Since November 4, 1898, when Cai Jun, the Daotai of Shanghai, held China's first ballroom ball at the Foreign Affairs Bureau on Jing'an Temple Road (now Nanjing West Road) to entertain foreigners to wish Empress Dowager Cixi a happy birthday, Shanghainese people have a history of dancing for more than 120 years.
The Foreign Affairs Bureau on Jing'an Temple Road
1
In the early years of the Republic of China (1915), the "New World Playground" (today's Nanjing West Road, Tibet Middle Road Junction) had a commercial dance hall, in 1927, Yong'an Company "Dadong Dance Hall" was officially listed, since then, Metropolis, Vienna, Dahua, Lido, MGM, Paramount, Xianle and other more than 300 dance halls, mushroomed out, by the 30s and 40s, there have been more than 3300 dancers registered business licenses, Shanghai people in addition to these thousands of dancers, dance hall staff and family members, as well as derivative fashion stores, Beauty shops (then called barber shops), shoe shops and other related industries, and even a large number of "throwing" tricycle drivers at the entrance of the dance hall, the dance hall almost feeds more than 200,000 Shanghainese, but also affects the way of life of Shanghainese.
"New World Playground"
Foxtrot is what Shanghainese like, jump up, the upper body is straight, the dance steps are smooth, the slow steps are advanced, and the progress is agile and neat.
Foxtrot
This kind of dance hall also moves in and out, you can enjoy the leisurely undulating style, which is also very suitable for the tastes of Shanghainese.
2
Shanghai talent Hu Shi, born in Shanghai Chuansha, the root (place of origin) in Jixi, Anhui, like most Shanghai immigrants, "traditional Chinese coupled with the tempering of modern life, there is a kind of wisdom of cultural exchange between the old and new" (Zhang Ailing's meaning), even if he does not go to the dance hall, he will dance foxtrot.
Shanghai Chuansha
Shanghai Wanhangdu Road Lane 320 Lane 42 (formerly No. 49 Jisifei Road) is Hu Shi's former residence, downstairs was the Hu family's living room, dining room and kitchen, upstairs is the Hu Shi couple's bedroom and the room of two sons, very happy traditional family, there is another woman, do not live here, has been living in Hu Shi's heart.
Hu Shi's former residence
When Hu Shi was 26 years old, he obeyed his mother's arrangement and married Jiang Dongxiu, a little foot girl who was one year older than him, and at the wedding, he fell in love freely with the bride's bridesmaid and sister-in-law's sister Cao Chengying, and the two maintained love letter exchanges.
Six years later, Hu Shi went to Hangzhou Yanxia Cave to recuperate, and Cao Chengying rushed to meet him, enthusiastically entangled, and it was difficult to solve.
Hangzhou Yanxia Cave
Hu Shi proposed a divorce to Jiang Dongxiu, and Jiang Dongxiu made a big fuss, she brandished a kitchen knife and threatened: "Divorce is OK, I will kill my son first, and then commit suicide!" ”
Hu Shi stepped out of the footsteps of free love with one foot, and returned home with the other foot, and then continued to maintain a warm love letter exchange with Cao Chengying.
Cao Chengying could only dance closely, because Hu Shi went to Cornell University in the United States to study agriculture in his early years, and she also entered Southeast University to study agriculture, and then went to Cornell University to study genetic breeding.
Cornell University
After Cao Chengying returned to China, she was China's first female professor of agronomy, and before her death in 1973, she left a last word, asking her friend Wang Jingzhi to incinerate a large package of Hu Shi's letters she treasured and bury her on the side of the road from Jixi to Hu Shi's hometown.
Hu Shi died in Taiwan 11 years ago, maybe they had an appointment before they died, she was buried on the side of the road, waiting for the day when Taiwan returned, hu Shi's soul to return home?
Tomb of Hu Shi with an inscription by Chiang Kai-shek
Hu Shi, carrying the banner of the new cultural movement, charged forward and guarded the feudal ritual of arranged marriages to cultivate himself, and Chiang Kai-shek said that he was "a model of the old morality in the new culture and a teacher of the new ideas in the old ethics."
In old Shanghai, men's careers and families are limited stages, new and old, good and bad, forward and backward, all by measure, people like Hu Shi, as well as Lu Xun, Zhu An and Xu Guangping, as well as Shao Xunmei, Sheng Peiyu and Xiang Meili, there are many talents and celebrities, the life dance steps, showing the generous calmness of the foxtrot dance with tacit understanding and elegance, tacitly announcing their respective happiness and bitterness.
The man who dances foxtrot in life is very elegant, very Shanghai...
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