Vicissitudes of minister's mansion
(SHI HUA)
07/12/2002
In Shanghai, every large old house left over from the old days seems to have formerly accommodated someone rich, famous, prominent or notorious.One such house, now Changning District Children's Palace, was formerly the residence of Wang Boqun - a Kuomintang Minister of Transportation. While holding the official post of minister, Wang was also president of a local university. The middle-aged man, whose wife had recently died, fell in love with campus belle Bao Zhining. Bao, who was born and brought up in a diplomat's family, was accustom to a life of luxury. She listed three prerequisites to marry Wang: she wanted him to deposit US$100,000 in a foreign bank to guarantee her a carefree life should he die; she wanted a wedding of luxury and grandeur; and she desired a luxurious and spacious villa. Wang promised the first two, but he had difficulty satisfying her last request, for he feared if he erected a prominent building in Shanghai, it would draw too much attention and suspicion. When the boss of a construction firm that had received the contract to build the Ministry of Transportation building in Nanjing heard of Wang's dilemma, he had a villa built in Shanghai and gave it to Wang as a gift. Happy days did not last long. Three years later, the anti-Japanese war broke out. Wang lost his position in the government for taking the house as a bribe. He died during the war. During the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, the villa was used by the pro-Japanese puppet regime to launch the so-called "Peace Movement." For years, it was the residence of Wang Jingwei when he visited Shanghai from Nanjing. After the war, Bao had the villa returned to her via Wang Boqun's relative He Yingqin, another key KMT figure. But she did not live there, instead renting it out to the British Embassy's Shanghai Culture and Information Office. Before 1949, Bao left Shanghai and settled in New York. Constructed on 6,500 square metres, the three-storey Victorian Gothic villa was built in 1930 and completed in 1934. Its construction space is 2,230 square metres. After 1949, the house was used by the army. In 1960 following renovations, the villa was given to Changning District Children's Palace.
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