Tianzifang

Tianzifang (田子坊, Tiánzǐfāng) is a maze of narrow lanes off Taikang Road, in the south of the former French Concession, where small shops, cafes, galleries and studios occupy shikumen houses and former factories. People still live in the lanes, so it is a working neighbourhood as well as a visitor attraction. The entrance is at Lane 210, Taikang Road.

Its first name was Zhicheng Fang (志成坊), a shikumen housing estate. Sources differ on when it was built: Chinese Wikipedia gives 1930 and English Wikipedia gives 1933. The area lay near the eastern end of the Zhaojiabang canal, on the southern edge of the concession. The canal was filled in in 1954.

In the last quarter of the twentieth century, low rents and a central location drew artists, who set up studios in the estate and in the small factories around it. In 2001 the precinct was redesignated an arts and creative quarter and given the name Tianzifang, a pun on Tian Zifang (田子方), a figure from the Warring States period often called China’s earliest recorded artist. Chinese Wikipedia credits the painter Huang Yongyu (黄永玉) with converting five idle factories on the lane and giving it the new name. In 2005 it was ranked among Shanghai’s ten creative-industry clusters.

In 2006 the area was slated for demolition. Business owners, residents and the artist Chen Yifei (陈逸飞) opposed this, and a proposal was submitted to the local government to preserve the Taikang Road area and its buildings.

The district is compared with Xintiandi, but there the houses were mostly demolished and rebuilt, while here they were renovated. The buildings are a mixture, from eclectic and Renaissance-revival to modernist, Spanish and baroque, and the shikumen houses alone show more than 20 variations. The area grew from the inside of the block outward and is largely hidden from the neighbouring streets. One entrance, through Lane 248, passes residents’ bicycles and hanging laundry before reaching the shops. Shops now also face Taikang Road.