The 'red' fossils of Shanghai

Shanghai history is portrayed as glamorous and cinematic. But if the Cultural Revolution decade were a Hollywood pitch, it would be “28 Days Later” meets “Lord of the Flies.”

The idea behind the Cultural Revolution was to empower millions of young Chinese to attack any form of authority (except Mao’s) and destroy the current government.

Shanghai was hardly spared the destruction.

But the old city -- impervious labyrinth, and largely overlooked -- still has signs of the mad decade.

Most of the damage has been repaired or hidden, but the Cultural Revolution is part of local history, and you can still find traces of it today if you know where to look.

Re-writing history

Shanghai’s historic temples that we see today aren’t really old.

They were the first buildings in the city to be attacked by the Red Guards in the late 1960s. The Temple of the City God, Longhua Temple and Jade Buddha Temple were pulverized.

What we see in their places are all reconstructions.

Other monuments were attacked for being bourgeois, foreign, religious or simply traditional.

The Customs House on the Bund lost its original bell clock; the Greek statues on the American International Assurance Building were buried in cement.

The grand spires on Xujiahui Cathedral’s were pulled down. The Jewish cemeteries in Qingpu were bulldozed and vanished. 

Some great buildings were mocked by re-purposing.

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Jing’an Temple became a plastics factory. The Jesuit Observatory in Xujiahui was stripped and became a warehouse.

The Confucius Temple in the old city and the Hengshan Lu Community Church were both turned into gymnasiums. The Jewish temple, Ohel Rachel, was turned into a warehouse.

One of the Russian Orthodox churches was gutted and transformed into a washing-machine factory.

Other monuments were attacked for being bourgeois, foreign, religious or simply traditional.

Today there are few telltale signs from this era.

Anti-revisionism lane

But the old city -- impervious labyrinth, and largely overlooked -- still has signs of the mad decade. They are inscribed in stone and sitting in plain sight. 

The old city has strange street patterns, and the heavy hand of the Red Guards can still be noticed: lane names smudged over with slap-on concrete, elegant Confucian plaques on doorways scraped away, boundary stones splashed with paint.

Here and there, tears in paint or plaster reveal a “Long live Chairman Mao” motto, etched in place of house-warming banners. These political charms frequently protected old houses from worse damage.

Some of the most elaborate courtyards hide behind the most barren and vandalized exteriors.

As you explore the old city, take time to look for these historic Shanghai markers hidden in plain sight.

Katya Knyazeva is a journalist and fine artist born in Siberia.

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