Oral · Pillow Stream Voice | Cai Yiqun: The "top fee" of Pillow Stream in that year could buy a three-story bungalow

Cai Yiqun, a former Bailian Group executive, recalls his youth living in pillow stream apartments. Video: Wang Zhu, Gu Ming (07:42)

Located at No. 699 and 731 Huashan Road, Jing'an District, Shanghai, Pillow Stream Apartment is an excellent historical building protection unit in Shanghai. The apartment was built in 1930, the owner is Li Jingmai, the son of Li Hongzhang, designed by the American businessman Hashard Foreign Firm, the construction of the Huashang Fuji Construction Factory, the building adopts an eclectic style, when due to the high-end facilities, celebrities gathered, known as "famous building on the sea".

The entire condominium project covers an area of 7970 square meters, of which the garden area is 2500 square meters, the building covers an area of 979 square meters, 7 floors above ground, 1 floor underground, and a total of about 40 houses when it was first built. The apartment plan is composed of internal, porch and duplex units, with 6-7 units on each floor from the first to the fifth floor, with two-bedroom households of about 80 square meters, three-bedroom households of about 100 square meters and four-room households of about 150 square meters. The sixth to seventh floors were duplexes with five- and seven-room households, which were quite rare in Shanghai apartments at that time.

After 1949, the vacant rooms here were assigned to high-level intellectuals, and the well-known residents included newspaperman Xu Zhucheng, director Zhu Duanjun, writers Zhou Erfu, Junqing, and Wang Mulan, literary and art theorists Ye Yiqun, painter Shen Roujian, sanqi star Zhou Xuan, film and theater performance artists Qiao Qi and Sun Jinglu, Sun Daolin, Xu Xing, Yue opera performance artists Fu Quanxiang, Fan Ruijuan, Wang Wenjuan, etc.

The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) jointly launched the "Sound of Pillow Stream" series of manuscripts together with the Waiting Culture Studio and the Jing'an Temple Street in Jing'an District, Shanghai, to present the sorrows and joys of more than ten families in the Pillow Stream Apartment spanning 70 years with oral history, and restore the architectural characteristics of the Pillow Stream Apartment in the 1930s through graphic modeling according to the oral historical materials, and record the urban history written by people and buildings.

The main entrance of pillow stream apartment at No. 699 Huashan Road

Cai Yiqun, born in 1946 in Gulangyu Island, Xiamen, moved to No. 699 Huashan Road in 1951, then moved to No. 731, and moved out in 2006, successively working in Shanghai Material Group and Bailian Group.

Boyhood in the pillow garden

Interviewer: Hello, Teacher Cai Yiqun! Want to ask you first in what year were you born?

Cai Yiqun: 1946. I was born in Gulangyu Island, Xiamen. We are Fujianese. I was born in Gulangyu Island with 7 brothers and sisters. The eldest sister was born in Hong Kong, and everyone else was born in Shanghai.

Interviewer: When did you come to Shanghai?

Cai Yiqun: It should be the early 1950s. Gulangyu Island (after that) I went to Hong Kong. In my memory, after returning from Hong Kong to kindergarten, I lived here. I started the first grade of elementary school in 1953, so you can do the math, if kindergarten has a year or two, that is, 1951, 1952, about this time, I live here.

Interviewer: Which one do you live in?

Cai Yiqun: We started by living on the sixth floor, a duplex. There is a nanny room on the sixth and seventh floors and the eighth floor. But it didn't take long, because this duplex couldn't be borrowed, and we were down to the end. Because at that time, the pillow flow apartment had a characteristic, it was not sold, there was no property right. But if you want to live in, you have to use large strips of gold, called the top fee. But how many pieces of gold the top fee is for you to live in, I can't figure this out. Neither did my parents tell us about it. But I knew that at that time, the money to top this house could buy a three-story bungalow. Why figure this? I once asked my father, [he said] because the pillow stream apartment was more standardized in management and we had a car room at the time. The location of the car room is the small six-story building next to the current pillow stream apartment. The car room is quite large, and a car room is about forty or fifty square meters.

Interviewer: Forty or fifty square?

Cai Yiqun: Yes, there are forty square meters. The big car went in, you twenty or thirty square meters may still be too small, and there are people piling coal, piling up something.

In 1951, Cai Yiqun (first from the right) and his brother Cai Yi roped in the Pillow Stream Garden

Interviewer: Was this the case with the garden before?

Cai Yiqun: In the past, there were not so many flowers and grasses in this place, and it looked very clean. There are two small plots of triangles in it, and I was very impressed. The point is that there is a beautiful pool here, and there is a fountain (in the middle) with fish in it, and we don't dare to go down. There is a rumor that is untrue when introducing the pillow stream apartment, it is said that there is a swimming pool under the apartment, that is not, it is a bit vain. There is a special elevator in the building, which is very regular. The elevator workers are organized into No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4, and take turns to open. There are also plumbers and furnace workers who are all equipped with them . We just came in with a hot water ting, and then there wasn't. At home, you can enjoy hot water and warm up a little.

Interviewer: Which house did you live in after you moved out of the duplex?

Cai Yiqun: After we moved to the fifth floor, this set is the largest independent area in the whole pillow flow apartment. Because the house is spacious and close to the primary school, the study group is arranged in our house. Later, when the elementary school classmates gathered, many of them recalled: Oh, how we were in your house. I'm not very impressed with myself, they all remember it very well.

Interviewer: Where did you go to elementary school?

Cai Yiqun: Right next to here.

Interviewer: Improving elementary schools?

Cai Yiqun: Originally called Improved Private Primary School, it was private. Later, which year it was changed to Huashan Road No. 2 Primary School, I can't remember.

Interviewer: How many people were in the study group in elementary school?

Cai Yiqun: About seven or eight, it seems that there are male and female classmates.

Interviewer: What are we all doing together?

Cai Yiqun: Just study, such as the things arranged by the teacher, doing homework, doing things. Because we have a garden below, you can play. There were not so many flowers and flowers before, and you can also play football. I still remember when I was a child, there were two children in our class like transfer students, who were the children in the army, but their ages were generally much older than ours. There was one in the middle that I remember called Tang Zhenying, and I was very impressed, just here to play football. She loved seeing our boys play soccer, and she said I'd come to be a goalkeeper. Finally, in this position, I was deeply impressed that a classmate kicked a ball, kicked her in the stomach, and fell to the ground in pain. My mother is more virtuous, and she always has to get snacks and fruits for them to eat. So they were very impressed, but I was not impressed.

Interviewer: What else to play besides kicking football?

Cai Yiqun: There are quite a lot of things to play. We used to have four or five, six or seven children in every family. The garden was huge for our small children. What is still fresh in my memory is "officers and soldiers catching robbers." What is "officers and soldiers catching robbers"? It is divided into two groups, you have eight on one side and eight on my side. Everyone gets together and takes two stones. This stone is here, there is such a big one, it is ours. That stone is yours. After looking good, everyone dispersed. It turns out that there is a small piece of green like a triangle here, and you have to bury this stone in this triangle plot. After the burial is done, everyone sends troops at night, and they send "scouts" to test who can get this stone of the other side and run back, even if it is victorious. If you run to the other camp and get caught by them, then I'm sorry, you have to hold hands and pull the tree and wait there. The second one who was caught picked up again took it. We told the officers and soldiers to catch the robbers, and it was fun at that time. We all love to play at the bottom at night. This is one.

The second is to listen to adults tell stories, ghost stories and so on, and I like it when I listen to it. After hearing it, I didn't dare to go back and hid there. At that time, we had a man on the second floor named Le, and his youngest son was in the same class as my brother, and he is now in the United States. The big brother of his family liked to blow the most, a belly of ghost stories. We sat next to this "fish tank" (i.e., the small pool), and everyone gathered in a circle, and he told stories. At the end of the talk, everyone did not dare to go back: "You go first", "He goes first". Then the big one walks in front and the small one follows behind. Pretty fun as a kid.

In 1951, Cai Yiqun (first from left) and his brother Cai Yi roped in the Pillow Stream Garden

Interviewer: Are there any special and good friends?

Cai Yiqun: Especially good friends should be said to be separated. Before, I was a skin king, very naughty. We played the ball, the ball rolled to the next door, from the outside to pick up the circle ah, we went directly over the wall, there is the children's welfare club. We like to catch crickets and climb straight over the wall. The skin of a python often appears on the wall. There's another (naughty) thing, I'll tell you. I was a year younger than me on the second floor— who had moved away and had lived for quite a long time. To what extent do we skin? Just run upstairs, what are you going to do? Now that I think about it, it is very dangerous, and the watermelon peel is eaten and thrown underneath. Now it is said that it is illegal, and it is not allowed to do so, and I did not understand it when I was a child. A fall, fell on the head of the person, (just fell on) the tricycle (person). Then (he scolded): Scolded at the bottom, we fled, he didn't know which floor you were on, he couldn't find it. This is once. Another time was, taking a flashlight. Three No. 1 batteries added together, what to take? Illuminate the driver. There used to be very few buses on the 48th. Who has the ability and who dares to take it? In the evening, 48 passed by, I "snapped" with them to take a picture, and the driver ran out with a sharp brake: "Little Red Guy! "We ran and ran, and we ran inside, and he chased after him, but he couldn't catch up." How dangerous this is, fortunately, there were no pedestrians on the road before. There are so many things we're naughty about. There is also our eighth floor, there is a water tank on the eighth floor, and the eighth floor can also go up, but it is more dangerous. When I was a child, the eighth floor was quite tall, not like the current high-rise buildings, before this place ...

Interviewer: Pillow flow is the highest.

Cai Yiqun: Well, in the past, Huashan Road was called Haige Road, which belonged to the French Concession. Jing'an Hotel is called Hagrid Apartment, and the two apartments used to be the most famous, Hagrid Apartment and Pillow Stream Apartment. At that time, what Huaihai building, that is not famous. Because it has something to do with Li Hongzhang here. Including the lilac garden or something, and Li Hongzhang's little wife has (relationship), is not her, lilac lilac well, is not (belonging to her), we do not know. Anyway.

Interviewer: You just said the eighth floor...

Cai Yiqun: There is a water tank on the eighth floor, there is a staircase, an iron ladder, we climb up, run to the top and pull the water tank lid open. It's dangerous, and then look at what's inside and hide inside to experience it. You say the skin is not skinny? It was naughty. There are also fighting crickets, and Wang Shanshu, my old friend, we are still playing. We like to fight crickets, catch them ourselves and catch them badly, go buy them. I'm stupid, there's a lame master on Giant Deer Road who specializes in selling crickets. It was the 1960s. I went to see it that day, and the cricket was big, the size of a cockroach. He offered $12 and didn't counteroffer. At that time, 12 pieces were incredible. At that time, we had 5 cents a month's pocket money. When I was in elementary school, the small trader pushed a cart over, what beef tendon, what licorice strips, what olives, 1 cent can buy two pieces of beef tendon, you think about it, 5 cents is already very practical. Of course, it was in the 1950s, and by the 1960s it might not have been so practical, but 12 bucks for a cricket was also (a luxury). I was carrying pocket money there at that time, I was using my brain, can I buy it when I press the old money? Later, I bought it with a fierce heart. As a result, this cricket was bought and no one fought with you, you are too big, people look at crickets, do not fight with you. So in the end, how this cricket died, I forgot. Anyway, after buying it, it was put there like an antique, and no one fought with you. How naughty are we, because fighting crickets, fighting crickets is fighting experience. This cricket bit for half a day and finally lost. Lose it and drop it, you can't help it, then there are two ways to bring it back to life. One is to put it in your hand, throw it up, flick it three times, and then flick it three times, and this cricket is dizzy, and then put it down, it seems that it has not lost, it fights again, this is a kind. What's the best one? Stuff it in the water, and it seems to be a little drowning. Then put it up, put it up, it rested there for half a day, and after a while, it rolled over again, forgot all the things that had been lost in the front, and would come again. Then we use this experience to fight crickets with a little brother named Zhou Xiaodi in the car. He's a cricket, and we can't fight him. But we have a ghost idea, a person is fighting with him, and then a person throws the cricket that he lost, and then fights after a while. He said, "You two crickets originally lost to me, so why did you lose me again?" Change me to lose? "It's actually a ghost idea we made. So when I think about my childhood, it was quite fun to have fun.

When I was still living on the fifth floor, I bought a soap box for the cannon fight, and the soap boxes used to be wooden boxes, imported soap. It was in that room, and I was very impressed. Then I'll let out the cannonballs, and I'll throw them underneath. The mosquito coil I used to light the cannon was resting on top of it (along the edge of the soap box), and it fell right on top of a (fireworks) fuse. It burned up, and the "ping-pong, ping-pong" was so that the roof was black. Later, the babysitter who brought me up, she said, "What are you doing?" "I took a lead bucket of water and poured it on it without causing a fire. And then there's the fact that we live on the third floor here, and simmons are under the house, and we're firing cannonballs upstairs. A cannonball fell, fell on Simmons, and "whimpered" a hole that burned Simmons through. In the end we lost one to him. My parents didn't fight, they were education-oriented. There are only two things I remember vividly. My father is in business, he came back from abroad, he said: You must have integrity in being a person. This is something I remember vividly. My mother was: To be human, you must be kind to others. We are educated in this way from a young age.

Interviewer: Do you have any dealings with other neighbors of Pillow Stream?

Cai Yiqun: When you meet, everyone is an old friend. Ye Xinmin is the eldest son of the Ye Yiqun family and has the best relationship with me. I often go to the Ye family, because his family has a lot of books, so I like to read foreign literary novels, and I read a lot of books in their home. We copied all the books in our house, and there were none. The Ye family's book was not copied. Sometimes, half a day I spent half a day there reading literary novels, Roman Rolland's, Gogol's, Hemingway's, Jack London's, Mérime's, and many, many more, and Old Chinese books. So I read a lot of books with him and absorbed a lot of nutrients.

University Acceptance Letter

Interviewer: After graduating from elementary school, what does it look like to enter secondary school?

Cai Yiqun: I graduated from 1959 (primary school) and was admitted to Fudan Middle School. On Huashan Road, No. 48 road is two stops away.

Interviewer: So you had to take a bus when you were in middle school?

Cai Yiqun: Yes, 48 road. Our experience at that time was still quite complicated. Why? I was swimming at the time and joined the Changning District Junior Swimming Team. Later, Changning District concentrated all the sports teams in Panyu Middle School. So at that time, I studied for a year and a half (in Fudan Middle School), and I transferred to Panyu Middle School in the second semester of the second semester of junior high school.

Interviewer: What year was it when you went to college?

Cai Yiqun: I entered the university in my last year, in 1965, before the Cultural Revolution.

Interviewer: Which university is it?

Cai Yiqun: Shanghai Normal University. Why did you enter Shanghai Normal University, there is another story. Because at that time it was about implementing the class line and talking about origin. Because we are capitalists, the composition is certainly not good. My sports performance is quite good, I participated in the Changning District Junior Swimming Team, and won the championship. Near the entrance examination, Mr. Zhou, the physical education coach of Panyu Middle School, wanted to push me to the Sports Department of Shanghai Sports Institute, but unfortunately, the swimming team was not recruited that year. There is no swimming team, so what are your specialties? I'm not tall, but the throwing is pretty good. In his sophomore year of high school, the grenade dropped 63 meters, breaking the school record. Once participated in the Changning District Junior Games, the javelin final second shot broke the district juvenile record. In fact, I have never trained, it is good explosiveness. Because of these two things, the sports coach said, "Just do athletics, go to the gymnasium." "Before the college entrance examination, the sports academy had to find out, and our throwing team went to three people, but the day played very generally. I know the danger, so I will take the college entrance examination normally. At that time, the college entrance examination acceptance rate was very low, about 15%. This is especially true of the implementation of the class line. After the college entrance examination, the first wholesale notice, no. I think it's over, what else is there to spend? Because when I filled in the volunteer, I knew that I would definitely enter the sports institute, and I thought so at the time, so Peking University, Renmin University, and Tsinghua University are all first-class universities in the country. You know I can't get in, so I fill in the blanks. Finally, the first notice on August 10th did not come. The second wholesale notice was given, and I came home and the babysitter said to me, "The admissions committee called and asked you to go once." "What do I think the admissions committee has to do with me?" Then I rode my bike, ran to the students, sat there, and no one paid any attention to me. After sitting for about half an hour, I saw all kinds of files coming and going in front of my eyes. A female teacher next to me finally talked to me: "Where did it come from?" I said, "Panyu Middle School." "What's your name?" "Cai Yiqun." "Oh, now the Chinese Department of Shanghai Normal University has accepted you." I said, "I didn't fill out this volunteer." "Do you miss it?" "I don't want to miss it." "If you don't want to miss it, you give up." I guess it's a college, right: "I do." "Good," she took a piece of paper: "Write it yourself, I am willing to study in the Chinese Department of Shanghai Normal University." Below signature, time. I wrote it, and she immediately took an envelope: "Come, open your home address, open your own name to receive." "Actually, that's the acceptance letter." Sure enough, the next day, something arrived. My dad thought: You leather kid can still get into college.

After entering the university, there were many courses to learn, including Ye Yiqun's literary and art theory course and literary criticism, and the dean at that time was Liao Shicheng. Because I'm on the college swim team, I have two nights a week to go out swimming and exercise, to participate in national competitions. Later, when I participated in the school sports meeting, the grenade was thrown and won the top two places, and the school track and field team recruited me. Teachers' colleges have two characteristics, the first is not to pay tuition fees, and the second is that there is no money for meals. There are porridges and steamed buns in the morning, a big meat meal at noon, and a vegetarian meal in the evening, which is already very good. After I joined the sports team, I was upgraded, and I could eat meat at night.

It didn't take long for the Cultural Revolution to begin. I went to Beijing to "connect", looked at several places, and there was nothing, and finally came back.

Half of the Anhui hometown

Interviewer: Is it a queue in the back?

Cai Yiqun: I didn't, and it was the children who cut in line and settled in the back, and then they "resumed classes and made a revolution". At that time, many college students talked about their views, and I was also branded a "counter-revolutionary", and later completely rehabilitated.

Interviewer: Later, I arrived in Anhui?

Cai Yiqun: Later, I was sent to a foreign country, a rural middle school in the Fuyang area. Before that, I also stayed at Dafeng Farm for more than two years, working. The poor and lower-middle peasants all said that I was good: "You see, Xiao Cai is so good, originally he wouldn't do anything, but now he picks up two or three hundred pounds of burdens, and the seedlings are planted faster than the peasants." "Whatever I cut rice, I learned it, I tried my best to learn it, and then I was assigned to Anhui." We graduated in 1969 and made up a little money to get married. My wife is very good, she is a worker in Shanghai, and she found me a "counter-revolutionary".

Interviewer: You weren't rehabilitated when you got married, were you?

Cai Yiqun: There is no rehabilitation. It's not easy.

Interviewer: When did you return to Shanghai?

Cai Yiqun: In 1984, also because of my lover's relationship, I was transferred back to Shanghai to take care of the relationship between husband and wife.

Interviewer: What kind of experience was this? Can you tell me about you and your wife?

Cai Yiqun: My wife was introduced. I fell in love after the quarantine review came out in 1970, and the relationship between the two people has always been quite good. I remember the first time I talked to friends, she invited me to an international restaurant for dinner. At that time, she was already working, and I was in the same class, divided into Shanghai Metal Materials Company, the treatment was quite OK, and she was also quite filial to the family. I took thirty or forty yuan a month, and took fifteen yuan out and invited me to a meal. So I'm always grateful now. And she was born in the same month of the same year as me. I haven't heard of this happening until now. So I'll always be grateful to her.

Interviewer: What year did you get married?

Cai Yiqun: 1975. I have been working in Anhui for two years.

Interviewer: Is the marriage at the Pillow Stream Apartment?

Cai Yiqun: In the pillow stream. My wife has been in pillow streams for over 30 years.

Interviewer: What was your wedding day? Remember that?

Cai Yiqun: Nothing, there were no conditions at that time, right? When we got married, my father's matter had not yet been solved, it was very simple, bought a chest of drawers, bought a large cabinet, everyone pieced it together, just at home. Two families get together.

Interviewer: Do you burn it yourself at home?

Cai Yiqun: The family burned it myself, and my lover's sister burned it.

Interviewer: Do friends and family get together?

Cai Yiqun: If you don't have relatives or friends, we will get together as a family. It wasn't as massive as it is now, like our daughter got married and invited so many people, it was impossible. It was nice to be able to get married at that time. Without that subsidy, I wouldn't be eligible to get married.

Interviewer: Have you been living apart ever since?

Cai Yiqun: Yes, separated from each other for 11 years. It's not easy.

Interviewer: When was the child born?

Cai Yiqun: The child was in 1976.

Interviewer: Were you around when the little child was born?

Cai Yiqun: I'm back. I rushed back the day she was born. My brother entrusted a good friend to the Maternal and Child Health Hospital on Changle Road. The doctor hugged out, "Oh, this is your daughter." He said to me. I was very impressed.

Interviewer: How did you spend the 11 years that you lived apart?

Cai Yiqun: The locals take good care of me, in a full-time middle school in the countryside.

Interviewer: Being a teacher?

Cai Yiqun: As a teacher, I learned a lot of things. It is a completely secondary school in the countryside, with an attached high school, where many people are of a very high level. In a school next to us, there was Yang Zhenning's classmate, surnamed Wang, who taught physics. I went to see his board book, and it did have the ability. At that time, a class of 45 minutes, he started from the beginning to the end of the board, just ringing the bell. He came from a large landlord family, and yang Zhenning was in southwest United University. He said: "I don't blow with you, my homework is better than Yang Zhenning." "Teacher Wang is quite funny. I was the only Shanghainese at the time, so they took good care of me.

I remember that the day I reported for duty was a Saturday, and after the Huai River ferry passed, I walked 12 miles to our school. The director of the political work department said to me: "Xiao Cai, because you Chinese department, next week's chinese class in the first year of high school will be "Cao Jie Controversy", you are ready." I immediately took the book and read it. In the evening, he came over and said to me very gently: There are some teachers in our school, such as the math class in junior high school, can you also take it? I didn't think it was that complicated, I said yes, and I took it. Later I learned why not give it to you? Because the Education Bureau has documents down, I can't go to politics or language. Oh, Chinese department, I taught math, I taught physics, I taught music, I taught physical education, and I taught chemistry until I came back. I wanted to take a chemistry class in high school, and at that time, my chemistry was at the high school level, so I taught all the college courses on my own. There are no conditions to do the experiment, but also to simulate and tell the students what color and what changes the experiment will make.

In 1984, because my lover's relationship was about to be transferred back. Quite grateful, when I left, the fellow villagers said goodbye to each other, and they all had feelings for the students. In the past 11 years, it has become half of anhui compatriots. I learned everything there, wash my own clothes, and cook my own food. When I met a teacher Mei from the University of Science and Technology of China, the two of us teamed up, today you burn, tomorrow I burn. Get up in the morning and run 5 kilometers, and on Sundays run 10 kilometers.

Remember mom and dad's words

Interviewer: When you returned to Shanghai in 1984, do you think there has been any change in this side of the pillow stream?

Cai Yiqun: The pillow flow does not seem to have changed much, as if it was only renovated in the back.

INTERVIEWER: You moved out in 2006, right? What was the mood like at the time?

Cai Yiqun: There is a little reluctance, after all, it is the place where the parents are. My wife, with my sister-in-law, has not had a red face for more than thirty years, and it is not easy. But the two brothers lived together, and in the end they always had to be separated. At that time, the house here was bought and already had property rights. But considering that it is something left by the parents, so the brothers and sisters should all have a share. My brother and I thought about it this way. So our brother-sister relationship is still very good. My nephews and nieces are sometimes nostalgic. Because they grew up here, even if they are abroad, they will come here to take a photo when they come back. They were all born here and grew up here. My mom loves children, and each child is brought by herself. Even when I was older, every child was bathed by her, and my daughter was bathed by my mother. We were impressed. Oops, so after my parents left, we were sad. Just remember your parents' words. So I teach children to be like this: be kind to others and be honest.