In the hinterland of Shanghai's Old Town, the Yuyuan Community Cultural Activity Center at 65 Fujia Street is a five-story building with a long history. Above the fireworks of the community vegetable market on the first floor, there is a "treasure space" for surrounding residents, white-collar leisure activities, and tourists to perceive the essence of Shanghai citizens' culture.
In 2020, the Yuyuan Community Cultural Activity Center was selected as a pilot unit for the integration of cultural and tourism public service institutions in Shanghai, and became the only community cultural activity center in Shanghai to be selected as a national-level pilot, and in the same year, it was rated as one of the first 50 "good places at the doorstep" in Shanghai, marking the official opening of a new exploration of cultural and tourism integration in Yuyuan Street.
Spaces that young people also love
"Do you know how fashionable the Old Town Box is?" In the multi-functional conference room on the fifth floor of the Yuyuan Community Cultural Activity Center, a "Map of the Qingming Upper River in the Old City Box Version" occupies the entire wall.
The old city of Shanghai's population is known as the "root of the city" of Shanghai, and its 700-year history has made it one of the important birthplaces of Shanghai's civic culture and urban culture. Located in the hinterland of the old city, Yuyuan Street in Huangpu District is named after the "Yu Garden", which is also the location of the "City God Temple" where Shanghainese from small to large. However, how to make the current young people can also have cultural memories and emotional connections to the old city like their parents, the Yuyuan Community Cultural Activity Center is undoubtedly an important carrier.
The location of the center was originally the production building of shanghai people's eighth printing factory, shuttled through the building, people will feel the space of three steps and one fold, five steps and one song, as if in a natural old city box. The entire building was restructured from four buildings of different eras, of which the oldest east building was built in the 1930s and the other buildings were built in the 1970s and 1980s, becoming a "four-in-one" century-old building.
On August 6, 2019, the Yuyuan Community Cultural Activity Center was officially opened to the public after two years of preparation and construction. After completion, the center covers an area of 5335 square meters, integrating literature and art, entertainment, training, performance, reading, science and education, and fitness, which is not only a comprehensive place for residents' activities, but also a neighborhood social platform, a base for inheriting the culture of the old city and traditional Chinese culture.
The center is located on the 3rd-5th floor of the building, of which the 3rd floor is a multi-functional classroom, an early classroom, a gym, a table tennis room, a billiard room, a comprehensive activity classroom, a "old city box old object exhibition" and a community library and a parent-child reading room on the 4th floor, and a community theater that can accommodate more than 200 people on the 5th floor, equipped with advanced facilities and equipment such as lighting, sound, digital projection, LED large screen and ear screen theater seats.
"We hope to display and inherit the culture of the old city one by one through business, cultural and human connections." You Wei, deputy director of Yuyuan Subdistrict, said.
The activities and functional settings suitable for all ages also make a difference in this community cultural center that has just turned 2 years old.
On the 3rd floor of the center, a display space that restores the interior of an old western-style house in Shanghai is particularly eye-catching. Originally, this is the location of the featured public welfare "script killing", introducing the popular leisure projects of young people at present, and immersively restoring the retro atmosphere through the old objects of Shanghai provided by private collectors. A number of scripts highlighting red culture, Shanghai culture, and Jiangnan culture led the white-collar workers, residents, and students involved in the "script killing" to understand Shanghai's rich cultural history.
Bring together a strong sense of humanity
On weekday afternoons, Ms. Fang and Mr. Qian, who live in the Laoximen area, came to the Yuyuan Community Cultural Activity Center, and after several rounds of "fighting" on the table tennis table, they had a pool addiction in front of the pool table next to them.
Located in the Old Town, the Yuyuan Garden Community Cultural Activity Center is not only a place for residents to carry out activities, exercise and socialize, but also a place where generations of people perceive the culture of the Old Town and feel the urban changes of Shanghai.
At the entrance of the exhibition hall on the 4th floor of the center, a row of magnificent "enamel cup walls" show the names of the main industrial production units, universities and research institutions in Shanghai after the founding of New China. There are 2021 enamel cups, each of which has a two-dimensional code next to it, and after scanning the code, you can understand the history of the relevant units. When everyone comes to this wall, they can almost find a memory related to their parents and family.
The "Treasure of the Town Hall" of the "Old City Box Old Objects Exhibition" is a few seemingly ordinary beams, on which are carved "Meilan Bamboo Chrysanthemum" and some human figures. The beams are mainly from the buildings in the old city area in the late Qing Dynasty and early Min Dynasty. "Although it is not a shocking cultural relic, it vividly shows important details of the lives of residents." You Wei said.
The balcony on the 4th floor is home to the "Roof Garden", and the street also names it "Yu Garden" in the harmonic sound of Yu Garden. Pushing the door into the garden balcony, the magical experience of combining ancient and modern is vividly displayed - as far as the eye can see, the Chinese garden is seen, with the moss eaves of the residents next door, and the modern high-rise buildings such as the Bund Center in the distance.
What is heartwarming is the evaluation and interpretation space of the cultural center. Xiao Qiang, deputy director of the Yuyuan Street Social Development Office, said that after the bomb evaluation activity was opened, only residents of Yuyuan Street and surrounding streets came at the beginning, but soon ten or ten people passed on, and even the residents who moved to Songjiang and Pujiang towns after the relocation also came early in the morning to listen to the play. Some residents leave at 6 o'clock in the morning, just to return to the "old place" and listen to the morning drama with the neighbors, and talk about the homely routine that has not been seen for a long time.
"Later, we realized that for the elderly, the community cultural center can not only move and exercise, but also a place for them to meet with their old friends. The charm of the old city culture is not only in brick by brick, but also in the close relationship between relatives and neighbors.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Tang Ye Text Editor: Shu Shu Title Map Source: Yuyuan Community Cultural Activity Center
Source: Author: Shu Shu