DONG Xiongfei, nicknamed Geli or Buddy in old Shanghai dialect, is a 34-year-old expert on Shanghai history, a collector of memorabilia, a blogger, tour guide and organizer of salons.

Dong is at the heart of a post-1980s and post-1990s network of young people who want to know more about the past of the cosmopolitan city and dig beneath the surface.

Dong collects old photos, tickets, certificates of all kinds, old eyeglasses, leaflets about low comedies and memorabilia of all kinds.

He assembles, scans and posts thousands of old photos, mainly about daily life and city scenes from the 1930s to the 1990s, mostly from late 1970s to the 1990s. He is well known on popular social networks such as Weibo.

“My interests, hobbies and collections are all about this city — the place where I was born and raised, the place of my roots,” Dong tells Shanghai Daily.

The single young man studied in Japan for four years and returned in 2006 with a passion for his own city and culture. He works for a foreign trading company but his passion is Shanghai’s past.

Born in 1980 in the former French concession, Dong knows the area like the back of his hand. He’s fashionable and sporty, favoring leather jackets, silver rings and big, dramatic silver bracelets. He’s into pop, hip-hop, electronic and punk.

“People always say it’s hard to imagine that I am such a young person writing the articles and posting pictures on the Internet,” says Dong, who speaks fluent Shanghainese.

Since late 2012, Dong has organized city walking tours and monthly salon activities for people with common interests and hobbies. The salon invites old citizens with interesting stories, old actors, film producers, collectors of all kinds.

He personally guides tours of the former French concession, Lao Ximen (Old East Gate) in former Nanshi District (today’s Huangpu District), Lao Dongmen (Old East Gate), the site of the former Tilanqiao Prison in Hongkou District and a 100-year-old public bath house in Dongjiadu area.

“Until the age of 12, the former French concession was my whole world,” Dong says.

The first car in Shanghai belonged to the grandfather of Dong’s close childhood friend and neighbor on Kangping Road.

Dong also remembers that one day, an elderly Western woman knocked on the door.

“This old lady used to live in this house during the 1920s and 1930s when she was little. She was looking for her roots,” Dong recalls.

The idea of roots started to take root in Dong’s heart. He began his research and collecting after he returned from study in Japan.

“Maybe the culture difference reminds you of paying more attention to where you were born and raised,” he says.

The first book he read about the former French concession was in Japanese, written by a Japanese woman.

Today Dong is very familiar with that area and the details of many old houses, as well as former Nanshi District, where the Old Town area is located. Beyond the architecture, he studies people stories.

When he was 12 years old, Dong rode his bicycle from Fuxing Road W. to the City God Temple in Yuyuan Garden. He saw the changing architecture styles, even the changes in paving stones.

“This trip opened my eyes. Since then, houses and roads are very interesting to me,” he says.

Nowadays he prefers walking in less affluent areas. “Shanghai is not merely the fancy former French concession,” he says.

Sometimes Dong feels that he is in a race against urban construction.

“So many old houses have been dismantled since the 1990s and many are still under reconstruction,” he says.

Dong walks around, takes pictures and talks with residents whose old neighborhoods are disappearing.

“We cannot change anything. It’s unavoidable and necessary that the city is moving forward — old houses disappear and new architecture is built,” Dong says. “But we, both local Shanghainese and new residents, need to know about the place we live, recording it with our eyes and hearts.”

But how can a city continue without roots? “Shanghai has more than 700 years of history, rather than 150 years, as many people seem to think.”

Encouraging more people to join his group, sharing their findings and walking around the city are Dong’s passions. Feedback from his readers and salon members keep him going.

He once felt lonely in his pursuit of the past and almost gave up. “But then I realized the power of sharing,” he says.

Dong’s mother used to drive a trolley and several years ago they visited the former street car factory.

His father, born into a soldier’s family in Shandong Province, is very conservative but he shared his knowledge of the city and even helps polish his articles about old Shanghai.

Getting to know elderly people — “like teachers like friends” — and hearing their stories is essential to his avocation.

“Over many years of talking with seniors, I can understand almost all the dialects in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces,” Dong says.

And he does a lot of reading. So far he has consumed more than 300 books about Shanghai’s past.

The people who attend Dong’s salons are mostly locals, post-1980s and post-1990s. They come from different fields and are interested in different aspects of city culture and history — architecture, design, lifestyle, even genealogy (tracing the pace of family).

“Everyone has his or her own way of expression and our salon is one of them,” he says. “I hope new Shanghainese from other cities and expats living in the city or visiting can join us.”

Visit Dong Xiongfei’s Weibo at http://weibo.com/u/1887356830 for salon detail.