The Chuncao Villa

The Chuncao Villa built in 1933 is located at the highest point on the northwest of Bijia Hill on Kulangsu. It was designed and constructed by returned overseas Chinese Xu Chuncao, a building contractor in Xiamen at that time. It is a two-storey building built of brick, wood and stone with a floor area of nearly 490 square metres. It has an axisymmetric layout. The main part is rectangular with a three-bay colonnade in the front, with a protruding “chu gui” porch in the centre bay. Behind the veranda, there is a hall in the centre, surrounded by other rooms, with the storerooms in the back. The porch and the corners of the building have faux-granite columns and pilasters faced with granitic plaster, while the other columns are made of red brick. The columns of the porch are round in section; the pilasters at the corners have square sections; while the brick columns are half semi circle and half square in section. Above the reinforced concrete lintel of the upper-storey veranda is a cornice corbelled in red brick. Other faces are composed of faux-granite pilasters and rendered walls. The overall design of the building is dignified and simple, sparing but exquisite in detail, stressing the contrast of different textures. In 1992, Xu Wuquan, the son of Xu Chuncao, renamed this building the Chuncao Villa.
The Chuncao Villa is an important example of the mansions of overseas Chinese in Kulangsu in the first half of 20th century. It is testimony to the history of overseas Chinese who, starting from scratch in the construction industry, devoted themselves to the development of Kulangsu and actively participated in promoting social movement.