【 Memory of the Sea 】 The Twilight and Time of Weishan New Village | Shanghai | Weishan New Village

This is the memory of the last year of the 20th century.

In my memory, every weekend, he would always take a bus from Wujiaochang, where Fudan University is located, cross the bustling street market, cross the bridge over the Suzhou River with traffic, cross the bustling Bund, and reach the bustling Dongjiadu before getting off and boarding the ferry. As the ship moved and the river breeze brushed against the face, the bustling city gradually quieted down and drifted away - according to adults, this freshman who "couldn't possibly eat well in the university cafeteria" had to go to his grandparents' house on the other side of the Huangpu River to "replenish his health".

He always walks into Weishan New Village, where his grandparents live, at dusk. The scenery before us is vastly different from that of Puxi. Under the shade of trees in the community, there are elderly people shaking fans to cool off, some people playing mahjong, and when entering the hallway, one can smell someone frying salted hairtail.

Everything was slow and leisurely, and he felt as if time had come to a standstill in this community. This stagnation made him feel anxious, he felt that this was not the place where young people should come, he felt resistant. He gradually shortened his stay in the community: from staying all weekend, to only staying for one day, to finally hastily finishing dinner, disregarding his grandparents' requests, and rushing back to school overnight. He said he didn't want to go to Weishan New Village anymore at that time. He had to immerse himself in the hot urban rhythm and live like a real Shanghai youth.

As for what kind of life it was, perhaps from the beginning until now, Jin Li has been pondering.

5-year-old Jin Li is in Weishan New Village

1

There is a doubt about the time when Weishan New Village appeared.

In the introduction of the real estate agency, Weishan New Village was built in 1988. However, in Jin Li's memory, adults firmly told him that after he was born in 1981, his mother took him back from the hospital to Weishan New Village. In 1982, a short message from the local media titled "A batch of new place names will be put into use in this city" officially confirmed the appearance of the name of Weishan New Village in September of that year:

"With the approval of the municipal government, five new villages and thirty-two new road names will be put into use from today; two road names will be cancelled and one road name will be changed. The five new villages are: Guixiang New Village in Putuo District; Shangnan New Village, Weishan New Village, and Nanmatou New Village in the southern urban area; and Quyang New Village in Hongkou District."

Indeed, at that time, although Weishan New Village was located in the Pudong area, it was administratively under the jurisdiction of the southern urban area, along with the political center of the old city of Shanghai County. The year Jin Li was born was when some new villages began to be built in Pudong area. In old news reports, one can also glimpse the appearance of this place when it was first built: "In October 1981, after the completion of some new villages in Pudong, the roads were uneven, the street lights were insufficient, and there were no public toilets. After inspection by the deputy district chief and officials from the urban construction and residential offices, construction teams were immediately dispatched to the site. Now, a 200 meter long rugged road in Shanggang Village and Four Village is being repaired urgently, and the repair plans for five roads including Changle Road and Xujiazhai Road have also been implemented. The 26 new workshops in Shangnan Second Village do not have street lights, so they discussed with the Pudong Power Supply Office and have installed street lights. Jiaonan, The street lamp decoration plan for Weishan New Village has also been implemented

In 2000, the Shanghai Municipal Government announced the cancellation of Nanshi District and the incorporation of the west bank of Huangpu River into Huangpu District. The area on the east bank of the Huangpu River in the original southern urban area was merged into the Pudong New Area shortly after its establishment in 1993.

2

Newborn children may not realize that the building they are in is almost the same age as themselves, and the area they are in is changing in their own way every year and every three years.

Compared to the level of urbanization in the Puxi area at that time, Pudong always seemed like a latecomer chasing barefoot. But where should the definitions of the waves before and after, maturity and rebirth be divided? Standing in 1999, looking at both Pudong and Puxi, there is no doubt which side is more fashionable and mature. But what if time were to push forward?

For example, dating back to the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the predecessor of the South Wharf in the Pudong area of Shanghai, Nancangdu, Dongjiadu, Yangjiadu, and others, were collectively known as the eight major ferries of the Huangpu River, making it the largest private granary ferry in the Pudong area at that time. In modern times, ethnic industries have emerged and evolved into concentrated industrial areas such as chemical factories and shipyards. The reason why Jin Li's grandparents live in Weishan New Village is because they work at the Shanghai Solvent Factory.

This was known as the "number one alcohol factory in the Far East" and could be considered the largest alcohol factory in Asia at that time. According to local chronicles, the Shanghai Solvent Factory located at the South Pier was originally invested by Indonesian overseas Chinese Huang Jiangquan and Huang Zongxiao in 1933 and founded in 1934, known as the Chinese Alcohol Factory. On January 19, 1934, Huang Zongxiao made and hung a plaque in the factory office building to commemorate his father Huang Zhonghan's patriotic spirit, with the words "Stepfather's Former Glory" written on it. The plaque is still preserved in the modern architectural complex of Shanghai Solvent Factory, using sugarcane molasses imported from Southeast Asia as the raw material for producing alcohol, with a daily output of 7000 gallons and a purity of 96% to 97%.

Chinese alcohol factories were large enterprises invested and built by overseas Chinese capital in China at that time. Chinese experts who participated in the construction of Chinese alcohol factories included industrial microbiologist Chen Changsheng, Chinese microbiologist, applied chemist, pioneer of modern industrial microbiology Wei Yanshou, and chemical engineer Gu Yuzhen, among others, bringing together the elites of the domestic chemical industry at that time.

At that time, most of China's alcohol was imported from abroad, and the factory filled a gap in the history of modern industrial development in China. However, after the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in 1937, the factory shut down and the land remained idle. Until 1954, Shanghai Solvent Factory was established and put into operation in early 1956, producing total solvents, acetone, butanol, and ethanol with a total solvent output of 2000 tons and a production value of 4.16 million yuan. In 1980, it produced 28 types of products with a production capacity of 100000 tons and an output value of 141 million yuan. It is one of the famous chemical factories in Shanghai.

When my grandparents worked here, this factory was pioneering, and the work they did here was innovative. Being able to live in Weishan New Village was the most fashionable.

On January 14, 2002, the modern architectural complex of Shanghai Solvent Factory was announced as a cultural relic protection unit in Pudong New Area.

3

At the beginning of the new century, Jin Li, who was born and raised in Weishan New Village, did not appreciate the antiquity and slowness here and felt that it was "not enough Shanghai".

He is a child of educated youth and spent more than half of his childhood returning to Wuxi Shuofang with his parents to study. Shuofang is 10.8 kilometers away from the center of Wuxi in a straight line, and 28.7 kilometers away from the center of Suzhou in a straight line. When he comes to Shanghai in winter and summer vacation, Jin Li is always aggrieved to find that what is popular, delicious and interesting, and what are good TV plays and movies discussed by everyone, he is always slow to shoot, and his cousins and sisters in Shanghai already know. The distance in this shot may seem easy to catch up with, but it always fails to catch up, which is maddening and makes young Jin Li yearn to become a "true Shanghainese". But in Weishan New Village in Pudong -- for fear that his grandmother who didn't have enough to eat in the university canteen, his grandfather who slowly pickled the Shaoxing amaranth stalks in his hometown, and his neighbor who came to beg to cut Boiled -sliced cold chicken with chickens... The acquaintances are too close to the society, and the wind blowing from the factory near the south dock through a window is not exquisite enough, not "wutong District", not legendary enough, not enough to get a move.

At that time, the concept of Shanghai in the young Jin Li concept was constructed in the "Shenjiang Service Guide" and "Shanghai Weekly" that his classmates bought every week. It was revealed in the increasingly exquisite clothing and makeup of female students who went on internships, and it was the Shanghai he had imagined time and time again while living in the suburbs of Wuxi. He wrote a research paper with a classmate from Jinshan, Shanghai, on the topic of researching urban fashion newspapers in Shanghai. Jin Li was afraid that the two of them would not be qualified, but Professor Zhang Xinxin from Fudan University encouraged them to examine the expression of the city with a "different from the indigenous" eye.

At the beginning of the new century, the Modern Architecture Complex of Shanghai Solvent Factory was announced by the People's Government of Pudong New Area as a cultural relic protection unit in Pudong New Area. In order to preserve the historical memory of the city, some old buildings left behind by Shanghai Solvent Factory and Shanghai Port Machinery Factory were preserved during the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. After protection, repair, and rational utilization, the modern architectural complex of Shanghai Solvent Factory has become a part of the Expo Village that carries a strong historical accumulation.

The relationship between new and old is not a trade-off, but rather a mutual relationship on the surface and inside. When time passed, grandparents passed away, and the whole family gradually moved out of Weishan New Village and scattered into new homes, Jin Li had the opportunity to reminisce about the evening when he came to Weishan New Village in 1999. The residents in the new village are not as idle as he thought, and the new village itself, which has witnessed the development and opening up of ethnic industry and Pudong, is not as "not Shanghai enough" as he biases. This is also Shanghai. Shanghai, not built on fashionable girls and exquisite consumer goods, has transformed into deeper everyday life.

Nowadays, you can walk all the way from Weishan New Village to the south dock by the river. On the newly repaired riverside trail, the river breeze blew, and Jin Li remembered the days when he fled here in disgust during his college years. Perhaps now, he has finally grasped a bit of Shanghai.

Young Jin Li and Father

Jin Li is taking a souvenir in front of his old residence in Weishan New Village