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A letter published in the China Press, written by Frank Xu, and translated by Dr. Zhiqun Zhu (USA).

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 Jiangsu Provincial People's Government
 Jiangsu Cultural Bureau
 Jiangsu Provincial Museum
 
 
 The Xu family have lived in Wuxi for generations.  Our
 old house was located at 38 Chongning Road in downtown
 Wuxi. 
(Prior to 1958 the place was called "Xiao He Shang"--On the Little River. 
When the river was filled up in 1958, the place changed its name to 
Chongning Road).
 
 My father Xu Guangnan participated in the revolution
 before 1949.  Soon after 1949, our big family
 disintegrated.  My family moved with the Southern
 Jiangsu Administrative Bureau to Nanjing where they
 set up the capital of Jiangsu province.  Other Xu
 families moved to Shanghai, Zhenngzhou and Gansu.  The
 old house was partially "for rent" and has been
 resided by my aunt and tenants for over 40 years.
 
 Today I got a call from relatives in Wuxi: Chongning
 Road will become a "Street of Politics and Law".  All
 the buildings along the road including our private
 house will be pulled down.  I'm shocked to learn it.
 
 My family has been a literary one for generations.
 Without going back too far, I would like to mention my
 grandfather Xu Zhanzhi.  He followed his teacher Wu
 Zhihui (Wu later became a senior statesman of the
 Republic of China) to Japan to study military affairs
 and graduated from Japan's Political Affairs School.
 Upon returning to China, my grandfather was assigned
 by the imperial government to serve in the military in
 Guangdong and Guangxi provinces.  He was promoted to
 level four in the administrative system, responsible
 for military affairs in Guangdong and Guangxi.
   
 All his life my grandfather followed Dr. Sun Yat-Sen.
 During his study in Japan he joined the Resuscitate
 China Society, the Alliance Society, and the Recovery
 Society.  He joined the 72 martyrs in launching the
 1911 Revolution.  Later he was assigned by Dr. Sun to
 be the police chief of Wuxi.  He participated in the
 Northern Expedition War and was one of the founders of
 China Kenye Bank.  Unfortunately he died young.
 
 During the final years of the Qing dynasty, my
 great-grandfather started to build the house in Xiao
 He Shang, a place where every inch of land was costly.
 (He sold the old house to a Rong family.  The Rong
 family prospered and the site became Sunan Middle
 School).  It was the place where local officials and
 gentry lived.  The house was completed during
 Xuantong's reign.  It was the only house in Xiao He
 Shang that had high black walls in the front.  From
 the front wall, there were five entrances to the house
 which consisted of over 20 rooms.  In every hall there
 was a horizontal inscribed board.  The white
 characters inscribed on the black board were all
 original calligraphy by renowned figures of the late
 Qing dynasty.  All the windows, doors and pillars in
 the house were wrapped with blue cloth before being
 painted with layers of lacquer.  Almost a century
 later the lacquer still looks fresh.  In the house
 there were also long inscribed windows with different
 vivid figures from famous stories.  The whole house
 was indeed magnificent.
 
 During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), rebels
 looted the house and took the inscribed boards down,
 causing great damage to the building.  The man-make
 hills, lotus pond in front of the eastern study and
 the garden disappeared.  However, the design of the
 house and the great hall remained largely intact.
 
 Opposite to the great hall was the inscribed stone
 arch above the door.  This was unique because only
 officials above level four were allowed to have it.
 In Wuxi there used to be another arch like this, but
 it was destroyed during the cultural revolution.
 According to my grandmother who studied Buddhism all
 her life, it took many highly-skilled workers three
 years to complete the project.  After 1949 the Xu
 family was scattered around the country.  The old
 house was resided by tenants.  The arch was
 "discovered" in the 1980s when the city surveyed
 cultural relics on Chongning Road.
  Brick Carving detail on our old house
After the "discovery" was reported by the media, visitors came one after another. 

Professors and students from Shanghai Tongji University's Department of Ancient Buildings visited our house and shot a film.
They were very excited and spent three days filming the house.  Now the relics and cultural departments of Wuxi confirmed that the arch was forgotten and should be protected and preserved.
 
 Most of the Ming and Qing-style houses on Chongning
 Road are dilapidated.  Without doubt, only number 38
 is relatively well preserved.
 
 What needs to be protected immediately are the great
 hall, the study, and inscribed brick door.  They
 should never be destroyed.  If they could be moved to
 a public park in Wuxi, they will certainly add a nice
 view.  As historical relics, antiques and arts they
 are invaluable.  The more, the better.  
 Door Carving detail on our old house

Many countries are building Chinese-style courts and houses as scenic spots.  China is helping these countries to build imitation ancient Chinese gardens...Isn't it true that Jiangsu Ancient Building Construction Company is setting up a China town in Singapore?  Where else can we find valuable ancient
 buildings like the ones on Chongning Road?  Instead of
 destroying these buildings, we may well sell them
 overseas as part of cultural exchanges between China
 and foreign countries.
 
  After Suzhou applied for being a historic cultural
 city, they even dug up old rivers that were filled
 after 1949.  All the old houses in Suzhou are required
 to maintain the original exterior with only interior
 remodelling allowed, just like in London and Paris.  In
 terms of history and culture, Wuxi peers with Suzhou.
 Wuxi municipal government knows there are lots of
 halls, pavilions, temples and storied buildings on
 Chongning Road.  Why can't they learn from Suzhou to
 protect and preserve these buildings instead of
 pulling all of them down and changing the street to
 "Politics and Law Street"?
 
 Why do cultural relics have to be destroyed in the
 course of modernization?  What's the difference
 between destroying them and digging up and stealing
 from ancient tombs?
   Next to our house was the famous Sun family's "Young Minister's Residence".  Sun became a young minister during Ming dynasty.  He received imperial permission to build the house that extended to one block.  After 600 years, the twin stone lions in front of the house and the horizontal board with the inscription "Young Minister's Residence" were demolished during the Cultural Revolution.  The tall memorial archway inside the house were also destroyed.  But the residence including the stone doors were still there. Unfortunately in 1979 after the "Gang of Four" were arrested, the city government decided to build the municipal intermediate court and pulled down the whole house.  A famous historic house disappeared.  Sun family members at home and abroad appealed for help, but to no avail.  What a pity!
 
 Now the Wuxi government insists on pulling down all
 buildings on Chongning Road.  After the Cultural
 Relics Administration Committee and the Municipal
 Cultural Bureau appealed, the city government barely
 agreed to move the inscribed brick door arch to
 Dongling Academy.  The city government did not want
 the halls and only paid demolition fees.  Such grand
 halls were not worth anything in their eyes.  To my
 knowledge, a real estate company paid 40,000 RMB Yuan
 to a company for pulling down the building.  But even
 400,000 Yuan are not enough to build the halls, let
 alone buying those top-quality bricks and wood.
 
 Since I'm doing import and export business, I have
 visited many countries.  In Singapore, Malaysia and
 Thailand where there are large Chinese communities, no
 such authentic Chinese courtyards can be found.  We
 should learn from Western countries that are willing
 to spend money to protect even not-too-old buildings.
 Though China is a civilization of over 5000 years, too
 many cultural relics have been destroyed.  We do not
 have an abundance of cultural relics; we are in short
 of them.
 
 The Cultural Revolution destroyed numerous cultural
 relics.  At that time, the books, paintings and
 calligraphy many families collected were burned up at
 designated places.  No such stupid and tragic mistakes
 should be made again.
 
 When new residence buildings are constructed, those
 old houses with cultural and historic values should be
 preserved.
 
  This is not the culture of the Sun or Xu family, it is
 the cultural relic of our nation.  We should save it
 before it is too late.  It will be useless to regret
 when everything is gone.  If it is destroyed, it will
 be an out-and-out cultural crime against our history
 and our nation that we will feel shame to tell our
 children.
 
 As an offspring who knows all these, I feel that I
 have the responsibility to inform and appeal to the
 government.  It is not for my own family that I am
 writing this letter, but with the wish that the
 government will protect this old house.  We as private
 citizens are powerless to do anything.  Please
 investigate into this case, consider my proposal and
 make a wise decision.  Then it will be to the fortune of
 our country and our nation.  It will also be something
 that will make our forefathers happy.
 

The ancient art of APPLIQUÉ work started in China millennia ago. I would like to tell you some of the fascinating historical connection that my family has with this piece of beautiful cloth. The following essay translated by Hans Qin (Mr.Qing Han Rong) ,a famous scholar, he was once my classmate, and then studied in London. Hans now lives in South Africa.

Please click for a much larger image

 The official garments of the civil and military officials of the Qing Dynasty followed the style of the Ming Dynasty, adorned with appliqués, known as "appliqué gown" or "appliqué garment", worn over the robe with embroidered dragons,  which constituted the main symbol of the ranks of the officials together with the corresponding hat adornment. The appliqué is about 30 cm in length and width, sewn on the front and back of the gown. The appliqué on the back is a whole piece while the one on the front is cut into two parts, and sewn on each side of the line of buttons down the front.

The appliqué of the Qing Dynasty  I have actually seen and laid my hands on is the one taken off from my grandmother Madame Shao Yujin's appliqué garment. It was discovered by my auntie Xu Jinxian, who is still  living in my home town Wuxi, from among the personal belongings left behind by my grandmother. In the urgency of the moment, she had to conceal it in the heap of rags in the bedside padauk cupboard in order to escape the disaster of it being exposed and damaged in the "searching house and confiscating " spree  during the Cultural Revolution . Afterwards, Auntie earnestly requested it to be  kept in my custody.  Had it  fallen a prey to the Red Guards in the Cultural Revolution, the story would have had another version - just let our imagination stretch a little  further.

My grandfather was a military official. According to the Qing Dynasty system, the appliqué of the military officials should feature the motif of an animal. His fourth grade dictated that the motif should be a tiger.  However, if the lady's husband or son was military official, her appliqué was not supposed to feature the animals. In stead, it should show motif of birds, which was the motif in the appliqué of the civil officials, to signify that the female population is not encouraged to indulge in military affairs. Grandmother's fourth grade appliqué features a wild goose, pirouetting on a boulder, flapping its wings, embroidered with brilliant golden and multicolored silk threads.  The background is  purple bordered with embroidery  and lined with reddish black satin.   Having survived the turmoil and chaos of wars, and endless vicissitudes of the society during the ninety odd years , it is still sending forth the dazzling golden splendor and lights up the whole room.

Although my grandfather was an official of the Qing Dynasty, he was not a royalist. My family had lived in Wuxi for many generations and carried on the tradition of a well-educated  family. My grandfather named Xu Zhanzhi, also known as Jiashu, was actually a revolutionary partisan. He followed his teacher Wu Zhihui and went to Japan to study the army affairs when he  was a teen-ager. He was graduated from the Bushido Promotion College. He was made battalion commander when he was only nineteen years old. In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, he was promoted to the position of Officer of Impedimenta of Guangdong and Guangxi, a forth rank official. Although he was Qing Dynasty official, he actually followed Sun Yat-Sen all his life. He joined the Recovery Association , China Promotion Association and Joint Association as early as when he was studying in Japan. He took part in the Xinhai Uprising in Guangzhou together with the seventy-two martyrs.  When defeated, he secretly went back to Shanghai because he was being tracked down by the government.  Then he came to his home town Wuxi to support the revolution. When the land was recovered, he was appointed by Sun Yat- Sen police chief of Wuxi . He took part in the Northern Expedition.  He was also  the main founder of Land Bank of China.  Regrettably he passed away when he was in his prime years.

Although my grandmother  was consort of the high ranking official,  she did not take everything for granted and was not at all arrogant. She came from an aristocratic family of Changzhou, well conversant

with the ancient Four Books and Five Classics ever since she was very young.  She was one of her parents' two children , her younger brother Shao Chunsheng being a pioneer colliery engineer of  China. According to my grandmother's memory, he was invited by Peng Dehuai to join the Communist  Army when Peng was in Pingxiang Colliery.

My grandmother experienced a great deal  in her life , with threatening big perils one after another. She started studying Buddhism when she was past her middle age.  She became Master Yin Guang's  brilliant disciple, her Buddhist name being Jiekai. She was one of the main members of  the Buddhist Association of  Wuxi. In the ultra-leftist years, she was a ready target for the revolution.

Although she was extremely learned, she had to stay idle at home without being able to display her talents.

She was very quiet about her past. Day in ,day out, she would bury herself in  the books and  Buddhist classics.  Insults came at her old age and she passed away at seventy-nine  at the beginning of the stormy Cultural Revolution.

Today, my grandmother's  appliqué is so precious to us, definitely not because we would like to be bathed in the  glory  of the past generation, but because, being the relic of the Qing Dynasty, it has its high cultural value. In this sense, my grandmother's street  was of even higher cultural value.

The street used to be named Brookside, also known as Riverain. In 1958, the river was filled up and the street was renamed Chongning Road. In Ming and Qing Dynasties, every inch of this road was nearly worth the gold of the same size. It was densely populated by the squires and officials and boasted many a famous mansion and residence of famous personages with traditional styles. The most magnificent one was the "Young Prime Minister Mansion" , the owner of which was once the Number One Scholar of China. 

Nevertheless, countless relics were damaged during the Cultural Revolution . And during this twenty years, the old buildings were demolished section by section. The buildings for Public Security Bureau, Magistrates Court, etc. have sprung up instead, and the road has become an " Administration  and Jurisdiction Street". My family's abode was a big mansion (named Baoshan Mansion) with its arched  gate bearing  brick relief and  traditional inscribed boards horizontally hung  high above every entrance to the sections of  the building, each section separated from the other with a small garden. The mansion shared the same fate with the next door neighbor's "Young Prime Minister Mansion" and  was reduced to debris, in spite of  the appealing, high and low, of the cultural relics administration authorities high and low and and the instructions from the high level leading authorities about protecting the buildings.

The appliqué, after ninety years, gives out the same golden splendor as it did when it was in my grandmother's hand, but the whole street has changed so drastically that even a returning house swallow will not be able to recognize it all.

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Click for a bigger image

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The poet in the Chinese and the Chinese in the Poet

People sometimes call me poet. I write many old style Chinese poems.

Here are two of my poems one which has been translated by my classmate Hans Qin when we studied in Nanjing Foreign Language School 38 years ago and who now lives in South Africa. The second is by my student Dr. Zhi Qun Zhu (USA) I hope you like them.

My house is nearby the famous ancient Zhuqiao Bridge.

Morning at Zhuqiao Bridge

At the bridge on a late autumn day
The chill's pinch is coming  my way.
Still  I can bask in the warm sun,
where I indulge in a lot of  fun.

Catkin ceases dancing with the wind,
Its spring frolic of nymph and wench. 
But the chrysanthemums are golden yellow,
Erupt on both banks, reflected in the water mellow.

Written by Frank Xu, translated by Hans Qin

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 Gone are the days we were toiling in the hay,
yet in our hearts they stay
 Grey hair we've all grown, before we even know
 Stormy ups and downs have weathered us all
 Still, our mind is wide as a spring sky.

Written by Frank Xu, translated by Dr. Zhiqun Zhu