Zhangyuan

Arlyna So is a graphic designer, mixed-media artist, and entrepreneur based in Shanghai. She is a member of the USK Shanghai group and blogs about places she goes to sketch and other personal projects at www.arlyna.com.

This place on Zhapu Road is called “Jiangyuan Lane” (酱园弄) in Hongkou District. My first sketch was trying to capture the place and the crew taking out the debris from the construction site across the street. The second was a quick sketch because I wanted to capture the entire building and the wires crisscrossing the intersection.

This location has recently been featured in a movie of the same title. I’m not sure about the movie, but before I again ended up in a rabbit hole, I quickly scanned and found that this place was quite popular back then. This address was also the scene of the gruesome murder of a husband who was chopped up by his wife into 16 parts and stuffed into 5 boxes. It was the last resort for the wife, being pushed to the edge by her husband’s vices and abuse for years.