Bureaus Exclusive

Western-style houses telling hundred-old legend

By Wang Yu (China Daily Tianjin Bureau)
Updated: 2010-12-09 15:34

Which villa did Dai Li live in? Was senile Little Dezhang fond of planting? Why did Liu Guanxiong build a fleet-like mansion? Every puzzle is unveiled and every western-style house is telling a piece of dust-laden event in past decades. It is a cultural gala presented by the series of reports on Tianjin Western-style Houses of City Express, Tianjin Daily Newspaper Group.

Modern China is in Tianjin. Tianjin, the old city with hundreds years of history, not only witnessed the history of China trudge from backwardness to awakening, then to self-renewal, but also recorded the great efforts made in "learning the skills from the western countries". In modern times, this old city had to open as the treaty port under the force of colonizers' guns and arms. Meanwhile, it also opened the door for modern China to get access to Western science and technology, shocked by the changes of social life brought by industrial civilization. It didn't take long before Tianjin became the center of politics, economy and culture in northern China as well as the stage which attracted celebrities from all walks of life in modern China. As time goes by, boom is fleeting; only thousands of western-style houses were left, revealing the past of prosperity.

With the goal of "Excavating City Culture and Polishing City Calling Card", City Express has released featured pages of Tianjin Western-style Houses since January 2010 and paid all-round visits to former residences of notables in all the western-style houses unprecedentedly. True and correct "Experience Archives" are formulated for these building by classifying the celebrities who lived in, according to the roads and doorplates. In order to tell the real "stories of foreign-style houses"，not just hearsay, reporters strived to interview descendants of former famous residents in every house. On the other hand, with academic support from experts in the fields of history, culture and folk-custom, lots of historical information was referred in the process of covering, more academic elements were integrated into the usual interview-only mode.

Featured pages of Tianjin Western-style Houses have aroused strong reactions. Many readers offered clues; experts supported without reservation; some overseas posterities of former celebrity even called and narrated history of their families. Until now, more than 200 editions of featured pages have been issued continuously. Furthermore, based on this series of reports, Tianjin Western-style Houses -- All Files of Celebrities Former Residences series, is in busy compilation. These books are expected to be released at the beginning of 2011. Then main reporters and compilers are going to present these books as cultural gifts with Tianjin characteristic when they fly to the western countries to visit the "descendants of the Western-style Houses".