【My East Avenue】(15): "Impression of Zhongshan Department Store" by Wang Xinmin

Impression of Zhongshan Department Store

Author: Wang Xinmin

In the 1950s and 1960s, East Avenue and Zhongshan Department Store were symbols of fashion and the city, and Zhongshan Department Store can also be said to be the first batch of important buildings in Xi'an after liberation, although the scale and the current Kaiyuan Mall can not be compared, but it is also very grand. On the sandals, soap boxes, spittoon basins and plastic wallets produced in Xi'an, the printed pattern is in addition to the bell tower, which is the Zhongshan Department Store.

At that time, some young girls loved to display their own "braji" under the bright roof of the department store, and many women also liked to go there to buy daily necessities, and my mother was the same. Mother is a master of housework, always able to clean up her four or five children, she will put us on a freshly wiped "air leather shoes" and take them to the Zhongshan Department Store to sneak around, as if to show the posture of "heroic mother". When the mother selected the flower cloth in the building, the children took the opportunity to slip away to play "Hidden Door", or took out a small wooden gun to play "war", and the flower-colored terrazzo floor and wooden stair handrail in the mall were polished by how many children's clicking cloth and corduroy pants. The staircase in the middle of the building is relatively wide, up to half separated to connect to the upper floor, the terrain is "easy to defend and not easy to attack", is the ideal position for "blocking war", and the stairs in the east, north and northwest corners of the hall are more hidden, it is the best choice for "guerrilla warfare", the most suitable position for fighting "ambush warfare" is under the glass cabinet selling cloth, lying there in the place of wide, surrounded by human legs that come over or stay at any time, plus cloth that often falls from the counter, not to mention hiding one or two children. Even the district squad that hid a martial arts team would not be discovered. When we were playing hot and tired, we regrouped around our mother, who had not seen enough of the various cloths.

At that time, the night view of East Avenue was very beautiful, the street lights were fluorescent lamps, and the two groups were installed side by side on the crossbars of the tram line, and the two were lined up, with insufficient brightness but neatly arranged. Some stores have also installed neon lights, which look colorful and dynamic from a distance, and the neon lights installed on the Zhongshan Building are the most grand and spectacular. The neon lights are directly facing the cross of the end door, and the picture is displayed in four combinations, each picture is at least 35 square meters, showing the famous brand products in Xi'an at that time, such as camel brand enamel, standard brand sewing machine, Qinling brand thermos bottle and several factory flower cloth of national cotton. Each painting can be moved, for example, the sewing machine has movable pedals and head; the warm water bottle has an upright, oblique, and several animations of water coming out of the bottle mouth; the flower cloth is suspended on a hanging ring on the left side in a scattered package, the right side is constantly changing, first there is a blank space, and then a small flower is unfolded from left to right, indicating the printing process.

With a snap of a finger, history conforms to the mainstream of the times. With the climax of a new round of economic construction, the ancient city has been revitalized again, in order to meet the needs of the market, Zhongshan Building was renamed "Overseas Chinese Shop", the original large shop windows facing the street were opened, the inside was also expanded, and escalators were installed. But no matter how you look at it, you won't believe that it was once the place where we played "Hidden Gate" and "fought".

Editor-in-charge: Liu Chen Yangzi

Typography: Le Chuan

Review: Chen Hao