Heritage houses facing potential razing

SHANGHAI - More than 100 old houses that were homes to celebrities, famous scholars, politicians and authors are excluded from protected-building status and in danger of destruction, according to a recent report by the local political advisory body.

These historical buildings are not listed among any kind of protection program, and some have already been dismantled. Some residences are designated as "protected", but no efforts to save them have been made, according to the report from the history committee under the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Shanghai Committee.

A translator of Balzac and other French classics, Fu Lei (1908-1966), lived in a village of suburban Shanghai's Wanglou Village in the Pudong New Area. The old residence of 31 rooms has now only 17 left, and 16 of those are now inhabited by local villagers, said Zhu Minyan, deputy director of the history committee.