I have passed hundreds of times in front of the building at 746 Changle lu, at the corner of Rue Bourgeat (now Changle lu) and Rue Amiral Courbet (now Fumin Lu). Although an old building, it is quite large with a modernistic style, occupying a large plot at the streets corner. Here is its story.
This remarkable modernist / art deco building was built for the Hezhong library / Hou Chung library / 合众图书馆. The library was created in 1939, by industrialist Ye Jingkui, together with Zhang Yuanji and Chen Taoyi. Ye Jingkui was a great collector of books and he wanted to pool private collections in a safe place. At that time, Shanghai was already occupied by Japan, apart for the International Settlement and the French Concession. The massive collection of Shanghai’s Oriental library had been destroyed along with the Commercial Press building in 1932. The group wanted to preserve Chinese culture and historical book collections. It is then no surprise that the library was built in the French Concession, a place that was safe at the time.
Besides the founder’s collections, the library acquired rare books as well as manuscripts, correspondence, inscriptions and rubbings, periodicals, photographs and made them available for researchers. At that time, libraries were the real receptacle for knowledge and were highly treasured. Other exemples of important libraries in Shanghai included the Shanghai branch of the Sino-International library, the Hung Ying library, the Royal Asiatic Society Library and Jesuits library in Xu Jia Hui. In 1958, the Hezhong library’s collection was merged into Shanghai library, probably along with the above mentionned.
The library building dates from 1940. It takes elements of Chinese traditional symbols with modern western architectural structure. As it is higher than the neighbors and located in a street corner, it really stands out.
It was designed by Chinese architect Chen Zhi / 陈植, who was born in Hangzhou. He first studied in Tsing Hua university in Beijing, before being sent to the USA to study architecture at Pennsylvania University in 1923. He completed his study in 1928, after winning an architectural competition in 1926. He worked one year in Ely J.Kahn architect firm in New York, which is famous for some the New York skyscrapers.
Chen Zhi returned to China in 1929, reaching Shanghai in 1930. He then founded Allied Architects / Huagai Architects / 华盖建筑师事务所 along with other fellows from Tsinghua / Penn State University, Zhao Shen and Tong Jun. Together, they designed several famous buildings, including the Metropol Theater, the lyric theater (now Huangpu Theatre, 黄浦剧场), Zhong Shan hospital and several official buildings in Nanjing.
The building has been renovated in 2025, while keeping an original feel. It is free to visit and also enclose a small museum about the original Hezhong library. Too bad it is only in Chinese.
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