Mingfu Library, Public library in Huangpu District, Shanghai, China.
Mingfu Library is a public library housed in a three-story building on South Shaanxi Road within Shanghai's former French Concession. The facility contains extensive collections and reading rooms that serve researchers and the general public regularly.
The Chinese Science Society bought land on today's South Shaanxi Road in September 1929 and built China's first public library in a modern design; it opened on 1 January 1931, named after Hu Mingfu on Cai Yuanpei's proposal. In 1954 the society donated the building and collections to Shanghai's government, and in 1956 it became the Shanghai Science and Technology Library under director Ren Hongjun. In 1959 the Luwan District Library opened here.
The library's name honours Hu Mingfu, China's first mathematics doctorate and a founding board member of the Science Society of China, who died in 1927; Cai Yuanpei proposed the dedication. The Hui Xin Building, the society's former Shanghai office, was where the China Association for Promoting Democracy was founded in December 1945, and it now hosts literary salons and readings.
The building sits in an easily accessible area of the neighborhood and is straightforward to reach on foot. Visitors should plan enough time to explore the rooms since the collections are substantial.
The library's Hui Xin Building, a 1928 structure on the site, is where the China Association for Promoting Democracy held its founding congress in December 1945; the building was restored to its original appearance in 2004 and named "Hui Xin Lou" in 2005.
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