Lu Xun Park
Interactive map of Lu Xun Park
Location	Shanghai
Public transit access	Hongkou Football Stadium Station

Lu Xun Park, formerlyHongkou (Hongkew) Park, is a municipal park inHongkou District ofShanghai, China. It is located on 146 East Jiangwan Road, right behindHongkou Football Stadium. It is bounded by Guangzhong Road to the north, Ouyang Road to the northeast, Tian'ai Road to the southeast, Tian'ai Branch Road to the south, and East Jiangwan Road to the west. The park is named after the Chinese writerLu Xun, who lived nearby in the last years of his life, and is the location of thetomb of Lu Xun and the Lu Xun Museum. In 1932, Korean nationalistYun Bong-gil detonated a bomb at the park, killing or injuring several high-ranking figures of the Imperial Japanese military during a celebration of EmperorHirohito's birthday.

Lu Xun Park is just north ofDuolun Road, a historic street that is now acar-free zone. It is also located near Lu Xun's former residence, a three-story Japanese-style home where the author lived from 1933 until his death in 1936.^[1]

Lu Xun Park contains the tomb of Lu Xun, with an inscription byMao Zedong.^[2] On either side of the tomb are trees planted byZhou Enlai and Lu Xun's widow, Xu Guangping. Near the tomb is a bronze statue of Lu Xun.^[3] The center of the park consists of a small artificial lake where boat rides are offered. Locals often use the park for exercise, and can be seen practicingtai chi andballroom dancing.^[4] The Te Li Ming Teahouse is located on the west side of the lake. In the southeast corner of the park is the Lu Xun Memorial Hall, which contains a collection of his personal belongings, papers, and publications.^[3]

The park also contains a plum garden, a memorial hall dedicated to Yun Bong-gil, and a bust of the Hungarian revolutionary poetSándor Petőfi, some of whose works Lu Xun translated into Chinese. The bust was unveiled by Hungarian Prime MinisterFerenc Gyurcsány in 2007 as part of the preparations for theShanghai Expo.^[5] Lu Xun Park is home to several hundred cherry trees, some of which areYoshino trees transplanted fromUeno Park inTokyo.^[6]

In 1896, the Bureau of Construction of theShanghai International Settlement purchased 39 acres of land in Hongkou (formerly romanized as Hongkew) just outside its boundary to use as a shooting range for theShanghai Volunteer Corps.^[7] The field was redesigned by Donald MacGregor as the Hongkew Sports Games Park and Shooting Field in 1905, and completed in 1909. The new design was based on that of a park inGlasgow, and included a golf course, tennis courts, swimming pool, and bowling green. The park was expanded in 1917, and renamed again as Hongkew Park in 1922. It was the second largest park in Shanghai, next to Jessfield Park (now calledZhongshan Park).^[8] Both parks, despite lying in Chinese territory outside of the International Settlement, were administered by theShanghai Municipal Council, the organization that governed the Settlement on behalf of the foreign community.^[9]

The Shanghai Municipal Band, the predecessor of theShanghai Symphony Orchestra, performed summer concerts at Hongkou Park and the Public Garden (nowHuangpu Park). These were attended by the foreign residents of the International Settlement, as Chinese residents were not permitted to enter either park.^[10] Hongkou Park, along with the other parks administered by the Shanghai Municipal Council, was opened to Chinese visitors for the first time in 1928.^[11]

The pre-1928 prohibition against Chinese visitors in foreign-administered Shanghai parks was the subject of much debate among Chinese intellectuals. The park regulations stated that the facilities were exclusively for the use of the foreign community, and also that dogs, horses, and bicycles were prohibited. Critics later paraphrased these regulations into various fictitious versions such as "Dogs and Chinese not admitted", juxtaposing the low status of Chinese citizens in their own country with that of dogs.Sun Yat-sen, founder of theRepublic of China, denounced the restrictions in effect at the Garden and at Hongkou Park in a speech in 1924.^[12] Most famously,Bruce Lee's filmFist of Fury depicted Lee's character being barred from entry into the Public Garden, resulting in him kicking and breaking the sign displaying the regulations.^[12]

The second and fifthFar Eastern Championship Games were held at Hongkou Park in 1915^[13] and 1921, respectively.^[14] The 1915 games were a major priority for theBeiyang government underYuan Shikai, as well as for Chinese media covering the event. Yuan had agreed to Japan'sTwenty-One Demands just prior to the games, leaving the Chinese crowds in attendance eager for victory against their Japanese opponents on the field. The 1915 games were among the earliest international sporting competitions to be held in China. They attracted a large number of spectators to the new stadium built near the Hongkou shooting range.^[15]

The 1921 games were notable for being the first to include female athletes, though their participation was limited to performing groupcalisthenics demonstrations with movements mimicking those of modern sports.^[14] The closing ceremony was disrupted by sixHunaneseanarchists who fired a gun outside Hongkou Park and distributed anti-capitalist pamphlets.^[16]

Japanese settlement in Shanghai was predominantly concentrated in the Hongkou area. During theJanuary 28 Incident of 1932, the Japanese military occupied much of Hongkou, and constructed a fortified base for theImperial Japanese Navy near Hongkou Park.^[17] When Japan invaded China in 1937, much of the fighting during the openingBattle of Shanghai centered around the Japanese marine headquarters there, and around nearbyNorth Sichuan Road.^[18] Hongkou remained under Japanese control until the end ofWorld War II.

On April 29, 1932, the Japanese military held a celebration of the birthday of Emperor Hirohito in Hongkou Park. Among the attendees were GeneralYoshinori Shirakawa, commander in chief of theShanghai Expeditionary Army;Kawabata Teiji [ja], government chancellor of Japanese residents in Shanghai;Kenkichi Ueda, commander of the9th Division of theImperial Japanese Army; Vice AdmiralKichisaburō Nomura of the Imperial Japanese Navy; andMamoru Shigemitsu, diplomat.Yun Bong-gil, a Korean independence activist opposed toJapanese rule over Korea, entered the park carrying two bombs hidden in a lunchbox and a water bottle. After the Japanese national anthem had finished playing, Yun threw the water bottle bomb at the dais where the Japanese officials were gathered, and detonated it.^[19]

Shirakawa and Kawabata were killed in the explosion.^[7] Nomura, who later served as ambassador to the United States at the time of the Japaneseattack on Pearl Harbor, was blinded in his right eye.^[20] Mamoru lost a leg; in 1945, as Japan'sMinister for Foreign Affairs, he signed theJapanese Instrument of Surrender that marked the end of World War II, walking on the deck of theUSSMissouri with an artificial leg and cane. Yun Bong-gil was arrested at the scene, taken to Japan, and executed.^[19]

In 2003, a two-story memorial hall dedicated to Yun Bong-gil was opened in the park with the support of the Chinese and South Korean governments. After a renovation, it was reopened in 2015 at a ceremony marking the 83rd anniversary of the bombing.^[21] The incident is also commemorated on a stone tablet featuring a bilingual inscription in Chinese and Korean.

Lu Xunlived in Hongkou near the park in the last years of his life, having moved fromGuangzhou to Shanghai's International Settlement to find refuge after theKuomintang government initiated apurge of leftist intellectuals and communist party members in several Chinese cities under their control in 1927.^[22] He co-founded theLeague of Left-Wing Writers in 1930 at the Chinese Arts University on nearby Duolun Road.^[23]

After his death in 1936, Lu Xun was originally buried in the International Cemetery (Wanguo Cemetery).^[4] By this point, his reputation as a popular intellectual was already well-established. His coffin was draped in a white flag with the words "The Soul of the Nation" written on it. Lu Xun remained a potent political symbol of the left after his death, particularly after the establishment of the People's Republic of China under theCommunist Party in 1949. The party canonized him as a heroic figure, praising his works and quoting him selectively for its own purposes.^[24]

The Lu Xun Memorial Hall (or Museum) was constructed inside Hongkou Park in 1951, and in 1956, Lu Xun's remains were reinterred in the park to mark the 20th anniversary of his death.^[1] The new tomb's inscription ("鲁迅先生之墓", "The Tomb of Mr. Lu Xun") was written in the calligraphy of Mao Zedong. TheBeijing Lu Xun Museum was also established that year, at the site of Lu Xun's former home inBeijing. Lu Xun's tomb is one of the historical and cultural sitesprotected at the national level in Shanghai. The park was renamed Lu Xun Park in 1988.^[2]

The park can be reached by takingShanghai MetroLine 3 or8 toHongkou Football Stadium Station.

• Former Residence of Lu Xun (Shanghai)
• Lu Xun Park (Qingdao)

31°16′22.21″N121°28′42.33″E / 31.2728361°N 121.4784250°E /31.2728361; 121.4784250

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• Urban public parks
• Parks in Shanghai
• Hongkou District
• Lu Xun
• Tombs in China
• Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Shanghai

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