Sheng Enyi’s Residence

Sheng Enyi’s Residence

After Shanghai opened as a treaty port, the foreign concessions underwent over half a century of development and had taken shape by the early 20th century, evolving into a modern urban center. At No. 540 Wanhangdu Road near Jing’an Temple, there emerged an early garden-style villa with a veranda, built by early European expatriates in China. Its owner was Sheng Enyi, the son of Sheng Xuanhuai, the Minister of Posts and Communications in the late 19th-century Qing government.

Colonial veranda-style garden villas, referred to simply as veranda-style or colonial-style, originated from “Western colonies in India and Southeast Asia… They were originally an architectural form created to adapt to tropical climates.”

Shanghai’s colonial veranda-style buildings were mainly influenced by British Georgian and Victorian architectural styles. Characterized by orderly columns forming the outer veranda along the façade, they evolved into some surviving structures today. This residence exemplifies the high Victorian phase of the Neo-Renaissance style, with its exterior façade featuring continuous semi-circular arches as the main compositional elements. The design emphasizes proportion and simplicity, achieving a clean yet orderly façade with walls finished in stucco and minimal decoration. The floor plan is a simple box shape, topped by a gently sloping roof covered with small blue tiles. The second floor has flat or arched window frames, and both the cornices and the arches display formal Western architectural features.

The garden is located in the southeastern corner of the building. A new arched wooden bridge spans the creek on both sides, with large rounded stones piled nearby. In the distance, dense, tall trees provide ample shade, creating a tranquil resting space.

Sheng Enyi (1892–1958), from Wujin, Jiangsu Province, courtesy name Zecheng. After studying at the University of London and Columbia University in the United States, he returned to China and inherited his father Sheng Xuanhuai’s business empire. He served successively as Director of the Tianjin–Pukou Railway Bureau, General Manager of the Han-Ye-Ping Company, General Manager and Chairman of the Fengsheng Industrial Company, Manager of the Sanxin Textile Mill, and Manager of the Imperial Bank of China. During the Anti-Japanese War, he established the Hongji Shan Tang in Shanghai, facilitating the distribution of opium for the Japanese, and served as an executive director of the Japanese-operated Central China Water and Electricity Company.

Biography

Sheng Enyi was the most favored son of Sheng Xuanhuai. Back then, it was the Empress Dowager Cixi who gave... More details about Sheng Enyi++