A Brief History of Laochengxiang

Within the 5-kilometer-in-perimeter ring road on the westbound of Huangpu river lies Laochengxiang (老城厢), the Old City of Shanghai. Laochengxiang’s beginning was marked by the 1553 construction of the defensive wall, and it developed steadily as the political, economic, and cultural center of Shanghai for more than three hundred years. In 1843, as the result of the Treaty of Nanking, the land external to the city wall was exploited by the Westerners, forming the concessions.

In the late 19th century, Laochengxiang claimed no longer the central position of the city’s dynamic as Shanghai’s political and economic functionality had moved out of the city wall. Most of the administrative buildings had relocated as well. The former Jiangnan county seat had become “the Chinese City” that was often given shape as a mysterious blank in the Western cartography. The locality of Laochengxiang was engendered by the reflexive subjectification of Chinese nationality that developed from its situatedness between the socio-economical hegemonies of the imperialists.

Entering the 20th century, Laochengxiang hosted primarily residential and religious spaces. The demand for modern transportation and public health had promoted the demolition of the city wall and the reclamation of urban waterways. In 1914, the Shanghai General Works Board demolished the city wall and filled its moat with debris. Two semi-circular roads were constructed along the original boundaries of the wall, allowing the transmission of people and knowledge to become more freely. Shanghai was the frontline of the Sino-Japanese war. Affected by the war, numerous constructions in the Laochengxiang had continuously rebuilt within their cadastral boundaries; many of them were influenced by the western architectural styles from the concessions. The high mobility of the cross-cultural encounters rendered Laochengxiang a vary unique spatial texture: the roads often follow the pattern of waterways, with twists and turns, and less straight; the buildings are densely congregated, appears in vastly different styles.

The geographical configuration of Laochengxiang experienced little change in the early years of the People’s Republic of China, with the exception of the construction of a set of intersecting roads (Henan Rd. and Fuxing Rd.) that divided the city into four similar-sized blocks. Starting from the 1990s, Laochengxiang has been experiencing radical demolishment as a result of Shanghai’s gentrification progress. The demolishment projects have drastically reconfigured the spatial texture, leaving the local knowledge and lived experience of Laochengxiang unremembered. Since the pandemic, an increasing portion of Laochengxiang’s neighborhoods have been expropriated and their residents evicted, creating large blocks of deserted space.

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