5/24/24: More of Beautiful Shanghai!

Two views of the forward-looking Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall as we walked to the celebrated Shanghai Museum:

The Shanghai Grand Theater (Opera House): 

Shots as we made our way all the way around the beautiful People's Park across from the Opera House en route to the Museum:  

Why can't the US build such imaginative benches?!

I searched Google for the name of this building but it's obviously not the Chifley in Australia that popped up!

Shanghai's stunning skyline with the Opera House in the foreground: 

If we'd been permitted to walk in a straight shot, we'd have reached the Shanghai Museum much earlier. However, our almost two-mile meander past lovely gardens and some of Shanghai's architectural wonders was worth it in the end. One of the city's highlights is the pot-shaped museum whose design is based on a ding, an ancient Chinese pot, and inspired by cosmology with a square base to represent Earth, and a rounded roof to symbolize Heaven.

Opposite the Museum was the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party building according to Google.

People's Square is considered to be the modern heart of Shanghai as it functions as a transit hub and is also home to the "grand temples of culture, history, and government."

After reading what a stellar museum it is, Steven and I were very bummed to discover that one of its major highlights, the Ancient Chinese Bronze Gallery, was closed. The Ancient Chinese Sculpture Gallery was also closed as was the Ancient Chinese Ceramics Gallery. We've never experienced so many galleries closed in one museum before. Only two other galleries remained open but they were of lesser interest. However, we made do having made quite an effort to reach the museum.

I was curious how the Kadorie Gallery of Chinese Minorities Art would acknowledge contributions from the country's minorities given the especially recent history of conflict with, and repression of, them.

As a result of ecological environments, Chinese multi-ethnic communities had their own ways of living and differences in customs which resulted in each ethnic group having its own unique culture. The arts and crafts that were created reflected each ethnic group's history and identity. In addition to an aesthetic function, the items were also pragmatic.

The coral-beaded Mongol headdress from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region dated to the first half of the 20th century. 

There were many works in the Dyeing, Weaving, and Embroidery section of the gallery. The Uygurs were well-known for color printing, the Baifor tie-dyeing, and the Miao and Bouyei for batik. Other minority groups I had never heard of had a longstanding history of different weaving and embroidery techniques. Darlene: You'd have been interested in this section!

Being fans of Oriental rugs, Steven and I were drawn to this striped woolen rug also from the Uygur Autonomous Region. It seems impossible to read anything about China these days and not hear about how its government treats the Uygurs. 

We've been fortunate to be able to see masks in museums the world over. Ethnic groups in China used masks painted with richly colored and exaggerated faces to demonstrate the sacred religious world as opposed to the secular world. These were wooden Tuija masks for Nuo opera in Guizhou to depict good and evil gods.  

Among the collection of Tibetan masks, some could be hung, some opera masks were portrayed to show gods, demons, and beasts, and some were dance masks. 

We also admired the gallery's collection of lacquerware, bamboo ware, and wickerwork as they possessed their own regional distinctions.

I was immediately drawn to the Joseph Hotung Gallery of Chinese Jade so we could admire the cloisonne enamel collection from the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Since there was so little else to view in the museum, we spent more time than we would have normally in the Ming and Qing Furniture Gallery. 

There we learned that classical Chinese furniture developed in ancient times. Instead of kneeling or sitting cross-legged as they had been, the Chinese designed artistically decorated furniture during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing eras. The former is characterized by simple and elegant lines with great emphasis placed on the natural beauty of the woodgrain combined with openwork carving particularly on the backs of chairs.

The Reception Hall played an important role in an ancient Chinese house as sacrificial, wedding, and funeral ceremonies were held there as well as being used as an area to meet friends. The location of the furniture varied depending on the function. A long narrow table with recessed legs was normally placed in front of a movable wooden wall with armchairs placed in front of the table. Family members or relatives were placed depending on their respective positions in the family hierarchy. 

By contrast, furniture from the Qing era, 1644-1911, was larger and more imposing with inlaid decoration though there were three separate stages in the development of the style. 

Curio cabinets called Duo Bao Ge or Bai Bao Jia appeared in the Qing Dynasty and were used to display and store family antiques on shelves arranged within the cabinet. They were very popular among the upper-class families during the Qing era. The one below had an intricate bird design. 

In ancient China, a large throne chair was designed for emperors. Like the one below, it was shaped like a bed with bulging legs and had gold paint, red lacquer carving, inlays, and hardwood engraving. A large screen set on a stand was often placed behind it to provide a solemn and dignified setting. Way too fancy for me!

We read in the Shaw Gallery of Chinese Painting that the art developed during the Warring States period, 475-221 BC, with representative styles emerging from 220-589. Beginning in 618 and lasting until 1279, China saw the zenith of paintings of portraits, landscapes, flowers, and birds. Artists from this era used heavy colors, monochrome ink-wash paintings, and the "boneless" painting method. The Ming and Qing dynasties saw imitation of the past and creative innovation as emerging trends and artists emphasized abstract expression in combination with poetry, calligraphy, and painting. 

Not one of the self-described Treasures in the museum's collection of paintings was on display - how disappointing and unusual. 

I think that if it hadn't been for the marvelous enamel items and the interesting furniture displays, our visit to the Shanghai Museum would have been a complete bust. 

In the previous post, I referred to an area of Shanghai called the French Concession, a neighborhood that is mostly low-rise because of a colonial rule that ensured no building was more than one and a half times tall than the boulevard was wide. The concession was our next stop but it was via a stroll through more of People's Square. The park's rules reminded me instantly of the almost overwhelming rules that were commonplace in Japan: No littering, no spitting, no chewing gum, no lying down, no going shirtless, no superstitious activities (?), no gambling or illegal activities, no flying kites, and at least 50 more! The last edict was "Let's turn our park into windows to a civilized society." Yikes. 

The streets of the French Concession were lined with ritzy shops, and glorious old mansions that had been converted to boutiques, embassies, galleries, and restaurants. 

The former French Concession was established in the mid-19th century next to Chinese City and, despite its name, its inhabitants were never particularly French. Before 1949, the rather shabby sector was mostly occupied by Chinese and White Russians and was nicknamed Little Moscow. The Concession was infamous for being low rent, its wildness, and the ease with which police and French officials could be bribed. That was in stark contrast to the well-governed area ruled by the British. The king of all Shanghai gangsters made his home and lived in the French Concession. Political activists operated there - the first meeting of the Chinese Government Party happened in 1921 and both Zhou Enlai and Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the first provisional president of the Chinese Communist Party, lived there. 

The Xintiandi development within the French Concession was comprised of two blocks of renovated and refurbished shikumen or stone-gated homes that came into existence in the late 19th century as a modification of Western-style terrace housing to Chinese conditions. By the 1930s, shikumen were pervasive throughout Shanghai and housed eighty percent of the population. 

As the city's population burgeoned in the 20th century, shikumen were split into four to five dwellings. As we'd observed the day before in the Old City with the rush to reinvigorate areas, most shikumen neighborhoods have been demolished. The sole exception was Xintiandi which was transformed into the country's first open-air mall. That was because the home where the Chinese Communist Party was located was within Xiantiandi and developers couldn't just level the area and construct something new. 

The area was simply gorgeous in our minds but some have decried Xintiandi as having been yuppified from the previous working-class neighborhood. The stone buildings had retained their charm, the area had been pedestrianized and the former shikumen's narrow alleys now opened up onto an attractive central plaza. There were plenty of upscale shops and restaurants as well as open-air dining that was perfect for people-watching. It wasn't noticeable to us but I read that security guards made sure to keep the riffraff out. 

On the other end of Xiatiandi was the aforementioned Site of the First National Congress of the Chinese Community Party, one of the shrines of Maoist China. According to the official story, on July 23, 1921, thirteen representatives of Communist cells from all over China, including its most famous junior deputy, Mao Zedong, met here to discuss the formation of a national party. After a French police agent discovered the meeting, the participants fled on July 30th as it was illegal to hold a political meeting in the French Concession.

We saw lots of Chinese people lining up to take their pictures in front of the famous building!

In the basement exhibition hall were period relics, maps, old photos, and propaganda tracts but, as everything was in Chinese, it meant little to us. 

Steven used Google Translate to learn that Zedong convened the party congress in 1929. 

Later, there was a shift to focus the party from the countryside to cities.

Atmospheric lanes in Xintiandi:

At 1 Xintiandi, was the stately home of the Hong Kong owners of the Shiu On Group, a massive real estate and property development company founded by Vincent Lo in 1971. 

It was remarkable to witness how much the neighborhood changed just a few blocks from Xintiandi and the French Concession - no longer were we inundated with the roar of motorcycles as they were all-electric, mobs of people, and chichi shops. 

Scenes as we walked en route to Fuxing Park that had been laid out in 1909 by the French:

The home's door was open so I peeked in!

I didn't envy this cyclist pulling his heavy load!

The entrance to Fuxing Park "welcomed" us with another set of rules!

There was a huge expanse of lawn but there was no sitting on, walking on, or lying on it, of course. What a shame it couldn't be used, only looked at.

Though the park had a European feel, it was rather jarring when we spotted the bronze statue of Marx and Engels in a corner of the park.

The pleasing entrance to the park's rose garden: 

It was on to the former residence of the first president of the Chinese Republic, Sun Yat-sen, and his wife, located just outside the park next.

Dr. Sun Yat-sen's former residence had been listed as 29 rue Molière but after the Cultural Revolution, the name was changed to 7 Xiangshan Road. The house was bought with funds raised by Canada's Chinese community! He and his wife, Soong Ching Ling, who were married for just ten years, lived in the house from October 1918 until he died in 1925. She remained in the home until 1937. It was described as where Yat-sen engaged in revolutionary activities, wrote several books, held press conferences, and met representatives of China's Communist Party and the Soviet Union. 

Yat-sen was born at the end of the imperial Qing Dynasty when China was experiencing decades of instability and suffering from periods of both internal rebellion and foreign domination. He was seen as one of the greatest leaders during modern China's turbulent history. 

The museum described him as being the first person to advocate for the monarchy's abolition and the establishment of a republican China. Through the museum's eyes, he promoted democratic openness and respect for his people and devoted his life to moving China toward an independent, unified, democratic, and prosperous country. "Sun Yat-sen's spirit will always inspire us to prosper (in) China."

There was an exhibition of his books and artifacts but not much was in English.

It was of more interest to wander around his elegantly furnished home where most of the exhibits were original and displayed as they had been when he lived there in the 1920s. In 1961, the home was designated by the State Council as one of China's first major government-protected cultural sites. 

The photo showed Yat-sen and his wife. 

In September 1922, Yat-sen hosted a meeting in the backyard of 53 representatives of the Nationalist Party. They discussed improving the Chinese Communist Party.

Not too far away was St. Nicholas Church which had been built in 1933 by White Russian exiles. After being abandoned in 1941, it became a laundry and a washing machine factory. The only thing that saved it from being razed during the Cultural Revolution was an image of Mao hung from the roof. In recent years, it was used as a nightclub and restaurant but the Russians complained that was sacrilegious so it was closed. During the 2010 Shanghai Expo, it was reconsecrated to permit services. That put the Chinese government in an awkward position as it created a precedent for the other religious buildings in Shanghai. When we visited in late May, the church had become a bookshop. What would be its next transformation, I wondered?

A sign proclaimed these were Heritage buildings built in 1921 and designed in the Western style. They were pretty grand!

Unlike the previous day, it was easy and inexpensive to grab a taxi to take us to St. Ignatius Cathedral in the Xujiahui district. It was difficult to believe but the Jesuits set up Shnaghai's first settlement in the district during the 17th century. Their only significant vestige was the red-brick, Gothic-style cathedral that was constructed in 1910 on the grave of the Jesuits' first convert. After the cathedral was sacked and its stained-glass windows smashed during the Revolution, it was used as a granary. It reopened in 1979 when its spires were renovated and new windows with a Chinese motif were installed. 

I wasn't allowed to enter until I managed to pull down my skort to cover my knees! I was glad I was able to do so as the church was quite lovely inside. 

Phil: I don't know whether China or at least Shanghai might be for you and Michaela when you think about the rules that had to be followed there!

Yet more "no" signs greeted us as we exited and walked toward the metro!

These amusing characters outside the adjacent library promoted reading.

The security at the metro was extremely tight with cameras in view everywhere and everyone's photos displayed as tickets were put into the turnstile. We found it quite creepy but the price of a subway ride at just four yuan or 56 cents a ticket was tough to complain about. 

It had been a whirlwind visit to Shanghai but we'd managed to explore a lot of the mammoth city on foot, using taxis, and the metro. To say we loved the colonial and the modern architecture, strolling through what remained of the Old City, wandering around the Yu Garden and a couple of temples, finding out about the Chinese government's generosity to European Jews in the war, and learning firsthand about its Communist roots would be an understatement. There are few cities I have a yen to revisit because there are still so many new places we want to discover but Shanghai is one I'd gladly go back to!

Next post: Onto Lhasa, Tibet, and its famous Potala Palace which had long been on Steven's "bucket list."

Posted on August 16th, 2024, from our home west of Denver where we've had a string of 90-degree-plus days with no relief in sight. Lucky me - I was able to escape the heat with a quick getaway through Colorado's magnificent mountains and several hours in charming Taos, New Mexico. I'll post about it and a similar trip with the same friend from two years ago soon.