Chapter 21 Nanjing Road

In 1948, Zhu Lianzhang's "Fuli Fur Store" opened on the site of the No. 1 Siberia Fur Store on Nanjing Road. "At that time, the storefront was supported by 30 gold bars. This is the first leather goods store, and foreigners buy a lot of it.”There are furs made of yellow wolves and gray backs piled up in the window, and below are leather bags and suitcases made in China, "all of which are top-notch luxury goods." Zhu Lianzhang was only in his early 20s at the time, and the reason why he had so much money was, "After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he made a lot of money from American soldiers. They brought cigars and pens for us to resell, and bought a lot of them from the Greater China Leather Goods Company where I worked at that time. purses and silks".The Americans left, and the business was not slow. "At that time, it was popular to wear fur goods. Many movie stars came to my shop to buy yellow wolf fur coats and two gold bars for each. The dancers in the surrounding dance halls also followed suit. But they can't afford the best and can only buy ordinary fur goods."There are only four tailors employed in the shop.

Zhu Lianzhang originally thought that the business would grow bigger and bigger, but he didn't expect, "It won't work in early 1949, and it won't work after liberation."As a luxury item, fur is the clothing that is most affected by the environment. "Sometimes it is open for a whole day, and no one comes to the door."The area around Nanjing Road and Shimen Road was originally a place with many fur shops. "In the second half of 1949, the shop owners on both sides of the street basically looked at each other in blank dismay, not knowing how to do business. The former big customers either went to Taiwan, or even stayed in Shanghai. , and dare not wear leather anymore."Zhu still remembers that he still wanted to go to the home of big customers to sell newly arrived fur goods like before.But when I went there, I basically couldn't see the owner.

The quick-witted Zhu Lianzhang finally came up with a new idea, hanging the leather inside and covering the outside with plain people's clothes. This trick made his fur shop start to have business again, "But it still can't compare with before. The price of the house also plummeted, and I used 30 gold bars to top it off, but not long after liberation, it was only worth 10 gold bars.” It wasn't until the Soviet experts came to China that "our business improved a bit. They have money and are not afraid of the influence of public opinion, so they still wear leather goods."

However, other stores on Nanjing Road were not as lucky as Zhu Lianzhang. Even for a huge department store like Wing On Company, business began to plummet after liberation. The huge plan to eliminate crime and pornography and revive social morality, which no previous ruler has achieved, has begun to unfold after the Communist Party came to power. As a grotesque commercial street, Nanjing Road was the first to be rectified. It didn’t take long for dance fans like Tang Weihong to find that the number of more than 20 dance halls lined up along Nanjing Road decreased rapidly, and the dance halls with many dancing girls became the key targets of renovation. Even if it is still open, the opening time is limited. "Many are from 2:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon. In the evening, it is changed to a place for storytelling, and dancing is not allowed."It is most convenient to change a dance hall without a stage into a book hall.

Before liberation, the dance halls on Nanjing Road were very popular. Tang Weihong said: "I like to go to Cairus the most. The Filipino band there is very good, and the trumpeter is Robbie." The newly built ones in Paramount after receiving a cold reception are no worse than Paramount in scale and momentum.Moreover, this dance hall is expensive, and the dancers are basically upper-middle class, which is suitable for women like Tang Weihong. "It's more troublesome to enter the dance hall after marriage. You can't dance with a strange man, and it's impossible to dance with a female partner. If two women dance together, they will be misunderstood as a dancer." Her husband is often dragged to the dance hall after get off work, "That's us main form of entertainment".

Later, the trouble came, the husband was retained at the customs, and the two went to the ballroom after get off work, "But at that time, dancing was no longer possible. At that time, we were young and impatient to sit down and listen to books, but many of our former friends were at this stage. I was crazy about listening to books, which was the main form of entertainment for everyone at that time." Mr. Chen Xi'an, a famous Tanci master, came to Shanghai at the age of 14, which was the year when the Pacific War began, but he and his partner Zhou Yunrui soon became famous all over Shanghai. "The "Pearl Tower" we are talking about is famous in itself. At that time, Pingtan was the world. Dozens of radio stations in Shanghai broadcast hundreds of hours of Pingtan every day." After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Pingtan reached its peak. "One day There are several bookstores and several radio stations. I didn’t expect it to be more developed than before and after liberation.”

He and his partner were the "Seven Fiends" and "Four Rings". The bookstore is proud to invite them. From the second half of 1948, the market in Shanghai began to decline, but the bookstores did not. Chen Xi’an remembered that at that time, there were more than 20 bookstores lined up on Nanjing Road, many of which were located in the most prosperous department stores. Storytellers sat in rickshaws. A family rush. At that time, dance halls began to be opened as bookstores. "It was not an invention after liberation. The best dance halls on Nanjing Road at that time often turned some scattered afternoons into bookstores. This is exactly the opposite of after liberation. But before liberation, this This kind of bookstore is for friends with money.”

He still remembers that the bookstores converted from dance halls on Nanjing Road are even more upscale than the bookstores in department stores such as Xianshi and Daxin. Of course, big capitalists and hooligans still won’t come, they will invite us to their home to sing long books, I have been to Du Yuesheng’s house many times.” The storyteller leads some fashions on Nanjing Road, “What we wear, the audience wears. At that time, the storyteller was very rich, and he wore a leather robe in winter, a silk shirt inside, and satin shoes with white soles underneath. When he went to the bookstore, The spectators in the front rows all dressed the same as me, and even rolled up their cuffs in the same way.”In the cold weather, Chen Xi'an and the others also wore imitation silk trousers in order to look beautiful on stage, but "the audience also suffered from the cold with us".

Although liberation was about to happen, Chen Xi'an and the others did not worry too much, "Shanghai people always feel that no war will destroy Shanghai." On the twenty-fourth day of the first lunar month in 1949, he also held a wedding ceremony at the Xinxianlin Bookstore on Nanjing Road. "That bookstore is very large, and more than 1,000 congratulatory audiences came that day." When they are free, the most talked about by several people is, "If all the leisure class go to Hong Kong, will we have no customers? I heard that the Communist Party will drive all the leisure class to work and eliminate this class."But seeing so many listeners in the audience, they felt that they were too worried.

Another famous Pingtan artist, Wang Baiyin, has the same recollection as Chen Xi’an. At that time, he shared with Jiang Yuequan that "Jade Dragonfly" was one of the four-ring files, "This life is very comfortable, free, with high income, and no boss to control it. , the most popular storyteller at that time, he could talk about a tael of gold a day." In his early 20s, he has to go to 10 venues a day. He drives a long chartered car on Nanjing Road. There are wool blankets on the car, which is more advanced than ordinary rickshaws. When people see this kind of car coming, they know that it is a famous Pingtan actor , will automatically give way.

He used his income from storytelling to buy a few houses in Mingyufang on Nanjing Road and Qinghai Road. He spent a few taels of gold.At that time, Wang Boyin was a storyteller alone, supporting a family of nine, and also brought a nanny and a wet nurse. Even during the few days when the People's Liberation Army entered the city, the bookstores on Nanjing Road did not stop operating. Chen Xi'an's home was located opposite Westgate on Nanjing Road. "When I came together on the morning of the 25th, I found that the street was full of soldiers sleeping."Some time ago when he was speaking in Taicang, Jiangsu Province, he had an argument with wounded soldiers of the Kuomintang. Later, he hid in a factory in the countryside to resolve the difficulties. Seeing these disciplined soldiers sleeping on the road, he suddenly felt very comforted. ". There are more and more bans on ballrooms, and the storytellers are getting busier. The largest ballrooms like "Xinxianlin" can seat nearly a thousand people.At this time, no one dared to hold a meeting, and they all came to the bookstore to listen to books, and the university teachers and shop assistants were sitting crowded together, "There are also courtesans, dressed in modern, but very stylish, not revealing at all."Wealthy people take long-term seats, and they buy tickets for a month as soon as they buy them. Every afternoon, when the dancers leave the stage, it is time for the storytellers to come on stage.A young storyteller got married at the age of 18 because his father, who came from the country, saw the chaotic backstage scene, and the dancers pinched the young gentleman’s face as if no one else was there. Forced him to end the marriage early." Many storytellers have packed company meals in international restaurants. "During the early days of liberation, we earned much more money than many small business owners, and we also felt dignified, that is, we dared to eat and drink outside. At that time, many capitalists restrained themselves." At the beginning of June, the scattered "Silver Bulls" on the streets who were buying and selling silver dollars disappeared almost overnight. Chen Xi'an said: "We only found out from the newspapers that the huge exchange on Nanjing Road was solved by the People's Liberation Army within a day. The People's Liberation Army Divided into five groups, quickly occupied the exchange, and then dealt with the silver dollar dealers." The renminbi became the only legal currency in circulation. At that time, the storytellers who frequently rushed to the scene could earn thousands of yuan a month, "But we also know that this kind of life will not be very long." "That period was really a prosperous period for Pingtan actors." They went to Hong Kong to perform, "It was purely for making money, how could they be enlightened at that time?" They did not expect that a few years later, at the beginning of the "Cultural Revolution", the Pingtan troupe dug up " "Hong Kong Secret Service" became a news sensation in Shanghai. When it was first liberated, it was very easy to travel from Shanghai to Hong Kong, as long as you applied to the Public Security Bureau. "At that time, there were a lot of people from Shanghai going to Hong Kong. A boss who fled to Hong Kong promised to give each of us ten taels of gold per month. Liang and Zhang Junqiu. At that time, a Taiwanese boss asked us how the Communist Party was doing, and asked us to go to Taiwan for two performances. We were so scared that we didn’t dare to speak. It was Du Yuesheng who said that they would go back. That saved us." The performance income is not ideal. The Shanghainese who have just fled to Hong Kong are short of money, and there are very few audiences. "We have lowered the salary. I think we still have to find a life in Shanghai." Wang Boyin and the others began to talk about "Water Margin", "I thought it was against the ruling class and revolutionary, but we couldn't write the book ourselves, so we had to find someone to write it, and it cost a lot of money." Chen Xi'an and the others intuitively felt that in the new society, old books could no longer be used. "At that time, no one came to prohibit us, but we felt that in the new society, we must talk about new books."But the new book needs to be created, and the production will delay the performance. They went to the Literature and Art Department of the Military Management Bureau and asked to set up a Pingtan troupe.Wang Baiyin said: "The wages we asked for were far worse than what we earned back then, but no one paid any attention to us the first time we went." The second time I went to the Literature and Art Department and made a report again. This time, someone took care of it, and the Shanghai Pingtan Troupe was finally established.The actors first went to the Huaihe construction site to create, and when they came back, they published their first new book. The four of them, Chen Xi'an, wore crew cut hair and Chinese tunic suits, and sang the novella "Must Repair the Huaihe River".Because they have been creating for a long time, the audience is looking forward to the appearance of these famous actors. As a result, even though it is a topic that is unfamiliar to Shanghainese, they have been talking about it for three months. When they went to the army to perform, they also sang Pingtan in Mandarin. "This is probably the first time in the history of Pingtan."I also made up a new story about the underground party to sing, and I am more and more afraid of making gimmicks, fearing that it will cause political problems if it is misplaced.Fortunately, Chen Yun, who loves Pingtan, expressed his opinion on this, saying that it must be a gimmick, otherwise it would not be called Pingtan. There are fewer and fewer dance halls, and there are fewer and fewer idlers on Nanjing Road. The newly established Civil Affairs Bureau is responsible for dealing with the problem of vagrants and prostitutes. Some people were sent to surrounding provinces to cultivate wasteland, and the people's government also allocated 180,000 yuan to prostitutes to treat sexually transmitted diseases. Wang Boyin and the others no longer take chartered cars to go in and out, but they have other satisfactions. They are state cadres, get a fixed salary, and can often perform for Chen Yun and other leading comrades.There is still a picture written by Chen Yun on the wall of his house, praising his calligraphy skills. Tang Weihong found that she gradually could not find a place to dance. It was not until the stage when Soviet experts came to China in large numbers that she found a ballroom in the Soviet Experts Club. She was very familiar with the manager of the club. For evening dresses, I gradually packed up those gold and silver cheongsams after liberation, but I didn’t expect to find them again at this time. The club is very strict, and female guests are not allowed to wear trousers.” She still remembers that after dancing, she and the Soviet experts went to "Kai Ling" on Nanjing Road for supper. At that time, the number of places to eat Western food was also decreasing. Followed." However, this incident had a great impact on her, "At least the clothes she wears are more formal, even if it is a cheongsam, it is no longer heavily embroidered, but only a thin edge." On the other hand, mahjong, as a bourgeois form of entertainment, is not advocated by the new society, especially gambling.Tang Weihong invited a few friends to play stud at home, and she gave money to each friend, and everyone played, but was stopped by her family, "because the new society does not advocate such immoral behavior."