Street Photographer Bon Wen Captures the Sad and Sorry Demise of the old Jiangwan Shanghai Library

Thanks to Shanghai street photographer Bon Wen for sending me a link to his excellent photos of the old Shanghai library – not the better known old race course building (on the corner of Nanjing West Road and Huangpi Road), which was, for a long time, the Shanghai library, or the monstrosity they built on Huai Hai Road which resembles a courthouse-cum-maxi-prison and is largely designed to discourage anyone wandering in and looking for a book. No, this is the Shanghai library in Jiangwan, built in 1934-35, and part of the futuristic planned civic centre for China-administered Shanghai. If you’ve not been (and surprisingly few people do) then go immediately – subway line 10 to Jiangwan Stadium.

Now the inevitable sad story of the building – first a library built by the Nationalist government and stocked full of books – good thing. Then the communists took out all the books (too many they disagreed with) and turned it into Tongji Middle School – shame about the books but worse things than a school. Then the post-communist leaders of today’s philistines threw the school out and let the building rot.

Click here to see Bon Wen’s photographs of the dereliction of the once fine structure and some images of the original (as below)…a real shame.