 150 Fenyang Road In the 1980s Shanghai Yueju Opera House invited Taiwanese writer Pai Hsien-yung to dine at Yueyou Chinese Restaurant on Fenyang Road. It was on this night Pai discovered the familiar surroundings used to be his home.
The house was built in the 1930s and covers an area of 1,272 square meters. The first owner was Michel Speelman, a Frenchman who was chairman of the Committee for Assistance of European Jewish Refugees in Shanghai.
Pai's father was the renowned Kuomintang general Pai Chung-hsi, who moved into the house in the 1940s. After the family moved to Taiwan in 1949, the China Art Academy took it over. The Shanghai Yueju Opera House became the owner after the academy. Now it's a trendy Japanese BBQ restaurant next to the Paulaner Brauhaus.
``When I first saw the house in 2000, it was a Chinese restaurant and it wasn't in good shape,'' says Gudrun Hellauer, marketing manager of the restaurant. ``The colors have changed but we did not change the structure. We turned the bedrooms on the third floor into several private dining rooms.''
The first floor used to be a garage and servants rooms. The second floor had the meeting and dining rooms while the third floor had the master bedrooms. Both the golden-framed mirrors and the marble columns are original. For safety reasons the restaurant removed a long, slender crystal chandelier, which extended from the ceiling on the third floor to the ground floor.
The centerpiece of the main dining hall is a large painting of a girl in a white skirt carrying a broken water jar. ``There used to be another paper painting in this place,'' says Hellauer. ``Our workers washed the walls and this painting surprisingly showed up. We guess it was probably concealed during the cultural revolution (1966-76).''
A cabinet beside the girl's portrait displays antiques found in the house. A copper door handle, a piece of an original window, an antique clock and two fire-proof bricks made from glutinous rice which were found behind a fireplace.
``Pai Hsien-yung has visited the house every year or second,'' says Grace Wong, a restaurant employee. ``We have raised the floor level -- the house looked higher and a lot more grand.''
During the 1948 Spring Festival (Chinese lunar New Year), the Pai family held a party and enjoyed a night of splendor prior to departing. That same splendor can still be found as you walk through this magnificent building nowadays.
No 79 Fenyang Road
Now the Shanghai Arts and Crafts Museum, this garden villa which looks like an 18th-century European castle was once nicknamed ``little white house'' for its snow-white walls.
Built in 1905, the house was originally created for the director of the Chamber of Industry in the French Concession at that time. A total of 16 directors have lived in this heavenly villa.
When it was no longer used as a residence it became the Asia-Pacific office of the United Nations World Health Organization, then the office of Friendship Organization of China and the former Soviet Union, and in 1963 the Shanghai Arts and Crafts Research Institute moved in.
The institute was one of only four places in Shanghai open to foreigners during the cultural revolution period -- the others included Yuyuan Garden, Jade Buddha Temple and the Children's Palace.
``Crafts played a leading role in earning foreign currencies at that time,'' says Fang Yang, director of the institute.
Six years after being in the building the institute had to move out for Lin Liguo, son of Lin Biao, who wanted to occupy the house. In an attempt to takeover power from Chairman Mao Zedong, Lin Biao drew up a plan for a coup, which was eventually discovered. He fled the country with his family. He died in a plane crash in Mongolia in 1971. Following his death the institute moved back in. ``
As an 18-year-old man I was sent here first before the big move,'' recalls Fang. ``I stood on the platform at the second floor and cast a view at the garden, which looked like a lush green forest. It was the most beautiful house I'd seen during my life. We've painted the outside walls white.''
The institute opened a museum in the house in 2001 to showcase traditional handicrafts and the work of skilled Shanghainese craftsmen.
A century-old bathroom still remains on the second floor with a copper shower machine, antique-style bath tub and night stool.
Fang admits he has received endless requests from business developers to rent or purchase the attractive house.
``The house used to have a line of big flower basins at the top and I'm the only one that suggested we recreate them,'' says Fang, showing a black-and- white picture of the 1960s when the building had the flower basins. ``With these decorations the house is just picture perfect.''