SHIKUMEN (stone gate housing) is the most typical type of traditional building in Shanghai. Walking around the city today one still has the chance to see this kind of architecture here and there although the construction boom has erased many traces of this old form of housing.

But how many young people nowadays know about the tingzijian (kiosk), which used to be the worst feature of Shikumen in the old days?

In an old-fashioned Shikumen, tingzijian was a room located above the kitchen and under the balcony. It was usually 2-metre high and had an area of 6 or 7 square metres.

In the past, tingzijian were used as storerooms or as servants' bedrooms. But the shabby kiosks were also once the only residences for some of the city's best-known writers.

At first, "tingzijian Writers" were referred to as "scribblers" who made their living by composing ridiculous stories for the tabloid newspapers. They did not have much money and could only afford to live in tingzijian. But as time went past, more and more writers chose tingzijian as their workshops, including such figures as Lu Xun, Ba Jin and Mao Dun.

Why did they choose tingzijian as their workshops? The financial problem was part of the reason because they could afford the low rent for tingzijian. Writers would rather live and work in tingzijian than in more expensive rooms.

In addition, tingzijian offered a refuge since they were the quietest room in the whole building. Writers could avoid being interrupted in these narrow rooms and could get on with their work.

Zhou Libo, a writer who rented a tingzijian in the 1930s even named one of his collections of writings, "The Collection of tingzijian".

Most of these writers later did move into better residences but tingzijian did contribute many unique stories to the history of Chinese literature. Some young writers hoped one day to find success after years of struggle in tingzijian, but some failed. Some died of pneumonia because of the awful living conditions in tingzijian and death from pneumonia became a frequent literary image in books of the time.

After 1949, almost all the writers moved out of tingzijian. Though their new living conditions were not a great improvement on their previous accommodation, the significance of life in tingzijian gradually lost its meaning for Shanghai writers. Now the image of tingzijian and the stories of the era can only be found in old compilations of stories from the past.