After the renovation, the Shuangqing Building has returned to its former style. Courtesy of the correspondent
Shuangqing Building is planned to be revitalized and utilized as a multi-functional "Celebrity Former Residence Memorial Hall".
Courtesy of the correspondent
Walking through the old street of Nanhuaxi Street in Haizhu District, at the end of Longxi New Street on Tongfu West Road, there is the "ShuangqingLou" of the Guangzhou Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Unit. Recently, with the launch of the "Liao Zhongkai and He Xiangning Picture Exhibition", this ancient building built in the late Qing Dynasty has become lively again.
Luo Linhu, a deputy to the Haizhu District People's Congress and vice president of the Sun Yat-sen Research Society of the Guangzhou Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee, who is in charge of the exhibition, is pleased that the Shuangqing Building has once again ushered in the fireworks of the world. In 2011, he first met shuangqinglou, which was idle for a long time and showed its decadence.
Previously, shuangqinglou had experienced more than ten years of "sleeping", and even in 2019, it became a dangerous house due to the rupture of the beam, and then carried out rescue repairs. During this period, the street and enthusiastic people have called for the protection of Shuangqinglou for many years, and in recent years, with the participation of many parties, Shuangqinglou has gradually "awakened" it.
From rescue repairs to photo exhibitions, the stagnant hour hand of the Shuangqing Building has turned again. In the future, shuangqinglou plans to set up an exhibition plan for a "celebrity former residence memorial hall" that integrates the functions of revitalization of former residences, display education, cultural relics collection, and academic research.
Nanfang Daily reporter Fu Peng
Correspondent Qiu Pei Li Xue
"Sleeping" with new life
The first time he saw the Shuangqing Building, Luo Linhu was a little stunned. "It feels very decadent," luo Linhu said, as the former residence of Liao Zhongkai and He Xiangning in Haizhu District from 1897 to 1902, ShuangqingLou took the meaning of "double Qing of the month of man", which was quite elegant. After admiring it, he found that the building in front of him was completely different from what he imagined.
Before Shuangqinglou was announced as a registered cultural relics unit in Guangzhou in 2002, the local neighbors only felt that this was an old house of some ages, which was once used as a kindergarten, and the gate was also remodeled, using small tiles as external wall material paving, covering up the architectural characteristics of green brick and stone feet commonly found in Lingnan architecture. After the kindergarten was relocated in 2003, the Shuangqing Building was idle, and the lack of popularity gradually showed a decadent state.
During the period, it was not that no one called for the protection of the double qinglou, but in the end it fell into a bottleneck due to the shortage of funds and the difficulty of repairing. In 2015, Shuangqinglou became a cultural relics protection unit in Guangzhou. In 2018, Luo Linhu, who was then a member of the Haizhu District CPPCC Committee, submitted the "Proposal on Protecting the Former Residence of He Xiangning, the Founder of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, "Shuangqing Lou"", which was later rated as an excellent proposal of the 15th Haizhu District Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which aroused the attention of many parties.
In 2019, there was another accident, and the Shuangqing Building became a dangerous house due to its disrepair. According to the relevant person in charge of Nanhua West Street, at that time, the joint inspection of the Haizhu District Cultural and Guangdong Tourism and Sports Bureau and Nanhua West Street found that the beams of the Shuangqing Building were broken and reported. In 2020, the rescue repair of the Shuangqing Building began.
The repair of the Shuangqing Building adheres to the principle of repairing the old as the old, and with the technical means of "reinforcing the structure, repairing and restoring, and locally replacing and adjusting", the ShuangqingLou is repaired and reinforced, the construction parts and the newly added external wall materials are demolished, the defective parts are replaced with the original materials, and the door plaques, gates, carved decorations and other components are retained and renovated, so as to restore the historical appearance and architectural characteristics of the Shuangqing Building to the greatest extent possible.
Now, walking into the repaired Shuangqing Building, the external wall materials later paved at the gate have been removed, restoring the original leaking green bricks. Luo Linhu introduced that the repair of the Shuangqing Building used the original green bricks of the building as much as possible, and the missing parts were replaced by red bricks, and the repair traces of the entire wall were also the witnesses of the history of the Shuangqing Building.
After restoring "health", the newly born ShuangqingLou returned to its former appearance, but once again stepped on the crossroads: will it continue to be idle or revitalized? Obviously, the latter is a better option, but there are many challenges in practice.
Activation and exploration
To protect well, it is even more necessary to "live". Otherwise, the shuangqinglou that has just "woken up" will inevitably return to the original point and fall into a "deep sleep" again.
The relevant person in charge of Nanhua West Street said that in order to better promote the revitalization and utilization of shuangqinglou, the street has communicated with various functional bureaus many times, and at the same time invited the team of He Xiangning Art and Design College of Zhongkai Agricultural Engineering College to visit the site many times, and plans to plan the exhibition of Shuangqinglou as a "celebrity former residence memorial" that combines the functions of revitalizing the former residence, displaying education, cultural relics collection, academic research, etc., and is also applying for funding for the protection and utilization of red sites in Guangdong Province.
Not only ShuangqingLou, the South China West Street where it is located is a historical and cultural block, and the local neighborhood has more "first there is Nanhua West Street, and then there is Haizhu District", which is rich in historical and cultural resources, so the challenges faced by ShuangqingLou are also common problems of many old buildings.
In recent years, the street has also explored new paths for the revitalization and utilization of ancient buildings. For example, the Parallel Brigade, located on Qilou Street, Hongde Road, is a comprehensive hostel born from youth culture, integrating movies, books, art exhibitions, etc. with accommodation, and is committed to creating a community of young people. For another example, the historical building at No. 26 Qizha South Street has now become a Xidian Café, and the appearance retains the traditional style of the historical building, and the layout elements of the store are mainly old furniture and old objects, which attracts many young people to "explore the shop".
On the road of revitalization and utilization, Shuangqinglou has also taken a step forward, and is exploring ways to revitalize and utilize government-led and enterprises participate in the design and operation of exhibitions. At present, it is operated by the Luo Linhu Studio, which restores the history and living atmosphere of the "Double Qing Lou" through a large number of historical photos, oil paintings and videos, as well as contemporary folklore and He Xiangning paintings.
"The process of setting up the exhibition, in order to protect the ancient building, did not nail one more nail." Luo Linhu introduced that they consulted the literature and history materials, completely following the original layout of the Shuangqing Building, photos and oil paintings are fixed on the temporary exhibition board, will not damage the wall. Since its launch for more than 3 months, it has attracted more than 7,000 people to visit ShuangqingLou for research. In order to attract visitors to visit often, the theme of the exhibition in Shuangqinglou will also change regularly, and he is collecting the tiger-related paintings created by He Xiangning in that year, echoing the theme of this year's Year of the Tiger.
The relevant person in charge of Nanhua West Street said that the street compiled and published the first street chronicle of Haizhu District, "South China West Street History", and completed the hand-drawn map of the South China West Red Study to popularize the historical background, development experience and cultural context related knowledge of the street. At present, the street is also facing the challenges of insufficient reserve of historical and cultural professionals and the shortage of funds for upgrading and transformation, and hopes to explore more good practices in the process of activating and utilizing the double qinglou.
In Luo Linhu's view, the revitalization and utilization of shuangqinglou has just begun, and he hopes to restore the charm of "double qing of people and months" and let the historical and cultural buildings complement the fireworks in the world.