text/Zhu Wenjie
At the southeast corner of the intersection of Xi'an North Street and Xiwu Road, a little south of the current Jiaotong University Stomatological Hospital, what you might not expect is that there once was a zoo here. I don’t know how many people in Xi’an now know that this is actually the birthplace of Xi’an Zoo.
Things are like this: In 1954, when New China was founded, a Shanghainese named Liu Tongfa came to Xi'an for a tour with leopards , giant salamanders , peacocks, red-faced monkeys , starlings , pythons, etc. , caused a sensation in the ancient city, and these animals came from the "Tongfa Zoo" in Suzhou founded by Liu Tongfa named after him.
The southeast corner of the intersection of North Street and Xiwu Road, and the north of Tongji Square , was originally an empty wasteland. When Suzhou Tongfa Zoo went on tour to Xi'an, they chose this empty space full of rubble and surrounded it to build several rooms. The shed was transformed into a temporary and simple animal display place.
Check the history of Xi'an Qinling Wildlife Park and find that Xi'an Qinling Wildlife Park was renovated from the original Xi'an Zoo. It was formerly known as "Tongfa Zoo" and was founded in 1954. It was originally a mobile exhibition group of Suzhou Tongfa animals that came to Xi'an to exhibit. Two years ago, coinciding with the launch of the "Three Major Transformations" of socialism, the group took the initiative to apply and was approved to be transformed into a zoo... From 1965 to 1976, it was merged with the Revolutionary Park. In 1977, it moved to Jinhua North Road, Xincheng District. In 1995, it was rated as one of the "Top Ten Zoos in the Country" by the Ministry of Construction. In 2004, it was moved to Chang'an District, Xi'an and restructured into Xi'an Qinling Wildlife Park.
The "Xi'an Zoo" entry in "Xi'an Centennial Events" edited by the Xi'an Local Chronicles Office records: "In 1956, the Suzhou Tongfa Animal Mobile Exhibition Group was a public-private partnership, and the Xi'an Zoo was established based on it with the approval of the Xi'an Municipal Government."
Song Anchor wrote in the article "Visiting the Zoo on North Street": In 1948, my mother took several of our brothers back to her hometown of Suzhou to visit relatives. Around the end of the spring of 1948, my uncle took us out to play and came to the flower and bird market near Guanqian Street. During the tour, a plaque suddenly came into view on the right side of the road: "Suzhou Tongfa Zoo"... In addition to animal displays, the owner of the park also had a girl with black hair and two small-headed people born with brain malformations. Come out for exhibitions and performances to attract the audience's attention.
The article also contains: In 1954, Suzhou Tongfa Zoo came to Xi'an. The venue for animal exhibitions was an open space slightly lower than the road. About four or five acres of the open space was surrounded by a circle of white cloth with many colorful animals painted on it. A banner with big characters "Suzhou Tongfa Zoo, Jiangsu Province" attracts the attention of passers-by. The news blew through the citizens like the wind, and immediately set off a huge crowd of people watching.
Song Anchor accompanied his mother to North Street to see her. At the zoo, an older staff member heard his mother's native accent and warmly received her. He told his mother that just a few days after the liberation of Suzhou, the Military Control Commission rescued the disabled people from the Suzhou Tongfa Zoo. It was said that they were sent to the local reformatory (similar to the later shelters and rescue stations), and then tried to find their families. The people's government does not allow humans to be used as animals in exhibitions. For this reason, the owner of the park was taken away and released only a few days later.
The reason why Tongfa Zoo stays in Xi'an may be related to this. It is seriously illegal to abuse disabled people and use them as animals for exhibition for personal gain! Some of them are even legally responsible and will arouse public indignation and condemnation from the entire society.
In fact, abuse of disabled people and the use of disabled people for personal gain were common in many places. There are even worse and more inhumane things, such as abducting children, mutilating them into missing arms and legs, or even blinding them. Beggars take advantage of people's sympathy and cheat money in the market. In the mid-1960s, I saw a one-legged teenage child entertainer at the Ping'an Market on East Street in Xi'an. He was good at singing and dancing, and was trained to do somersaults with monkeys. Someone held a whip as if to tame a monkey. I was whipped a few times from time to time, and the crowd gathered on three floors inside and outside to watch the excitement, and they collected several hundred yuan a day. Later, I heard that this one-legged disabled child was a kidnapped child and was rescued only after his parents found him in Xi'an.
The owner of Suzhou Tongfa Zoo was detained by the government in Suzhou. First, the financial chain of the mobile animal exhibition group in Xi'an was broken, and there was no money to transport the animals back. Furthermore, Tongfa Zoo would also be affected when it returned to Suzhou. , may be more troublesome. As a result, he was forced to stay in Xi'an and struggled to survive on this temporary and crude site on Xi'an North Street for two years. In 1956, following the socialist "Three Major Transformations" movement, it became a public-private partnership and officially became the Xi'an Zoo.
At that time, some of the animals left in Suzhou by Tongfa Zoo became the main body of Suzhou Zoo. According to reports, the Suzhou Zoo was completed and opened on May 1, 1954. At that time, it was one of the only two professional zoos in Jiangsu Province. At the beginning of the park's opening, the animals were mainly composed of animals exhibited in the private zoo and the state-owned Humble Administrator's Garden. Therefore, it can be said that Tongfa Zoo is also the main source of Suzhou Zoo.
A private Tongfa zoo is the birthplace of both Xi'an and Suzhou zoos. Looking at the country, it is extremely rare, and it can even be said that it is the only one of its kind.
