"Shikumen" means something like stone camp gate. Ultimately, this means a traditional row house in an alley or a small street, a so-called longtang. The entrance of these mostly two-story houses is highlighted with a stone archway. Nowadays there are only a few of these Shikumen, which used to make up 60% of Shanghai's development. Most Shanghai residents now live in tall apartment buildings. In the Xintiandi district, which has been completely renovated and is popular with tourists, which consists exclusively of longtans and shikumens, there is one such house, which is furnished in the style of the 1920s and 30s of the 20th century. One finds the museum bad, but that is not because it is so hidden, but because the address "Lane 181, Taciang Lu" is very rough for a European feeling. When you search, you come to 181 Taciang Lu, but the house with this number is a coffee shop. 181 refers to the lane that branches off from Taciang Lu as a cul-de-sac. In this street you have to look for the house or ask yourself. Incidentally, Lane 181 is not just a small street, but a whole quarter of small streets. Searching and asking questions is common, because apparently a lane, i.e. a longtang, also called lilong, is a small form of community in China in which everyone knows where who lives. It doesn't have much to do with individualism.
To this day, this is a typical form of living in China, in which multi-storey houses with apartments are lined up in narrow streets. There is even a porter at the beginning of each cul-de-sac who is responsible for the respective neighborhood and operates a barrier and lets residents in and out like delivery services. You can of course just go in there, you won't be asked where you are going, but these porters are always there. In China you don't get lost, in China the gatekeeper knows whether you are at home or not. This is of course a tremendous amount of social control, but on the other hand there is also security. The Chinese society seems to me like an ether in which one is integrated as an individual, in which every vibration is immediately perceived by the community. For me it was irritating at first. But it wasn't much different in Europe in the past. In the Zurich Oberland, a friend of mine still doesn't have a house number, the postman, knows where everyone lives on the farms in this area. In Germany it was certainly similar in village structures up to the Second World War. It doesn't make things easy and at the beginning of my time in Shanghai I often wondered if it was me or the language difficulties that made me so disoriented, but ultimately it is these cultural customs that make things difficult for Europeans . You can get to the museum by metro 10 or 13, Xintiandi station, exit 6, then walk north on Madang Road until you turn right into the Xintiandi district to the "Site of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party". The museum is on this street on the left.
