In the spring of 1938, the war-displaced faculty of the Southwest Associated University arrived in Mengzi. Wang Weiyu, a local industrialist who founded an early aviation enterprise, opened his private residence at No. 35 Guilin Street to these exiled scholars. Built during the Republic of China era, this two-story brick-and-wood compound represents the traditional Yunnan "Yikeyin" style, resembling a compact, square stamp pressed into the earth.

Between April and August of 1938, the residence became a sanctuary of intense intellectual labor. The building was divided vertically to accommodate its guests. Upstairs, the archaeologist and poet Chen Mengjia lived alongside the translator Zhao Luorui, their footsteps echoing on the wooden floorboards. Directly below, on the ground floor, the philosopher Feng Youlan lived with his family. Here, amidst the cool drafts of the internal and external lightwells, Feng revised his philosophical work, Xin Li Xue. He carried the completed pages to a local lithographic shop, where the fresh ink dried on the first edition. Other brilliant minds, including the linguist Luo Changpei and the classicist Luo Yong, shared this quiet courtyard.

The architecture itself facilitated this concentration of mind. The rooms align along a central axis facing the street, enclosing a quiet courtyard that shut out the chaos of a nation at war. The rough brick walls and heavy timber beams provided a physical shield for China's displaced academic heritage.

Today, the building serves the public as the Mengzi Tea Culture Communication Center and a branch of the Mengzi Municipal Library. Visitors walking through the courtyard can hear the quiet pluck of guqin strings, smell the aroma of brewing tea, and browse books in the very rooms where modern Chinese philosophy was rewritten. The residence remains a monument to a moment when local generosity and academic resilience met in a quiet corner of Yunnan.