The Former Residence of Kong Xiangxi

　　    Kong Xiangxi, the 75th-generation descendant of Confucius, had the largest private fortune among the "Four Big Families" of Chiang, Soong, Kong, and Chen during the Republican era. Kong’s wife was Soong Ai-ling. The Kong family amassed enormous wealth through unscrupulous means throughout their lives, owning as many as four mansions in Shanghai alone.

　　    Within the high walls at No. 383 Yongjia Road in Shanghai stands a hybrid-style garden villa, nestled among green trees, owned by none other than Kong Xiangxi, who once controlled half of the economic lifeline of old China.

　　    The Kong residence is a relatively intact hybrid-style garden villa, designed in 1935 by the renowned Chinese architect Fan Wenzhao. Fan graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in the United States in 1922, founded the Fan Wenzhao Architectural Firm in 1927, and served as president of the Shanghai Architects Association in 1928.

　　    The residence has two floors, faces south, and is built with a brick-concrete structure, consisting of a main building and an auxiliary building, making for a rather large architectural volume. It features red-tiled sloping roofs with wooden brackets under the eaves, reflecting characteristics of British countryside architecture. The exterior walls are cement-textured (yellow), with wall corners and chimneys constructed of exposed red bricks. The ground-floor facade porch uses classical Roman-style columns—a design technique not typically mixed with the "countryside-style" half-timbering, but mainly resulting from the ideas of the owner and the Chinese architect, objectively forming a "hybrid-style" architectural aesthetic.

　　    Entering from the north entrance, one encounters a fountain pool; circling around the pool leads to the grand living room. At the time, the living room was elegantly furnished with high-end décor. The inner staircase had marble steps, shaped in an S-form that spiraled upward, with bronze-patterned handrails. Each floor was covered with soft printed carpets, and the walls were adorned with teak wainscoting up to 1.4 meters high. The upstairs living room displayed numerous calligraphy works and paintings. Adjacent to the reception room was a spacious bedroom, and nearby was a small, exquisitely designed study, with a desk holding the traditional Four Treasures of the Study and some delicate antiques. To the north were a small dining room, storage rooms, and other fully equipped facilities.

　　    After the liberation of Shanghai, this residence was used by the Shanghai Film Dubbing Studio. On September 23, 1999, it was listed as a Protected Unit of Outstanding Modern Architecture in Shanghai.

　　    In addition to the Yongjia Road residence, Kong Xiangxi also owned a garden villa at No. 250 Duolun Road in what is now Hongkou District, which features a strong Islamic flair and typical Arabic architectural style. Such buildings usually exhibit domes, spires, horseshoe arches, stone-carved lattice windows, and exterior walls inlaid with glazed tiles. This residence was built in 1924, covering a land area of 1,080 square meters with a construction area of 450 square meters, and is of a mixed brick-and-wood structure.

　　    The residence centers around the curved facade at the northwest corner, extending southeastward, reflecting the balance and symmetry emphasized in Islamic architectural design. The roof features two horseshoe-arched square pavilions, which originally had domes that were removed in the 1960s, making them particularly eye-catching and giving a sense of upward movement. The main entrance and the window frames of the curved exterior walls both use continuous horseshoe arches, paired with ancient oriental columns. The inner edges of the arches are decorated with gear-like patterns, reflecting architectural features from North Africa, Spain, and Islamic structures since the 12th century. The columns and arches are not only used for doors and windows but also serve as decorative elements on the outer walls, adorning the upper sections.

　　    Pushing open the exquisitely forged iron door leads into the hall, where walls are covered with splendid Arabic-style colored tiles—from floor to ceiling, including stair railings—all intricately carved and exceptionally beautiful. The carved patterns are mostly geometric or plant motifs, strictly adhering to the Islamic prohibition against using human figures for decoration. Indoor doors and windows all feature a perfect blend of circular and arched forms, creating a delightful visual effect.

　　    This Kong Xiangxi residence originally had a main building and an auxiliary building, separated by a courtyard. The main building’s third floor housed the owner’s bedrooms and offices, while the auxiliary building’s second floor accommodated staff and servants. In front of the hall was a small open-air foyer, enclosed on three sides with rows of arches. The side walls below the eaves were divided into two parts: the upper section featured alternating real and false windows that protruded and recessed, combining solid and void elements; the lower section consisted of continuous round arch windows paired with slender columns. In front of the foyer were three continuous arches forming the entrance, which originally had finely crafted iron doors inscribed with the year “1924.” In 1958, the iron doors at the main entrance were removed and melted down as scrap iron during the “Great Leap Forward” steel-smelting campaign. To the left of the gate entrance hangs a sign reading “Shanghai Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Unit,” marking it as a Protected Unit of Outstanding Modern Architecture in Shanghai, reflecting the historical value of the building.

　　    Kong Xiangxi also owned two other residences, located at No. 9 Dongping Road and No. 1472 Hongqiao Road in present-day Shanghai. The former is a German-style building, while the latter is a Spanish-style structure.

　　The Former Residence of Kong Xiangxi (1880~1967)　　    Kong Xiangxi (1880–1967), courtesy name Yongzhi, art name Ziyuan, was a native of Taigu, Shanxi.     He was born on September 10, 1882, at the Kong family residence in Chengjiazhuang, west of Taigu County, Shanxi Province, as the 75th-generation descendant of Confucius. Kong Xiangxi lost his mother at age six, and his father did not remarry afterward. In 1901, he went to study at Oberlin College in the United States, and in 1905, he entered the graduate school of Yale University to study mineralogy. After graduating in 1909, he declined official positions offered by the Qing government’s Postal and Communications Ministry, stating his desire to follow the spirit of Oberlin by going to remote and impoverished areas—his hometown of Taigu County—to establish schools. He founded the “Mingxian...” More+

　　Soong Ai-ling (1889~1973)　　    Soong Ai-ling was born in 1889 in Shanghai. Her father was Charlie Soong (original name Soong Jiazu, courtesy name Yaoru, Western name Charles Jones Soong). In May 1904, at the age of 15, she traveled to the United States to attend Wesleyan College in Georgia, becoming the first Chinese woman to study in America. In 1905, she attended a White House banquet hosted by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt along with her uncle, W. W. Burgess. In 1910, Soong Ai-ling completed all her courses at Wesleyan College with outstanding grades and received her diploma. After returning to China, she was recommended by her father to serve as secretary to Sun Yat-sen. Fluent in five languages, she traveled across the country with Sun Yat-sen to survey and helped develop plans to construct a 200,000-li railway network... More+