On Nanming East Road by the Nanming River, there is an old Villa in English style - "No. 18 Mansion". This building is born of love, and from the day it was born, it has witnessed a beautiful love story spanning decades, allowing us to travel through time to find the "Eighteenth Mansion" and the story behind it.
Historical records: Nanming East Road starts from Guanshui Road in the north to Nanming South Road in the north, borders Guanfengtai in the east and Guiding Road in the west, with a total length of 550 meters along the line. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the people of the occupied areas poured into Guiyang in large numbers, and the population of Guiyang soared, in order to solve the housing shortage, some giant merchants built a Jianye Hall here to gather and taste tea. Because of its proximity to the Nanming River, it was renamed "NanmingTang".
Nam Ming Hall
Nanming Hall, which has been the gathering place of Guiyang's private gardens since the Ming Dynasty, is a gathering place for celebrities. The talented son Xie Sanxiu and the famous Jiangnan Yang Wenxiao both lived here. It was also the first "villa area" in Guiyang and the first residential area in Guiyang to be planned by the government. In 1938, the Construction Department of Guizhou Province selected Yuji Bay in the southwest of the South Gate Exterior Wind Terrace as the address of the new residential community. Since then, many buildings have been built here, and "Mansion Eighteen" is one of them. At first, the villa did not have a name, but in the mid-1990s, the municipal construction was renovated and expanded, and the alley in front of the mansion was built into a two-lane road - the current Nanming East Road. Mansion No. 18 was at No. 18 Nanming East Road at that time, so this building also began to be called "No. 18 Mansion".
Signposts on East Nanming Road
The owners of the "Eighteenth Mansion" are a loving couple: Feng Shumin and Tang Heng. In May 1930, a publication that first displayed the image of women in the new era after the Xinhai Revolution, the "Album of Boudoir", was published in Shanghai by the Photography and Pictorial Library. Photographer Lin Zecang, as editor-in-chief, collected the personal photos of 138 talented and temperamental women published in the five years since the founding of the "Photography Pictorial" into this book, and attached a brief introduction to each of them. Most of them are well-known descendants, highly educated, talented, or have some outstanding achievements. These figures, who are believed to represent the new modern women, include Li Guoqi, granddaughter of Li Hongzhang, Xia Lumin, a female musician who founded the Commercial Press, Huang Qianhong, founder of Huang's Girls' School, Guo Anci, "Miss Shanghai", Tang Yunyu, a painter who studied in France, Sun Guiyun, a Chinese athlete at the Ninth Far East Games, and Yu Shan, the star of the Nanguoshe drama "Salome" hosted by Tian Han.
Boudoir album cover
On the cover and title page of the album, the titles and texts inscribed by zhang Mojun, a pioneer of the women's movement, Ms. Huang Yuanya, a calligrapher, and Zhou Shuangjuan, a writer, can be seen. Among them, the twenty-fifth page contains a photo of a woman named Tang Heng with the inscription: Ms. Tang Heng is smart and diligent, honest in making friends, good at words, fine in painting, and good at photography. And this Tang Heng is the hostess of the "Eighteenth Mansion".
List of old photos of boudoir albums
Born in 1908 in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, Tang Heng (Zi Peiru) was a family of salt officials, her father loved calligraphy and painting, and was rumored to have been appointed director of the Nanjing Mint after the success of the Xinhai Revolution because of his carving skills, and later worked at the headquarters of the Bank of Communications in Shanghai, where he was active on the Bund in the 1930s. In 1933, the 25-year-old Tang Heng wrote in his graduation book that he liked to "look out through the window" and was still full of expectations or romantic hopes to become a businesswoman (business woman) and skillful barber in the future. After graduating from Hujiang University with a degree in economics, she worked for an emerging advertising agency and an insurance company, responsible for accounting, design, editing and translation.
The hostess of The Eighteenth Mansion, Tang Heng
Unlike Tang Heng's origins, Feng Shumin's parents and brothers both died in war and famine, and only one married sister was uncertain, and he almost became an orphan. From rongjiang county, a remote county in Guizhou, he was admitted to Tongren Mingde Middle School with the first place with the annual scholarship and the support of teachers and classmates, and then came to Shanghai with the Northern Expeditionary Army. In Shanghai, Feng Shumin studied hard and was admitted to the famous Minqiang Middle School in Shanghai. In June 1929, he graduated with the first place by relying on financial support and scholarships and was guaranteed to enter Shanghai Hujiang University, majoring in sociology, becoming the first college student in Rongjiang County.
Feng Shumin, Tang Heng graduated from Shanghai Hujiang University
The difference in feng shumin and Tang Heng's family background did not become an obstacle to their love. At that time, Tang Heng, who had an outstanding temperament and was beautiful and gentle, was surrounded by many children of famous officials and eunuchs on the beach, but she had a special love for Feng Shumin, who was talented from the mountains of Guizhou. Under the trend of free love, Tang Heng and Feng Shumin chose each other. In 1934, Tang Heng formed a family with his classmate Feng Shumin, who had been in love for many years.
Feng Shumin, Tang Heng wedding photo
At the end of 1937, after the defeat of the Second Battle of Songhu, Shanghai and Nanjing fell one after another, and the banking center moved to Hong Kong to avoid defending, and Feng Shumin, who had already entered the work of the Bank of Communications at that time, also set off in 1938. In order to take care of their families and children, they travel between Hong Kong and Shanghai all year round, separating the two places as a family. In 1941, Tang Heng gave birth to his sixth child in Hong Kong. In 1945, at the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, they finally passed through Macao, Guilin and Chongqing, and returned to Guiyang, the capital of Feng Shumin's hometown of Guizhou. Tang Heng and Feng Shumin decided to rebuild a new life in this remote corner of the city, and in 1948, they found a sloping vacant lot on the banks of the Nanming River and hired the designer Tao Guilin to build the "Eighteenth" mansion as a safe place for the family.
Old photos of the villa
This is the origin of the "Eighteenth" mansion located on Nanming East Road. After moving into the new home, how did Feng Shumin and Tang Heng live? What are the encounters of the "Eighteenth" Mansion? Let's continue in the next episode.
Writing, broadcasting/Kirito
Video shooting clip/Huang Fei
Editor/Text
Editor-in-Charge/Chen Meng Review/Xie Tao Hu Jian
Photo courtesy of the Fung family
Partial Source/ He Zike,"Spirit of Film: The River to Oblivion"