Former Residence of Ruan Lingyu

　　Lane 1124, Xinzha Road, Jing'an District, also known as Qinyuan Village, is said to have been the property of the prominent Sheng family, a well-known and influential clan in Shanghai. The rows of three-story Western-style houses have withstood over seventy years of history and still remain pristine and elegantly serene to this day. In the 1930s, Ruan Lingyu, a movie star just 25 years old, unable to bear the "scorching power of public opinion," took her own life by consuming an overdose of —, shocking the entire city of Shanghai. No. 9 was the former residence where Ruan Lingyu once lived. According to neighbors in Building 9, Tang Jishan, a tea tycoon and super fan, left actress Zhang Zhiyun and bought this Western-style house with ten golden bars as a gift for Ruan Lingyu. This three-story building witnessed both the joyful dreams and the painful downfall of Ruan Lingyu.

　　The former residence of Ruan Lingyu is a Shikumen-style old Western house steeped in many sorrowful and painful memories, located in the second lane on the left at the entrance of the village. The three-story, newly built-style lane house, with its cream-yellow walls accented with reddish-brown hues, sits near an entrance where an elderly shoe repairman does brisk business. The first floor served as the living room of Ruan Lingyu’s residence, the second floor was her bedroom, and the third floor was where her mother lived. Nowadays, all three floors are home to three separate households. The façade of the old house is bathed in a play of light and shadow, with its dark red walls and paint-chipped doors and windows. While the structure of the house has not changed much, it is said that due to visitors and film shoots, No. 9 Qinyuan Village has been subjected to frequent “disturbances” from the outside world.