Lao She’s Former Residence in Jinan

Lao She’s Former Residence in Jinan

Lao She’s Former Residence in Jinan is a protected cultural heritage site of Shandong Province.

Lao She’s Former Residence in Jinan refers to the homes where the renowned writer Lao She lived in Jinan, Shandong Province during the 1930s. There were four such residences in total, but two no longer exist.

During the 1930s, Lao She was invited twice by Cheeloo University to teach in Jinan. His first stay lasted from July 1930 to June 1934, during which he served as a professor in the College of Arts and the head of literature at the National Studies Institute. He taught courses such as “Introduction to Literature” and “Literary Criticism,” and contributed to the “Cheeloo Monthly.” After August 1934, he moved to teach at the National Shandong University in Qingdao. From August 13 to November 15, 1937, he returned to Jinan and once again taught at Cheeloo University, residing there for over three months.

The earliest of Lao She’s residences in Jinan was located in the office building of Cheeloo University known as McKay Hall (which was destroyed in a fire in 1997). It was the first room on the southwest side of the second floor. It was here that Lao She wrote his novel “The Great Lake,” set against the backdrop of the Jinan Incident. The manuscript was later sent to the “Fiction Monthly” in Shanghai but was burned during the Battle of Shanghai in 1933. In the summer of 1931, Lao She returned to Beiping and married Hu Jieqing. After their marriage, the couple returned to Jinan and rented a house at No. 54 Nanxin Street (now No. 58 Nanxin Street) for three years. During this time, Hu Jieqing gave birth to their eldest daughter, Shu Ji.

Nanxin Street is a winding north-south alley located north of Cheeloo University. The original residence was a thatched cottage built with bricks and adobe. The main gate was on the east side, and the main rooms were situated to the west, north, and east inside the second gate. Lao She lived in the north room, which had three bright rooms, plus a small dark storage room connected behind the west gable wall. A partition divided the space: the eastern one-and-a-half rooms served as the bedroom, while the western one-and-a-half rooms were used for receiving guests and writing, with the desk placed beneath the south window. Here, Lao She wrote the novels “Cat Country,” “Divorce,” and “The Biography of Niutianshi,” as well as most of the short stories included in “Gathering,” along with essays such as “Winter in Jinan” and “Spring in Jinan,” and humorous poems and essays. The courtyard was filled with various flowers and plants, and there was a well. In his spare time, Lao She would draw water himself to water the plants, fertilize them, and catch insects.

In 1950, the residence was renovated and rebuilt on the original foundation. The second gate and screen wall were removed, and the adobe walls and thatched roof were replaced with red brick walls and a tiled roof. However, the original layout remained largely unchanged. The courtyard well and the partition in the north room from that era are still preserved. Currently, an elderly resident surnamed Xu and his family live there. This residence is the best-preserved of the four former homes and was listed as part of the third batch of provincial-level cultural heritage sites in Shandong Province in 2006.

When Lao She returned to Jinan in 1937, he initially stayed temporarily in a bungalow in the “Old East Village” within the Cheeloo University campus (this building no longer exists). Later, he moved to a villa originally for foreign professors at No. 2 Changbai Road (now No. 11 Changbai Road). The small building was divided by two parallel staircases and two doors in the middle. Lao She lived on the eastern side, with the two rooms downstairs serving as the living room and study, and the three rooms upstairs as bedrooms. However, due to the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan and the approaching Japanese forces, he stayed here for only a little over two months. The building has since been renovated and now houses multiple households.

Address: New Daming Lake Scenic Area, Lixia District, Jinan City, Shandong Province

Admission: Free

Transportation

Take bus routes 11, 41, K109, K11, K95, or K98, get off at Shiliyiyuan Station, and walk about 200 meters to reach the site

Further Reading:

· Third Batch of Provincial Cultural Heritage Sites in Shandong Province