Our Lady Queen of Peace Church, Yangpu

Our Lady Queen of Peace Church (杨浦和平之后圣母堂, Yángpǔ Hépíng Zhī Hòu Shèngmǔ Táng), at 692 Huimin Road, began as a church for factory workers. The building you see is a modern replacement from 1990.

Why was a church built on Huimin Road?

The Yangpu District Gazetteer says that in 1928 the French priest Cui Yicai (崔颐才, Cuī Yícái) of Hongkou Sacred Heart picked Huimin Road because workers lived there. The Religion Gazetteer gives the priest’s name as Beaumert, and says the church was finished two years later and named Our Lady Queen of Peace. The congregation grew quickly, from 739 parishioners within a year to 1,638 by 1935, most of them workers and their children.

What did the original look like?

The Gothic exterior hid a Roman interior, and the church held more than 500 people. French Jesuits ran it first, and Spanish Jesuits took over in 1936. The parish ran the Sacred Heart primary school, a girls’ school and the Heping clinic, and the Anqing diocese kept an office there.

How was it rebuilt?

Activities stopped in the Cultural Revolution and other organisations, including the Shanghai Automobile Electric Machinery Factory, used the building. The diocese got it back in September 1982. It was too worn to repair, so the diocese pulled it down and rebuilt church and buildings together with the Shanghai branch of the Bank of China. A parishioner, Ai Zu’ang (艾祖盎, Ài Zǔ’áng), designed the new church to mix traditional and modern forms. It holds over 300 people. The district gazetteer dates the reopening celebration to 25 November 1990, while the Religion Gazetteer says the church opened at Christmas 1990. Auxiliary Bishop Li Side (李思德) led the Mass in both accounts.

What to look for

The church is modern, so there is no Gothic front to find. Look at the nameplate, which gives the name in English as “Our Lady Queen of Peace Church.”