Wukang Mansion

This guide to Wukang Mansion follows the building locals once nicknamed the diving board, a wedge of stone curved like a ship's prow by Hungarian-Slovak architect Laszlo Hudec, opened in 1924 as glamorous apartments in the French Concession. It traces how the building's mood turned during the Cultural Revolution, when Red Guards renamed it and its balconies became stages for public humiliation, and follows one young resident, Ni Jizhan, targeted for her family ties to a famous revolutionary. Look up at the same wrought-iron balconies visitors photograph today.