2 | Tuesday, September 1, 2020 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY PAGE TWO Left: The battle at Sihang Warehouse during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45). HAN FU / FOR CHINA DAILY Right: A poster for The Eight Hundred. HUANG JINKUN / FOR CHINA DAILY Site: Damage from fighting revealed From page 1 geted by critics, as fighting at the site is shown against a backdrop of the neon lights and Zhang and his girlfriend visited the site high-rises of downtown Shanghai. However, during the Qixi Festival, or Chinese Valen- when you look out from the warehouse in real tine’s Day. life, the south bank of the creek is lined by “I have always been aware of the Sihang buildings no more than two stories high. site. I know it marks an important time in Tang Weijie, a scholar of Shanghai’s film- Shanghai’s history, but without seeing it in making history and professor in the humani- person, it was impossible to imagine the bru- ties faculty at Tongji University, said, “Such tality of the war. The movie made a deep exaggeration of historical events, along with impression on me,” Zhang said. intentional plot twists, set a bad example for The Eight Hundred, which premiered in filmmakers in the future.” cinemas across China on Aug 21, is by far the In 2015, restoration work at the Sihang country’s biggest box-office success of the year. Warehouse was completed, with part of the Directed by Guan Hu and produced by building housing the memorial hall featuring Huayi Brothers Media Corp in association the 1937 battle. with nearly 20 other companies, the movie The warehouse building consists of two earned 1.5 billion yuan ($218 million) in the parts. The eastern section was built in 1930 as first week of its release, a large proportion a warehouse for the Continental Bank, while of the nationwide box office total of 5 billion the western part was constructed five years yuan this year to date. later to house the Sihang Joint Savings Bank. The film is based on events that took In the 1920s, Shanghai was an open port, a place at the Sihang Warehouse during the center of international trade and home to war against the Japanese. China’s major banks. Four leading lenders from northern areas of the country — Gold Soldier’s death leap City Bank, Salt Bank, South Central Bank and One scene in particular, based on a real the Continental Bank — formed the Sihang incident, that struck Zhang and many other Joint Savings Bank. moviegoers features soldier Chen Shusheng, In the 1930s, this bank was so successful with hand grenades tied to his body, jumping that it bought a plot of land in downtown to his death from a wall, killing Japanese Shanghai on which the Park Hotel was built. troops hiding underneath. The hotel later became known as the “No 1 A note left by Chen to his mother stated high-rise of the Far East”. that he wanted to sacrifice his life for a just When the War of Resistance Against Japa- cause. nese Aggression started, the savings bank Chen was one of some 400 soldiers and was the largest of its kind in China, approving their officers from the First Battalion of the many loans and receiving numerous goods in 524th regiment of the 88th division of the return as collateral. The goods were stored in Chinese Army defending the Sihang Ware- the warehouse built alongside Suzhou Creek. house under the leadership of Xie Jinyuan. The battle took place in 1937, when the Army headquarters main force of the army, after losing to the Jap- When the war reached Zhabei, the Sihang anese in Zhabei, Warehouse was used as the headquarters for Shanghai, with- the Chinese Army. drew to the rural The 1937 battle caused some damage to the western fringes of warehouse, but the structure largely escaped the city. Xie and the relatively unharmed. After the war, repairs battalion were left were carried out and it continued to be used behind, guarding as a warehouse. the divisional In the 1980s, the site was used for a time to headquarters at sell furniture and then stationery. the Sihang Ware- In 2014, restoration work at the site, which house to buy time was recognized as a cultural relic under and show the inter- municipal protection and is now under State Xie Jinyuan national communi- protection, was carried out by Arcplus Insti- PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY ty that China was tute of Shanghai Architectural Design and determined to Research Co. resist the Japanese. Chief architect Tang Yu’en and her deputy Xie and his troops fought valiantly from Zou Xun recently released a journal about the Oct 26 to Nov 1, and the successful defense of restoration project, in which they disclose the warehouse was witnessed by locals and some of the heated discussions concerning expatriates in the international settlement on work on the much-damaged western wall. the other side of Suzhou Creek. They write, “If we had been unable to find The soldiers and their officers later became the exact locations of the damage caused by known as The Eight Hundred Warriors, as the bombs and bullets, we would have pre- Xie in an attempt to hide their true strength ferred to restore it (the wall) to the way it from the enemy, provided an exaggerated fig- looked in 1935, when the Sihang Warehouse ure to Yang Huimin, a visiting girl scout, who had just been completed.” announced it publicly. After investigating, the architects cautious- Handwritten testimony is on view at the ly removed part of the paintwork from the memorial hall, signed by local resident Shen western wall on the fifth floor, showing the Ji on July 1, 2015, when Shen was 92. It states: structure had originally been built with red “I was a 14-year-old middle school student in bricks, but that blue ones were used to repair 1937. My family lived on Xinzha Road. The it after the battle. Sihang Warehouse was just across Suzhou This evidence helped Tang and colleagues Creek, and I climbed to the top of our build- locate the damage caused in the battle, ing and watched through my binoculars. including eight large holes in the western “I saw a soldier with hand grenades tied to wall from bombs and 430 from bullets. his body jumping in the air and killing Japa- Conducting a guided tour along Suzhou nese soldiers. Creek, Zhu Yichen, a postgraduate scholar at “I also saw soldiers on the warehouse roof Tongji University, told visitors of the structur- sacrificing their lives guarding the national al changes made to the warehouse during the flag. Such scenes have remained in my mind restoration work. ever since.” Architects removed the entire seventh While much of the movie is based on true floor and much of the sixth, both of which events, the filmmakers have combined fact had been added to the main structure. “Now, and fiction to create a big-screen blockbuster. when we look up at the warehouse, we see the However, while The Eight Hundred fea- five-story structure just as it looked in the tures spectacular scenes of soldiers gathering 1930s,” Zhu said. in a spacious lobby at the warehouse, in real Today, Suzhou Creek is seldom used by life the building’s foyer is relatively confined, shipping. People take leisurely strolls along so it is unlikely that fierce fighting took place its banks, and Sihang Warehouse has become there. Neither does the building have an a landmark. underground water link to Suzhou Creek, or Lou Chenghao, an architectural protection an elaborately decorated office, as featured in Top: Visitors photograph the Sihang Warehouse Memorial Hall. The holes in the western wall from bombs and bullets advocate, said, “When we look up, we can the movie. serve as a reminder of the battle that took place at the site. ZHANG HENGWEI / CHINA NEWS SERVICE Center: Wartime photographs are only marvel at this enormous structure by the Footage of Suzhou Creek has also been tar- viewed at the hall. Above: A view of the warehouse from across Suzhou Creek. PHOTOS BY GAO ERQIANG / CHINA DAILY side of the creek.”.