Museums of Shanghai
I needed out at some of the museums of Shanghai, so let me give you a little taste of what I learned!
The Shanghai Museum was my first stop, and it was phenomenal. First, it was free! Good job, China! Second, it had artifacts from thousands of years of Chinese history. As an American, that's hard to fathom. Imagine walking through galleries full of bronze, sculpture, ancient coins, and calligraphy scrolls. Some of my favorite things included traditional Chinese paintings, which were often scenic views of famous places in China, exquisite jade molded in shapes that ranged from name prints to elaborate dragons, and the ceramics, which included beautiful vases and tea and China sets (go figure). Another cool room was filled with ethnic minority costumes from the past. I thought it was really great that China chose to honor all of the minority groups in this way, especially since China is not well known for treating them equally (ahem, Tibet). I spent about 2 hours here, and I could have spent much longer.
The Propaganda Poster Art Center was fascinating. The place itself was so hard to find. I must have wandered the streets of the French Concession for at least an hour trying to find the place. I finally found it in the basement of a residential building! At first I thought that was extremely odd, but then I did a little reading about the place and found out that it is actually a private collection, and a bit controversial. One man, Yang Pei Ming, started collecting the posters in the '90s because the government was starting to destroy them for political reasons, and he wanted to preserve them for history. Now, there are over 6000 Chinese propaganda posters from 1940-1990, and a really great Shanghai Lady Calendar poster collection from 1910-1940.
Most of the propaganda posters were related to the Mao regime, especially during the Cultural Revolution. I was fascinated to find all sorts of posters supporting Cuba, Vietnam, Korea, etc. Basically, if the US had a presence anywhere in the world, China was on the opposite side. I even saw one supporting African Americans, dating back to America's darker days of racism. I sort of snorted when I saw that one because I would not exactly say the Chinese people today know much about black people. For example, one Jamaican-American girl in my group has very tiny dreadlocks, and people will just walk up and start touching her hair all the time...they just have no idea what to do with it! Anyways...end of tangent....I also really loved the Lady posters. Think early 1900s pin up girls. Very dreamy, painted poses. They were the first to be used to sell products in China, so many of the posters have pictures of household items, shoes, or cigarettes. I really hope to find a souvenir of one of these!
The Shanghai Museum was my first stop, and it was phenomenal. First, it was free! Good job, China! Second, it had artifacts from thousands of years of Chinese history. As an American, that's hard to fathom. Imagine walking through galleries full of bronze, sculpture, ancient coins, and calligraphy scrolls. Some of my favorite things included traditional Chinese paintings, which were often scenic views of famous places in China, exquisite jade molded in shapes that ranged from name prints to elaborate dragons, and the ceramics, which included beautiful vases and tea and China sets (go figure). Another cool room was filled with ethnic minority costumes from the past. I thought it was really great that China chose to honor all of the minority groups in this way, especially since China is not well known for treating them equally (ahem, Tibet). I spent about 2 hours here, and I could have spent much longer.
The Propaganda Poster Art Center was fascinating. The place itself was so hard to find. I must have wandered the streets of the French Concession for at least an hour trying to find the place. I finally found it in the basement of a residential building! At first I thought that was extremely odd, but then I did a little reading about the place and found out that it is actually a private collection, and a bit controversial. One man, Yang Pei Ming, started collecting the posters in the '90s because the government was starting to destroy them for political reasons, and he wanted to preserve them for history. Now, there are over 6000 Chinese propaganda posters from 1940-1990, and a really great Shanghai Lady Calendar poster collection from 1910-1940.
Most of the propaganda posters were related to the Mao regime, especially during the Cultural Revolution. I was fascinated to find all sorts of posters supporting Cuba, Vietnam, Korea, etc. Basically, if the US had a presence anywhere in the world, China was on the opposite side. I even saw one supporting African Americans, dating back to America's darker days of racism. I sort of snorted when I saw that one because I would not exactly say the Chinese people today know much about black people. For example, one Jamaican-American girl in my group has very tiny dreadlocks, and people will just walk up and start touching her hair all the time...they just have no idea what to do with it! Anyways...end of tangent....I also really loved the Lady posters. Think early 1900s pin up girls. Very dreamy, painted poses. They were the first to be used to sell products in China, so many of the posters have pictures of household items, shoes, or cigarettes. I really hope to find a souvenir of one of these!
The Shanghai Musuem of Contemporary Art (MOCA) is currently has a joint exhibition of two artists: Gao Xiaowu and Joyce Ho. The museum was a lot smaller than I expected, with only a few galley rooms. There were several very large installations, including massive fetuses at least 15 feet high, as well as paintings, mixed media sculptures, and even a very strange video of a woman's face being covered in icing until gravity finally pulled it off. Modern art can be strange, but also very entertaining!
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