Two years ago, when artists started setting up workshops and galleries in the deserted warehouses along Suzhou Creek in Shanghai, the local media were excited and claimed the area would grow into a Shanghai Soho.

It was also viewed as a live presentation of the great changes that have taken place on the creek.

The government made great efforts and channeled considerable funds into cleaning up the river. After celebrating the discovery of the first living fish in the river, there was a great cultural flowering on the river bank. It was seen as proof that Shanghai was one step closer to becoming a real metropolis like New York.

Low Rent

But then, only two years later, the Urban Planning Administration Bureau brought out a development plan for the creek. Most of the old buildings along the river were to be razed to make place for a 26-metre-wide green belt.

So the Shanghai Soho was to disappear before it became fully established.

The artists tried everything to stop this from happening, from lobbying the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference to moving a motion against the destruction of the warehouses, from writing to the mayor to negotiating the purchase of the buildings.

In the end, they had to set out to find a new home for their art.

A dark-red brick building at No. 1131 Xisuzhou Lu, formerly the warehouse of Shanghai Foodstuffs Company, used to host two modern art galleries - Shanghai ART and Eastlink - and five workshops of artists.

"Modern art takes various forms and often requires spaces for presentation, so the warehouse is a better than ordinary galleries in downtown areas," said Li Liang, director of Eastlink Gallery.

For the past two years, when Eastlink occupied half of the second floor of the house, over 150 artists from home and abroad exhibited their works here. Among them were multimedia installations, performances, video, photography, and paintings of all genres.

"With the low rent of the warehouse, we can hold avant-garde exhibitions and events without much worry about the cost and commercial considerations," Li said.

Cultural Value

And the 80-year history of the warehouse added to the cultural environment of the venue.

Erected in 1921, the building had been used as a hotel, and then was owned by the Southeast Rice Factory which became the Second Rice Factory of Shanghai after 1949, before it passed to the Foodstuffs Company.

The cast-iron gate shelf, the worn-off stone steps that go up to the Shanghai ART Gallery and the huge beams that are lined on the roof all tell about the history and glory of the building.

Architect and interior designer Teng Kun-yen from Taiwan is the first to make his workshop out of deserted warehouses beside Suzhou Creek. Teng rode his bicycle along the creek in 1997, looking into old warehouses, when he spotted the eroded number 1933 on the wall of No. 1305 Nansuzhou Lu.

Fortunately, the house that Teng put so much money and effort into redesigning and restoring won't be razed, as it was added to the list of cultural relic buildings.

More artists, designers, and advertising people followed the steps of Teng, and set up over 100 workshops in about 30 old warehouses by Suzhou Creek.

Words came about the removal of one of the warehouses three months ago.

"We knew on moving into the building that the government might raze it to the ground, but we thought maybe that with our work, we could create a cultural and artistic atmosphere and let the authorities change their minds," Li said.

The artists did a good job. Multi-national exhibitions were held, their stories covered by both domestic and overseas media. Hundreds of people came on weekends to view the exhibitions.

Power Cut

Ding Yi, one of the five artists at No. 1131, found that keeping the building did not contradict the development plans of the government.

The development plan was amended in early 2001, when they found the original plan put the shallow river between high-rise buildings, and was lacking in consideration for the environment, the scenery, and culture.

According to the amended plan, a park will be built close to the position of No. 1131.

"There can be boats and a dock in the park," Ding said, "and the artists' warehouse can be a stop for tourists."

But the land was sold to a real estate developer before the artists could express their opinion. The real estate developer will build a high-rise apartment building behind the greenbelt. With the rapid rise of estate prices along Suzhou Creek, the developer has high expectations for the profit of this area, as it was purchased at a very reasonable price - 7 million yuan (US$843,000).

"The developer wouldn't want to sell it to us at this price," Ding said.

The artists sought all means to communicate with the government. Chen Danqing, an internationally acclaimed oil painter who had lived in New York for 18 years, wrote a letter to the Urban Planning Bureau citing the example of Soho in New York, and showed how the New York Municipality's decision of keeping the original look of Soho had helped the area to develop into a cultural and art center, and how artistic areas develop and move.

The artists, as well as members of the public and the media, waited anxiously for the government to give a final verdict on the building. But it hasn't come.

They cannot wait any longer, because the new landlord, the real estate developer, decided to drive them out of it, cutting off the power and water supply.

"I would understand any verdict the government gives," Li said, "but it annoys me most that nobody said anything to us." The power-off was the only sign.

They found a new venue in an industrial quarter nearby. A factory moved to the far suburbs because of the pollution it caused, and the workshops and warehouses became available.

Helbling moved the warehouse of Shanghai ART in, Li Liang is to move in together with some other artists.

"There will be more of us in the new place. Our group is growing," he said jokingly.

Li hasn't signed the final contract with the factory. Artistic works for the last exhibition in Eastlink are still hung on the walls of No. 1131. But when they move to the new venue, there could be noise from other factories in the industrial quarter to accompany future exhibitions and work of the artists.

(Shanghai Star August 25, 2002)