The Former Residence of Mao Dun (máo dùn gù jū 茅盾故居) is located on the border of Wu Zhen Guanqian Street (wū zhèn guān qián jiē 乌镇观前街) and Xinhua Road (xīn huá lù 新华路) in the Jiaxing City (jiā xìng shì 嘉兴市), Zhejiang Province (zhè jiāng shěng 浙江省). The residence is situated in the north and faces south, it is a traditional wood civilian building in Kangnam (jiāng nán 江南) with a total area of 600 square meters. This is the place where the famous wirter Mao Dun in our country born and lived. It was listed as the key state-preserved relic unit.

Mao Dun (1896-1981), a native of Tongxiang County (tóng xiāng xiàn 桐乡县), Zhejiang Province, whose real name is Shen Dehong (shěn dé hóng 沈德鸿), was a famous writer and translator in China. He began his career as a writer in 1916. In 1920, Mao became the first writer to join the Communist Party of China. In 1921, he published his magnum opus, Disillusion (huǐ miè 毁灭). Later he produced the works of Rainbow (hóng 虹), Road (lù 路), Midnight (zǐ yè 子夜), The Shop of Lin Family (lín jiā pù zǐ 林家铺子), Spring Silk (chūn cán 春蚕), Autumn Harvest (qiū shōu 秋收), Winter’s End (cán dōng 残冬) etc.. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he acted as China's first minister of culture, as well as the chairman of the Chinese Writers' Association. In 1958, the People’s Literature Publishing House published The Collected Works of Mao Dun (máo dùn quán jí 茅盾全集). In accordance with his will, the Mao Dun Literature Award (máo dùn wén xué jiǎng 茅盾文学奖) was founded with his donation of RMB 250,000. On March 27, 1981, he died of illness in Beijing. Mao Dun had made great contribution to the liberation of Chinese people and chinese literature.

The residence was originally built in the central 19th century. With an area of 444.25 square meters, the residence consists of east unit and west unit. Mao Dun’s great-grandfather Shen Huan (shěn huàn 沈焕) bought it around the year of 1885. From Shen Huan to Mao Dun, four generations all lived here. The main structure of the residence was a two layers building. It totally had sixteen rooms. There was a small garden behind the building with three bungalows. The east unit was bought before the west unit, so the former was called Old House (lǎo wū 老屋) and the west unit was called New House (xīn wū 新屋). Actually, the two were the same in the outwards. The four rooms in the front building is next to the street. Looking From the east to the west, the first room in the bottom floor is the gate and passage. The second room is the private school where children in Shen Family studied. The third and fourth rooms were the dining room. The first room of the second floor is the bedroom of Mao Dun’s grandfather. The second room is his parents’ bedroom, Mao Dun and his little brother Shen Zemin (shěn zé mín 沈泽民) were born here. The third and fourth rooms were the bedrooms of Mao Dun’s great uncles. Also looking from the east to the west, the four rooms in the bottom floor of the back building were respectively Visitor’s Hall (kè táng 客堂), Kitchen, passage and living room. The rooms in the second floor were respectively the bedrooms of Mao Dun’s aunt, female servant and Mao Dun’s great grandparents. These premises were preserved the same as its former structure.

In the summer of 1933, Mao Dun renovated the residence himself. He divided it into three big rooms. The east one is storeroom, the middle one is bedroom and visitor’s hall, the west one is the study and reception room. Mao Dun stayed here wrote articles, read and meet friends. After the war of resistance broke out, Mao never returned home. In 1984, the Former Residence of Mao Dun was renovated and extended to cover a total area of 1,731.5 square meters - it opened to the public one year later. The first room in the bottom floor of the front building was still the gate, a plaque was suspend on it. There were four characters Mao Dun Gu Ju written by Chen Yun (chén yún 陈云). The passage was changed to the First Exhibition Hall (xù tīng 序厅) of the showroom in order to place Mao Dun’s bronze statue .

There are seven showrooms in the residence, it includes 150 photos of Mao Dun and the materials which reflect his life and achievements. Mao Dun had lived in the residence for thirteen years. In 1995, the former residence of Mao Dun was awarded as the patriotic education base in Zhejiang Province by the Zhejiang provincial government.

Former Residence of Mao Dun
Address: No. 19 Guanqian Street in the East District (dōng qū 东区) of Wuzhen, Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province
Admission fee: RMB 10
Opening hours: 8:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Transportation: you can take special bus to get to there.