I.M. Pei may not save his clan's home

SHANGHAI, China (Reuters) -- Despite an appeal by world-renowned architect I.M. Pei, bulldozers are circling a Shanghai mansion occupied by members of his clan in China.

"It's a part of Old Shanghai and there is so little of that left," Pei said sadly from his New York home.

Shanghai is being spruced up ahead of a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders this year and the grey and red brick home is slated for demolition to make way for a park.

Pei, famous for his designs of the Bank of China building in Hong Kong, the glass pyramid at the Louvre and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, has signed a letter to Shanghai Mayor Xu Kuangdi appealing for his help in saving the three-story building.

Although he left Shanghai in 1935 and said he has no emotional attachment to a mansion he has never lived in, Pei called the effort to preserve the home a "worthy cause."

"Maybe the best way to save it now is to move it," he said.

Mayor Xu has not responded to the letter and time is running out.

Bei Nianzheng, 44, a distant relative of Pei who has adopted the modern Chinese spelling of the family name, shares the second floor of the once-luxurious mansion with her husband. Her sister's family and ageing nanny live upstairs.

"So far the city hasn't told us officially if they're going to tear it down or not," Bei said.

"But for them, I think they feel the sooner it goes, the better."

Already, neighboring homes have been torn down, one formerly owned by notorious Shanghai gangster Du Yuesheng during the roaring years before the 1949 revolution, another by a prominent dentist, a third by a medical doctor.

The mansion that witnesses history

The home survived the Japanese occupation, civil war between Communists and Nationalists and rampaging Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution.

During the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, Red Guards smashed stained-glass windows from France, tore out carved woodwork, then turned on the brown and white balcony tiles, covering them with cement after trying unsuccessfully to tear them up.

In the 1970s, the gardens made way for the Longmen Middle School, which also took over the ground floor. The school has since been razed.

Three century-old magnolia trees once stood as high as the roof, Bei said. The sole survivor now towers over a bulldozer.

Xinhua News Agency
I.M. Pei
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