What is Shanghai Folk House

Shanghai residential is Shikumen.

Shikumen is a unique Shanghai folk house, which can be said to be the expression of Shanghai. The typical feature of Shikumen dwellings is the combination of East and West. It is named after a circle of stones as the door frame, and the door is usually made of solid wood with a copper ring. Generally, there is a small patio, behind which is the living room, and on both sides of the patio and the living room are the left and right compartments, while upstairs are the main bedrooms. Further inside, there is the back patio, where there is a zhaopi room and the back door, through which Shanghainese used to enter and exit.

This structure is derived from the two-storey courtyard style of the traditional Jiangnan houses, but in the overall layout, it adopts the townhouse style commonly used in Europe. Shikumen houses are the embodiment of the fusion of Chinese and Western cultures, which is an expression of Shanghai and a symbol of the Haikai culture. Shikumen carries a strong sense of nostalgia and humanistic feelings. Shikumen housing is relatively closed to the outside world and is quiet in the center of the city.

Relation between Shikumen and Literature and Art

Shikumen houses also have a close relationship with literature and art. In the 1930s, a group of pavilion writers emerged in Shanghai. If Shikumen is the expression of Shanghai, then the pavilion writers are a unique landscape of Shanghai's literary world. Pavilion room is the worse room in Shikumen house, it is located above the stove Phi room, under the sundeck, behind the main room, in the middle of the staircase, facing north, six or seven square meters, small and low, however, it is the cheapest room for rent.

There was a group of writers at that time, who often worked part-time in newspapers and bookstores, rented booths, and penciled in them to write for large and small newspapers and publishers, and sold their articles for a living. It is some of the famous writers, living in the pavilion room is also quite a lot. Ye Shengtao, Shen Yanbing, etc. are in Hongkou Hengbin Road, Jing Yunli's pavilion room.