Dear Mr. Mayor!
The simple Russians kindly address you.
Recently, as we can all see, the city of Shanghai develops itself pretty fast, the shape of the city changes for the better, which is very impressive and flattering for us the foreigners.
Some buildings styled in the western architecture manner remind us of our native land. And that's a pleasant reminder for all of us.
However, we found out surprisingly that the building of the orthodox cathedral located at the Xinle-lu and Xianyan-lu streets intersection, has been rented for commercial objectives. The whole interior of the church will be completely reconstructed and it will be rearranged and transformed into a discotheque. Such sacred place with more than 70 years of history will no more be peaceful and quiet. We would like to express our regrets at this progression of the events.
Adhering to the principles of the high responsibility before the history and the culture, we think that it would be better off to place a museum of emigration, picture gallery or some other cultural establishment in the church building instead of making a discotheque out of it.
We would like to ask the city authorities to pay more attention to this problem, because it doesn't concern just these 200 Russians working or studying in Shanghai. It is an inevitable obligation for Shanghai as a megalopolis, to preserve the cultural inheritance for the benefit of the whole human kind. It should be our only goal and our responsibility before the future generations. You can find out more about the arduous history of the church in the enclosure. We also send You a list of signatures of some people from different countries who had joined us in our request.
Allow us to thank You for the given attention and time!
Yours respectfully,
Members of the Russian community of Shanghai (In all 57 signatures)