House of Shen: Rise and fall of a symbol of Shanghai's sea trade life

For over 1,500 years the Huangpu River has provided the lifeblood to Shanghai life. River trade along this artery has been a mainstay of the city's commercial being, with boat owners operating fleets of junks to ply their wares within the Yangtze delta. But any day now the demolition of one of the last remnants of this history will be complete, and with it one of the last physical manifestations of Shanghai's former life will be lost.

Shanghai’s old trade

In the Qing Dynasty, it was the clans of Zhu, Wang, Yu and Shen that reigned in Shanghai's waters. Zhu has left no trace. Wang remains, but only in the name of several dockside streets. Yu’s house still stands at the edge of the old town. The house of Shen stands exposed and semi-demolished on the corner of Huayi Jie, and it is this relic that is awaiting the final blow of the jackhammer. 

When British steamships began to compete with the poky fleets of flat-bottomed junks, the city government fought to protect the native economy by lowering the taxes. This allowed Shen Yisheng from Fujian to muscle into the Shanghai boatmen hierarchy. 

Shen built his sprawling house near the wharves in 1860. To pay homage to the genesis of his fortune, the residence faced east, toward the sea. A mosaic of linked courtyards accommodated Shen’s vast family, hundreds of domestics and tons of inventory. 

But the traditional marine trade was on the wane and Shen’s prosperity was short-lived.

The residence faced east, toward the sea, where Shen made his fortune.

Changing hands

Come the early 20th century, the residence was sold to another sea magnate, Yan Tongchun, who, pragmatically, turned his back on the vagaries of sea trade and switched to real estate. Yan spruced up the compound with colonnaded balustrades and modern bathrooms. Wealth generated by the tireless Yan outlasted the revolution.

In 2007, one of his downtown villas was sold for the highest price ever recorded for a singe real estate parcel in Shanghai.

Shen’s vertiginous mansion is a unique piece of architecture, a parade of styles, from ancient Anhui to Western neoclassicism. But demolition is already halfway through, and it won't be long before this 150-year-old house is turned to scrap and dust as part of the area's urban renewal.

The saddest aspect of this story is that Shen's house is just one among many architectural residues from Shanghai's past that are destined for oblivion. Shanghai’s riverside between the Bund and Nanpu Bridge is being transformed, its history is mortgaged for someone else’s profit, and the architectural memory of its great merchant families consigned to the history books.