by Lisa Movius, Shanghai Editor

In the "White Terror" of April 1927, Kuomintang forces under Chiang Kai-shek systematically moved to exterminate its communist rivals in Shanghai. During these brutal weeks-the setting of Andre Malraux's novel Man's Fate-- thousands of communists and sympathizers were hounded out and killed. In the years to follow, the Nanjing government continued to pursue Shanghai's leftist intellectuals, labor organizers, and student activists. Many were killed on the streets, but most, for the sake of appearances of public order, were taken to the execution grounds in the suburb of Longhua.

The Longhua neighborhood, once a town in its own right but long since swallowed up in the urban sprawl of Shanghai, is best known for the Longhua Pagoda and the bold yellow Longhua Temple. In 1990, the Longhua Martyrs Memorial, tracing Shanghai's revolutionary history, was constructed in the Longhua Park adjacent to the Temple. The museum, the park, and the temple, along with the unique atmosphere of the general environs, combine to make Longhua one of the more pleasant destinations in Shanghai.

Longhua Park offers a strange mix of Japanese minimalism and Stalinesque industro-utopian excess. A gracefully long, tree-lined walkway leads up to the pyramidal Memorial Hall. At the walkway's end, flanking the museum's entrance, are two carved marble statues featuring a montage of proud, heroic, and strangely European-looking Chinese peasants and revolutionaries. Anyone who has been to Beijing's Tiananmen Square, Tianjin's Earthquake Memorial, or People's Park on the Bund knows the style: Good ol' Socialist Realism. The park abounds with such statues, some with crowds of children clambering upon them. Most striking is an enormous torso of a man, half buried in the earth but with one arm reaching - desperately or triumphantly - towards the sky. Situated behind the Memorial and in front of a hill of honorary graves, he provides the backdrop for an ever-burning memorial fire. The park also houses a pond and unusually healthy-looking expanses of picnic-perfect lawn, interspersed by clusters of trees. The park also contains some of Shanghai's more unusual shrubbery. In order to conceal a row of old buildings in back of the temple deemed for some reason unsightly, a huge white wall was erected and painted with neon green trees.

The Martyrs Memorial itself is a surprisingly professional and comprehensive museum, thankfully free of the macabre wax figures and tacky kitsch common to many Chinese museums. The design is reminiscent of the World War II Memorial at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing, but the exhibitions are more clear, more concise, and, amazingly, less ideological. The museum's displays cover the whole of modern Chinese history, from first Opium War to the present time, and include artifacts from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Small Swords Society (which took over Shanghai in support of the Taiping forces), the Republican Period, the Civil War, the Korean War, border skirmishes with Vietnam, and even children's textbooks from the 1980s. The Cultural Revolution era is conspicuously absent.

The overwhelming majority of the museum, however, is dedicated to the leftists who were executed at Longhua in the 1920s and '30s. Wall upon wall, room upon room of face after face after face: Pictures of Shanghai's early radicals, summaries of their stories, a few letters and personal effects. Some English is provided, albeit woefully inadequate; for each chronicled individual, only name, hometown and occupation are provided. Missing are translations of the Chinese inscriptions: "Died, 1928, Longhua." "Died, 1931, Longhua." "Died, 1929, Longhua..."

One prominent display proclaims in English only "woolen vest." One must notice the bullet holes, the brown-red stains, and study the accompanying pictures to realize its was worn by one young woman who was executed en masse with some fifteen other leftists. The museum is not as morbid as it may seem; in fact, it presents a refreshing contrast to the more commonly displayed image of Old Shanghai. Along with the rich foreigners and singsong girls, the city was also home to young intellectuals who braved hardships and a very real threat of death to fight for their ideals. One must wonder what China would be like today if these urban leftists instead of the peasant warriors had prevailed in the struggle to determine the direction of the Communist Party.

While these histories and individuals are very well known in China, a foreigner would have to hold a Ph.D. in Chinese revolutionary history to fully appreciate the museum and not be overwhelmed by the sea of faces. The adjacent temple is more accessible to the casual sightseer. Shanghai's oldest and largest temple is also the coolest, with a vibe of the ancient rarely found in this city. While the guidebooks tend to contradict each other, the most standard version holds that the temple was built during the Three Kingdoms period (3rd Century AD), while the pagoda dates back to the Song Dynasty.

Longhua Temple contains the usual collection of gold-crusted Buddhas and minor deities. Like most Chinese temples, the bodhisattva Guanyin, the combined patron saint and Virgin Mary of Chinese Buddhism, predominates. In a few large rooms, she is surrounded by the heavenly hosts of her attendants, smaller statues in a sea of rolling wave-like clouds. The Longhua Temple is Shanghai's only fully functioning temple and monastery, and robed monks of a range of ages almost outnumber the tourists. Fitting for the location, the temple is where all religious funerals are held. The walls of one huge room are lined with memorial cards for and pictures of the recently deceased, many with bowls of food, flowers, and plastic fruit placed in front as offerings. A crematorium is located somewhere nearby. Rhythmic chanting issues forth from a number of small rooms as seven monks at a table issue services and prayers for the dead as family members sit solemnly in an adjoining room.

Many Shanghainese make pilgrimages to Longhua to honor the dead and offer supplications to Buddha. That many of them are requesting wealth, better jobs, and male children detracts only somewhat from the sense of spirituality. The air hangs thick with incense, and one can peer through a window to observe half a dozen artisans crafting Buddhists statues out of plaster and clay, surrounded by hundreds of their now-drying previous creations. A small cafeteria inside the temple allows one to sample the monks' usual fare of vegetarian noodle fare, delicious if a little oily.

The temple's entry gate is impressively beautiful in its own right, despite being swamped by a crowd of disfigured beggars hoping to take advantage not so much of intimidated tourists as of the visitors' lapses of pious charity. The Pagoda across from the gate is less impressive than its pictures and descriptions would suggest. For all its seven stories, it's rather puny, and leans a little to one side. Its charm lies rather in the ornate details of its octagonal design, particularly the sharp upturn of the eaves, on which hang countless small bells.

The Longhua neighborhood predates modern Shanghai by many centuries, and its aura is distinctly different. Visitors and residents alike are struck with a sober calm inspired by the peace and simplicity of the place. Newer buildings attempt to harmonize with the old. In Beijing, all new constructions are topped, rather awkwardly, with traditional Chinese "hats" on the rooftops. Longhua pursues the same policy, but while Beijing's buildings sport Ming Dynasty "hats" - sloping, four-cornered things, the Longhua "hats" are distinctly Song Dynasty. It somehow adds a comical edge to the otherwise dignified locale.

Longhua Temple is located in southwestern Shanghai at 2853 Longhua Xi Lu. Take the subway to the Shanghai Stadium or Caobao Lu stop and then proceed by bus or taxi.

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