THE Huangpu River, running south to north, divides Shanghai in two: Puxi (to the west) and Pudong (to the east). Over the city's history, Puxi was always the centre of Shanghai, especially after Shanghai became a treaty port, helping Puxi develop into the busiest section of this modern city.

As a result, people living in Pudong had to cross the river regularly to make a living in various trades and professions that took place in Puxi. Some of these people settled down, but others continued to cross back and forth between two places, working in Puxi by day and living in Pudong by night.

Since Shanghai was a city inhabited by people from all regions of China, those originating from the same place would often establish a tongxianghui (an association of townspeople). The people from Pudong were no exception in this regard.

Initiated by Li Pingshu, a well-known local gentleman of wealth, an Association of Pudong citizens was set up in 1905, along with a newspaper. However, Li suffered from a serious illness in his later years, so a professional educator, Huang Yanpei, was elected to replace him as the chairman of the Pudong Association in 1924. By that time, the association had increased to cover seven towns, expanding from the initial five.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Shanghai entered a highly prosperous period of its development which brought about dramatic social changes and a rapid growth in population. Under such circumstances, the number of people from Pudong also grew steadily. Some even achieved great things in their particular trades and won influential positions in society. But the now long-established Pudong Association was unable to keep up with these developments.

In August, 1931, Huang and other influential members started to make preparations for the setting up of a new association. When they began recruiting members, more than 19,000 people applied to join them, and from this huge vote of support they drew great strength.

The new association announced its establishment publicly, enumerating the geographical advantages of Pudong and its abundance of products. The announcement also pointed out the serious obstacles hindering the future development of Pudong. The document called on all the people of Pudong to become united and organized to increase their chances of efficiently achieving their goals.

In addition, the new association had to play a role in 11 different fields, from developing production to promoting culture, and from mediating disputes to preparing charitable activities.

About 2,000 people attended the inaugural ceremony of the new association. The whole conference hall was a sea of people. Even in the passages, people were closely packed. No space was left for those who came late. The conference hall was so crowded that all participants felt that the most urgent proposal of the meeting was to build a capacious conference hall that could hold at least 1,000 people, served by convenient transportation links.

Altogether five architects presented their designs for the new conference hall. After careful consideration, the design by Xi Fuquan, a graduate from Berlin University, was adopted. In 1936, an 8-storey building called the Pudong Building came into existence, and from then on, people from Pudong had their own place to gather together.

Every day, numerous people from Pudong passed through this building. Anyone who did so could tell it was a building for people from Pudong without even looking at the building's name. The strong local accent of the people inside sufficed to make its constituency very clear.

(The author is from the Shanghai Academy of Social Science)