The quaint and vicissitudes of the walls, the bluestone paved roads, and the large red revolutionary slogans on the streets and qu everywhere are filmed everywhere, and the revolutionary aspiration of "serving the people" is captured; several handicraft shops in the neighborhood are "small and clean and big", and a variety of goods are overwhelming; all kinds of delicacies are available, and the rich flavor of northern Shaanxi spreads on the tip of the tongue; the Red Army soldiers who constantly shuttle through the crowd carry out a unique Yan'an style with high-pitched and exciting red songs.
If you don't walk into this underground street full of red atmosphere to explore, it is easy to miss this historical and cultural neighborhood hidden in the northwest direction of Yan'an City, close to the former site of the Zaoyuan Revolution - "Yan'an 1938".
A interpretation of history and today
When you think of Yan'an, what is the first thing that comes to mind?
Cave dwellings? Loess slopes? Or "Xiaomi Plus Rifle"?
Do you know that the old Yan'an City Street, as the "throat of Saibei", is longitudinal and orderly, and the number and construction area of the caves are less than one percent of the brick, wood and stone structures! Do you know that in the 1930s, 40,000 young people rushed to Yan'an from all over the country, full of ideals, fashion, youth and hope! Did you know that Yan'an was once the most fashionable city in China, with writers' clubs, coffee houses, choirs, film troupes, ballroom dance parties... Yan'an has been popularized since the last century!
According to historical data, 1938 was the most international year and the most culturally diverse year in Yan'an. That year, Yan'an was China's "Jerusalem" and the red center of anti-fascism.
However, in 1938, the Japanese invaders bombed Yan'an 17 times in order to combat the rising anti-Japanese enthusiasm for the city. After the bombing, the ancient city was severely damaged, about 1,176 public properties and 14,452 houses were destroyed, and the whole of Yan'an was almost reduced to rubble. Although only a year later, Yan'an was basically restored. But the ancient streets, the courtyards, and the markets are still deeply engraved in the memories of many locals, melting into the nostalgia that we can't erase in our hometown.
On October 1, 2015, the "Yan'an • 1938" neighborhood, which was invested by Yan'an Cultural Industry Investment Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Shaanxi Cultural Investment Group, was grandly opened, which gave tourists an unprecedented surprise on the same day.
The history of the old City of Yan'an has been frozen in the bombing of 1938. However, the "Yan'an 1938" block captures the architectural details and cultural connotations of the old Yan'an City, uses fashion creativity and high-tech to make a new expression, so that its original history and memory are "resurrected" and give people a living old Yan'an.
When we enter the neighborhood, when we explore the beauty of Yan'an, we will find that Yan'an not only has deep-rooted symbols such as loess and caves, but also a thousand-year-old city, a city of freedom, a city of faith, a city of art, a city of romance... These vivid images.
"Yan'an 1938" is a colorful collision of intertwined with history and culture, simple folklore and artistic creation.
Here, you can see a different Yan'an!
Based on the wonderful shaping of the multi-faceted Yan'an, the influence of the "Yan'an 1938" neighborhood has been expanding. At present, the neighborhood is already a rare cultural and tourism commercial complex in the northwest and the premier in Yan'an, sitting on 600,000 community needs, 250,000 tourists with high-frequency consumption, and an average annual visit of 10 million.
A blend of heritage and innovation
When you are in the "Yan'an 1938" neighborhood, antique shops and towering old city towers, it seems to tell the prosperity of Yan'an, a thousand-year-old city, and let you experience the different style of Yan'an.
During the Yan'an period, in every alley, many slogans, posters and cartoons used to promote the Red Revolution were seen, and these propaganda elements formed the unique red memory of the old Yan'an City. In "Yan'an 1938", landscape sketches, street walls, and store interiors use modern techniques and expressive techniques to reproduce those slogans, posters and cartoons, making the red theme atmosphere come to the fore.
In addition, the Northwest Hostel, Yan'an Education Institute, Guanghua Shop, Hyde Park, Motor Park and a package of cooperatives in the old Yan'an City, these landmark buildings in the memory of the old Yan'an people, are all presented in different forms in the neighborhood.
When you are in the "Yan'an • 1938" neighborhood, FuyuanJi Mutton Restaurant, Old Yan'an Haggis, Yuyi Noodles, Yanchuan Ma Tang Rice, Nanniwan Shii mushroom noodles, Zizhou Fruit Filling... All kinds of food are available, guaranteed to let you taste the most authentic Yan'an flavor.
"Boss, have a bowl of hot lamb noodles." A bowl of lamb chopped soba noodles in the neighborhood has become a must-have delicacy for Mr. Wang, a resident of Zaoyuan Community, in every cold weather. This bowl of lamb noodles was also the first meal that Chairman Mao ate after arriving in northern Shaanxi that year, and this kind of food that warmed the tip of the heart could best alleviate the fatigue after the long journey.
When you are in the "Yan'an 1938" neighborhood, paper cuts, sticker paintings, millet dolls (dolls made of millet of different colors)... A wide variety of handicrafts are dazzling. The diversity of commodities can be said to be the best in the whole of Yan'an! It is no exaggeration to say that the "Yan'an Wind Object" is presented in front of your eyes.
Among the handicrafts, the most eye-catching is the intangible cultural heritage - northern Shaanxi paper-cutting, especially the vivid paintings of Chairman Mao's characters, which make you have to admire the exquisite craftsmanship of the paper-cutters.
When you are in the "Yan'an 1938" neighborhood, you will see northern Shaanxi storytellers holding three strings, young students dressed in Zhongshan costumes, and folk artists who do not leave the flute, who perform a unique Yan'an style here.
In the 1930s, Yan'an gathered a group of literary and art workers, who actively reflected the fiery revolutionary years of the Communist Party of China, the people's army and the masses in the form of literature and art, and brought a touch of literary and artistic atmosphere to Yan'an.
In order to reflect the art and romance of Yan'an, soon after the opening of the neighborhood, the "May Fourth Youth Eighth Route Army" cultural and labor troupe was established, dedicated to infecting every tourist with art. "The east is red, the sun is rising, China has a Mao Zedong..." Whenever the song of Hao Chengfei, a literary and art propagandist, rings in the neighborhood, it always wins the praise of tourists.
In "Yan'an 1938", there is such a café, which is inspired by the cultural and artistic atmosphere of Yan'an in that year, and decorates bookshelves, old-fashioned typewriters and radios. On a leisurely afternoon, order a cup of coffee, accompanied by soothing and elegant piano music, sit on a wooden chair and look through the literature of the Republic of China period, and the old times spread.
From architecture to life, from culture to art, from food to creative derivatives, in this dynamic and static, serious and poetic environment, merchants, artists and tourists perform a show of memory and fashion.
When red meets the trend
It has been six years since the opening of "Yan'an 1938", and in the past six years, how to better attract the attention of young people and combine red culture with trends has always been a problem for neighborhood managers.
As early as 2015, Yan'an Cultural Industry Investment Co., Ltd. and Alibaba Group jointly held an offline New Year goods exhibition, and the products of the exhibition will be launched through the Alibaba network platform and sent to the hands of the people of the whole country in the form of "explosive" promotions. That year, the arrival of Ma Yun pushed the offline exhibition to a climax, and the bustling crowd snapped up the products of the New Year Festival. That year, for the people of Yan'an, the next year's goods festival punch card rush, is a very "tide" thing.
In recent years, "script killing" with high storytelling, suspense and social attributes has risen in large numbers across the country. In October 2019, the "Yan'an 1938" neighborhood combined with red culture to launch the "Siege of the City • Breaking Dawn" script, more than ten kinds of characters in the script, multiple identity IDs to give tourists a new immersive experience, to play a tense and exciting role play in the block has become a boom.
This year is the centenary of the founding of the party, in order to greet the 100th anniversary of the founding of the party with a better appearance, but also in order to make the red more in line with the trend and go further, the managers decided to upgrade the neighborhood to give tourists a better experience.
"Red culture" has always been the label that the neighborhood is praised by the world. The upgrading and transformation of this block is an exploration and transformation along the fabric of culture and keeping up with the trend of consumption upgrading.
On June 23, the "Yan'an • 1938" block reloading opened, the first giant blind box in the northwest parachuted into the square on the block, self-media big V with netizens fancy shop, it is worth mentioning that the block mini program has also been officially launched, so that you can enjoy cloud shopping without leaving home.
In addition, the decoration and shops of the block have also changed greatly, and are divided into four major areas: "Yan'an style", "Yan'an style", "Yan'an style" and "Yan'an flavor", which have both a sense of the history of the old Yan'an City and a sense of time and space looking forward to the future.
In the "Yan'an 1938" cultural district, on the one hand, there is the old Yan'an City with a history of more than 100 years, representing the past of Yan'an; on the other hand, there are all kinds of tide games with a sense of science and technology, which is the present of Yan'an. On the occasion of the song of wine, the scenery of Yan'an for more than 100 years will be seen, and the history and time will be happy with the wine.