An old, almost forgotten house style finds a modern-day champion
Print Edition
EVERYONE in Shanghai knows about shikumen houses, but fewer are aware of jiaoquan houses, even though their forebears may have lived in one.
The houses were post and panel structures built in a ring-like shape. They looked somewhat like four houses forming a circle. Mortise and tenon joints bound parts of the house together. The structure was so firm that it could resist storms and earthquakes.
In Shanghai dialect, the structures were called gaoquan houses. They were frequently seen in the rural countryside around the city.
I once lived in a jiaoquan house in the village of Dongwu in Xinzhuang Town. Urbanization caused the house to be razed around 1980, and before long, all of them were gone. I was really sad because part of me was gone, too.
At that time, it was a just personal issue. I had no idea that I would one day become a chronicler of jiaoquan houses.
In 1983, I joined a team writing what was called the “Shanghai County Annals.” One of the assignments involved jiaoquan houses. I took it on.
I went to libraries to do research and was shocked to find there was nothing about them written down. Shikumen houses, by contrast, filled volumes.
I was deeply disappointed. Something was not right. If no record of jiaoquan houses existed, then I vowed to write one and give the architecture the heritage recognition it deserved.
In 1993, “Shanghai County Annals” was published. It contained a mere 400-character paragraph on jiaoquan houses, but at least it was a start.
I kept up my search for anything I could find that related to the houses. The deeper I delved, the more I learned about the houses.
Jiaoquan houses were widely scattered in the countryside of Shanghai and the neighboring provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Their history dated back further than I had expected. I found records from more than a century ago. In a book called “Songjiang Dialect Tutorial,” written by a French missionary and published in 1883, the house was used as an example for the word jiaoquan.
The account talked of people who wanted to build “five rooms forming a circle, the jiaoquan house. They provided materials, and offered meals to the workers. How much did they need to pay them?”
The text also gave the character jiao the phonetic notation for gao, which carried down to today’s Shanghai dialect.
In the book, only two styles of houses were mentioned, and the other one appeared just once. The book devoted 82 sentences and 53 words to the styles, but made no mention of shikumen. From that, I assumed that jiaoquan houses pre-dated shikumen.
I felt an intense sense of joy at my findings and also a renewed sense of responsibility. I wanted people to know about this architectural heritage and protect any of its remains.
I wrote several articles about my findings. They were published and reprinted in several newspapers. To my great delight, the articles prompted some public response.
Feng Guoyin, a retired professor from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said she wanted to start a project to investigate whether any jiaoquan houses still remained in Minhang or the city as a whole.
I went with her to Pujiang Town, and we were sad to find that any remaining jiaoquan houses there lay in ruin.
We had better luck in the village of Qigan in the Pudong New Area, where we found a jiaoquan house that was still inhabited. It belonged to a family surnamed Gu. According to family records, the house was built in 1850 and nine generations had lived there. The current owner was Gu Mengsheng, a retired doctor whose clinic was right beside the house. Gu and his wife were in their 90s, and all their offspring had left home.
The record also showed that the Gu family was quite rich and famous 170 years ago, and that jiaoquan houses were quite popular among the local wealthy.
Gu told us that perhaps the popularity of the house was due to the big yard in the middle, where family reunions and community festivals and ceremonies could be held.
Feng and I were surprised to find that jiaoquan houses also existed in downtown areas of Shanghai. One on Haining Road was actually a double jiaoquan house, forming two circles. We thought that was quite rare.
The architectural sleuthing attracted the attention of the media, and stories about the houses began appearing on TV and in the mainstream press. I was no longer a lone voice crying in the wilderness for this unique heritage to be remembered and, where possible, preserved.
When we heard that Qigan Village was scheduled for major renovation work, we wrote to local government officials asking them to preserve the Gu family house. We suggested it might be turned into a museum honoring jiaoquan houses. We were pleased when the house was put on a protected list and spared demolition.
Preserving the old is a race against time. The speed of urbanization is always faster than we imagine. We still don’t know how many old jiaoquan houses may still exist in the Shanghai area.
I didn’t have a camera to take photos when my old house was demolished. I wish I had. I wish I had realized earlier how fast the old houses were disappearing, and I wish I had spoken out sooner. But I have been doing what I can to make up for lost time, and I hope more people will join this cause.
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