Visitors to Guo Chunxiang's private museum in Hongkou District may feel as though they have traveled back in time. 

The thousands of items are difficult to categorize. Yet they do have one thing in common - most date from the first few decades of the 20th century. 

Old shanghai, Guo said, refers to the period from the 1900s to 1950s. He said he is working on upgrading his 88-square-meter museum and will expand it to the second floor. He will also rename it '1933 - The Great Shanghai.' 

'I underline that year because in the 1930s Shanghai daringly displayed its culture and ways of living imprinted with a prominent spirit,' said the 51-year-old, who added he was obsessed with digging up even more of its history. 

'What I do is try to save things from the past and carry them on to younger generations,' he said. 'I would feel guilty if these things were to disappear during my days.' 

Guo began collecting old things in the 1970s, when most families tossed out the items.
'Every night, I ransacked nearby garbage bins, which was the start of it all,' he said. 

His first collection contains more than 1,000 old local newspapers. The oldest was published during the reign of Emperor Guangxu during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). 

He meticulously continued to add old things to the collection like household furniture, telephones, radios, lamps, coffee makers and wooden iceboxes. He also saved calendars and candle holders, hundreds of old photos and other miscellaneous items. 

'They are telling stories silently,' Guo said. 'People come and say they vividly see the daily life of a 1930s upper-class family.' 

A red Coca-Cola icebox, which he bought for 15,000 Yuan (US$1,807) two years ago, remained his most cherished treasure. American soldiers brought it to the city before 1949, and the box was stored secretly in an attic on the Bund for more than 40 years, he said.
Another favorite is a 1-meter-long black-and-white photo, which recorded about 400 couples' wedding ceremony in 1935. 

Couples wore clothes no different from current styles and the city mayor, who was the master of ceremony, stood in the middle of the couples. 

'Such grand ceremonies were held four times a year despite government calls for less extravagant weddings,' Guo said. 'I believe today's public weddings, such as the famous Rose Wedding, borrowed this idea from long ago.' 

2005/03/11
Source: Shanghai Daily News