Shanghai Love Notes: Qi Family Temple

Two years ago on her way to class, New York University Shanghai Professor, Lena Scheen, discovered members of the since demolished Qi Family Temple. 

Scheen has since continued to research their lives as she is writing a book on the impact of Shanghai’s fast urbanization. She regularly interviews people to better understand their stories in facing demolition.She invited me along with her to document the story of the temple people.They are eager to share their story.

The bottom of the soon to be Shanghai Stock Exchange is the original location of the 500 year Qi Family Temple. Twice a month its former congregants have continued to gather, even twelve years after the temple’s demolition.

Pudong natives, and fierce believers in the power of the Qi Temple. They are adamant that the temple is reopened in its original location.

Until the unlikely re-opening, the congregants will continue to gather at the original site to burn. Burn for nostalgia, burn for hope, burn for souls… and as the smoke rises, the buildings around them, too, get higher. 

CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR

Gabby Gabriel is an American artist, writer, educator, humanitarian and entrepreneur living and loving Shanghai. Gabby' is a street photographer who enjoys finding and documenting everyday love on the streets of Shanghai. Her photo series, Shanghai Love Notes, combines photography and poetry to tell the stories of Shanghai and the stories of the heart.  Love isn't always an obvious gesture; it can be displayed in the most mundane tasks. Through her work, Gabby sends messages of hope and inspiration from everyday inside stories of humanity that we may pass by without a second notice. She often interviews her subjects to better understand their individual stories. Underneath the photograph, Gabby creates a poem that ties together the photo and the concept of the everyday "love note.” Follow the project on wechat, but searching “shanghailovenotes” in the official account section. “Why is love reserved for the heart? For whenever I feel love, I feel it oozing out every part of me, over my ears, around my elbows, out my fingertips and into whatever I touch.” – Gabby Gabriel

Photo: bettynewvision

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