Former Site of the Shanghai General Labour Union (formerly Huzhou Guild Hall)

Former Site of the Shanghai General Labour Union (formerly Huzhou Guild Hall)

The former site of the Shanghai General Labour Union (formerly Huzhou Guild Hall) is a protected cultural heritage site in Shanghai and a classic destination for red tourism.

Former Site of the Shanghai General Labour Union (formerly Huzhou Guild Hall)

Located at the corner of Huwwen Road and Zhongxing Road, within the original Huzhou Guild Hall on Huiguan Road in Zhabei. The Huzhou Guild Hall was built around the 34th year of the Guangxu reign in the Qing Dynasty (1908), covering an area of over 20 acres. It originally served as a gathering place for Huzhou natives residing in Shanghai to hold meetings, recuperate, and store coffins. The monumental, east-facing gate was located at what is now between Huwwen Road No. 153 and No. 159. The guild hall complex included many buildings, arranged from east to west after entering the gate: the Convalescent Villa, the Main Hall, and the Flower Hall. All were five-bay, brick-and-wood structures facing south. The Convalescent Villa was a two-story Shikumen building with side rooms, while the others were typical Jiangnan-style folk hall structures. In front of the Main Hall was a screen wall and an entrance hall, and behind it was the Guan Yu Hall, all interconnected by courtyards. The Flower Hall featured a garden in front, which included a four-sided hall that once served as the Zhabei branch of the Huzhou Native-Place School in Shanghai. Corridors connected all the various halls. The garden was enclosed by high walls, and further west outside the walls were structures such as the Earth God Shrine, Yang Family Hall, and Bing She.

In March 1927, before the third armed uprising of Shanghai workers, the guild hall had been occupied by the Fengtian-Cao warlord forces. On March 23, after the armed worker militias captured the guild hall, the Shanghai General Labour Union took it as its headquarters and officially began public operations on March 24. A large red banner with white characters reading “Shanghai General Labour Union” hung above the guild hall’s main gate. The Convalescent Villa became the barracks for the Special Task Battalion of the Union Militia. On either side of the entrance hall were the communications office and the reception/distribution office. The upstairs of the Flower Hall housed the offices of the Chairman and various departments, while the four-sided hall served as the Social Affairs Department. The downstairs areas of the Main Hall and Flower Hall were used as meeting rooms. After the victory of the uprising, on March 25, the Shanghai General Labour Union held a press conference in the downstairs of the Flower Hall, where Zhao Shiyan reported on the course of the uprising. The Shanghai District Committee of the Communist Party of China also temporarily operated from the guild hall and held a citywide activists' meeting in the Main Hall, chaired and addressed by Chen Duxiu and Luo Yinong. The Shanghai General Labour Union also issued several important declarations including the “Proclamation to ––” and the “Proclamation to the Workers of the World.” On March 27, the Shanghai General Labour Union held a citywide workers’ congress in the Main Hall, followed by a solemn flag-raising ceremony. On March 28, the union formed a new Standing Committee, with Wang Shouhua as Chairman, Yang Peisheng as Vice-Chairman, Zhang Kundi as Head of Organization, Li Bozhi as Head of Propaganda, Long Dadao as Head of Economic Struggle, Zhao Zijing as Head of Social Affairs, and Gu Shunzhang as Head of the Militia. Preliminary and inaugural meetings of various industrial unions were also frequently held in the guild hall’s Main Hall. By the end of March, the Shanghai General Labour Union led 502 trade unions with a total membership of 820,000. The Huzhou Guild Hall, serving as the union’s headquarters, became the revolutionary command center of Shanghai’s working class at the time.

In the early hours of April 12, Chiang Kai-shek launched a –– coup, instructing thugs to attack the Shanghai General Labour Union headquarters at the Huzhou Guild Hall. He then used the excuse of “internal strife among workers” to deceive the militia into surrendering their weapons and occupied the guild hall. That morning, tens of thousands of workers gathered at the Qingyun Road Square and marched unarmed to reclaim the headquarters. That night, over ten thousand workers camped out inside the guild hall to protect the union. The next day, the Baoshan Road Massacre occurred, and the guild hall was once again taken over by Chiang Kai-shek’s troops along with strikebreakers and thugs.

Most of the Huzhou Guild Hall buildings were destroyed by Japanese artillery fire during the January 28 Incident of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1932, leaving only part of the western Bing She structure. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, a dormitory building for railway workers was constructed on the site of the former guild hall, erasing all traces of the original architecture and surroundings. On May 26, 1959, it was designated as a Shanghai Municipal Cultural Heritage Site. On December 7, 1977, it was re-designated as a Shanghai Municipal Memorial Site.