The life in the shikumen is very crowded without division of living room and  bedroom, the kitchen is just a simple stove put out of the gate…but sometimes people's memory is selective unconsciously, the yearn to the past time is just like missing your past ex-lover, what we mostly remembered is the happiness.

　　Shanghai shikumen carries many generation's memory: the pigeons staying on the roof freely，the delicious smell of  fried hairtail filling the whole narrow lane, the swinging nerium indicum Mill stretching from the enclosing wall and sweeping the France window, the colorful wet bedsheet hanging on a bamboo pole…such a beautiful view with so many colorful flowers is like an artist's heavy-color painting. In the shikumen attic, pulling the curtain behind the window slowly, a mature woman's beautiful face came into our sight. Her noble temperament and the house like carrying a mystery. As we all know, so many famous intellectuals and poets lived here at that flourishing and bustling time, although they have passed away, their great works still leave us unforgettable and impressive memory.

　　Time flies silently, the shikumen which was originally designed to one family has been separated to seventy-two families, shikumen like a generous mother provided her places to guests from different cities. Although the life in the shikumen seemed messy, the warm and fragrant atmosphere is full the whole house all the time. Shanghai School culture has shaped since that time gradually. Shikumen is the symbol of shanghai contemporary culture and the secret code of the prosperous shanghai school culture.

　　Shanghai urban history was hidden behind the small shikumen building deeply, if you want to read it, understanding its culture sign is the first thing you should do.

　　After more and more shikumen disappearing from our city map, we became to realize what we lost is not only the architecture shikumen but also many generation's life style and humanity tradition.

　　In fact, the noisy sound in the shikumen has never disappeared just frozen at one point, she is waiting for someone to help he wiping off the heavy dust.

　　Artist Li shoubai used soft brushwork to depict the lively shikumen for us in a bold and even exaggerate way. He absolutely has the reason to paint so boldly because he is so familiar to every detail in the shikumen. His brushwork is like the architecture shikumen--combining the traditional Chinese enclosed wall with the western window pattern which was prevailing during Europe Renaissance, binding the western elements with traditional house structure -- the genuine  shanghai school style. The painter used his own feeling to paint   the shikumen with a kind of fairy story and unrealistic style intentionally: the mold in his paintings maybe doesn't have any ratio at all or the color is very strong, but, that is his dream.  Concerning the culture signs in the shikumen, he painted them very seriously even a piece of salted fish, a greasy pot, or a pair of slippers. The most exciting part in his paintings is several yellow bamboo chairs, a fan on the chair with an opening book and a pair of glasses, the host of this chair seems just leaving for a while, many flowers have falling and many generations have leaving, but the yellow bamboo chair is still there, the wait and hope will last forever…

作者：Chen Naishan