some experiences which haven't been accounted yet by the wanderer

it became clear to andy and i rather quickly that prior to and upon our return to the US, our ability to discuss the observations made during our travels would be incredibly limited. when asked what china is like, we will be unable to answer. when asked what shanghai or beijing is like, we will still be unable to answer. the most we will feel comfortable asserting and discussing will be what qualities the small regions we explored in each city seemed to exhibit during our time there. the immensity of china and its urban spaces severely hampers—for good reason—the truth or near-truth of any of our assumptions, understandings, or ideas about daily life. china is certainly not the only place where such limitations occur, but i don’t think either of us quite expected the difficulty in describing the country, or even its major populated areas.

much happened during our first two weeks in shanghai, and while we both kept fairly meticulous notes about what we encountered and did, not all is worth sharing and what’s left is still far too much to write about in detail—so some consolidation and omission will take place. but it’s certainly time for an update: we’ve only a month left here somehow!

our first few days were naturally spent recuperating from traveling, overcoming jet lag, and trying to find food. i was quite weak the first day back, as i had become pretty dehydrated and hadn’t eaten for nearly 24 hours, so when my appetite finally began to return, we began exploring our options. fortunately, it didn’t take long to find something that acted both as comfort food and remained fully within the bounds of my diet: fruit smoothies. only two blocks from the phoenix hostel was a restaurant that had a small juice/milkshake/smoothie extension for passersby, so as soon as we noticed it, we approached the menu and found plenty of english to order successfully! the woman at the counter was very patient as i pointed to my selection, and then whipped me up the finest, sugar-less kiwi-mango-papaya smoothie in all of shanghai. i would return to this shop every morning we remained at the hostel, to the point where the same woman—who was probably about my age—recognized me and seemed to smile a little wider each time i appeared. i thought this a pleasant little exchange, and felt a little melancholic and guilty when we moved and no longer frequented the area.

as for other interactions with people here, the silliest occurred while i was waiting for a smoothie one morning. i have been carrying my passport, contacts sheet, and extra cash in a discreet pouch kept under my t-shirt each day we’ve explored, and while it is generally comfortable, it is often slightly visible as pushing against the cotton fabric of my shirt, giving me a strange-shaped belly. i was standing with my arms crossed along the sidewalk—which had heavy foot, bicycle, and scooter traffic—when i felt something touch my belly—and my pouch. I turned to see a man about my father’s age smiling wildly and patting my stomach. he then nodded rapidly as he guffawed, and started slapping his own potbelly. i laughed in response, and then he turned, still smiling, and resumed whatever course he’d interrupted himself prior to noticing me. despite the strangeness of the encounter, i was highly amused and excited to have interacted despite not speaking a shred of mandarin.

a less-satisfying but nearly-as-entertaining interaction has been warding off “tea ceremony” scams. all the guidebooks warned us about the high-school-aged students who attempt to take you to the traditional, cultural event only to ditch you at the last minute and somehow leave you to pay a ridiculous bill yourself—but we were quite surprised by the directness and strategies these kids enacted in their convincing. they usually roam through the people’s park area as it is tourist-heavy, waiting for foreigners to engage with. on june twentieth, no less than 30 seconds after exiting the subway on our way to the museum of contemporary art (located in the park itself) we were approached by two girls asking if we were traveling, where we were from, and where we were going next. they told us some bullshit about traveling from somewhere in china, and as this was our first encounter with the scam, we humored them for a bit by talking. when the scam was more obvious than initially, we tried to leave, so they immediately went for the throat: “want to go to tea ceremony?” we said “no thanks” and left. a minute later we were turning the corner into the park, discussing how lame a scam it really is, when three girls asked andy to take their picture—innocent as it seemed, these kids were just a little less awkward about initiating conversation, though the girl who talked with andy had more trouble discussing anything more than if he had a girlfriend. when the two i was stuck with brought up the tea ceremony (a little smoother than the previous students), andy’s girl tried to direct his attention to their offer, which we promptly rejected and departed from “to meet with our professor.” we were bothered twice more throughout the day, avoiding one by speaking fake-german and another by not going beyond the initial photo-request. we even saw the second trio at the same corner later, which forced us to take another route. we apparently got all of the scamming out of our system in one day, because we’ve not been bothered since!

as for visiting with our professor, we spent a few days with lee running (of the art department) as she finished up her final days in china and taiwan. we met up our first afternoon, in between my long naps, where she helped us find some food and show us some of the ropes about shanghai, including how to navigate the incredibly efficient, clean, and cheap subway system. that night we visited with several grinnell alums and staff at the apartment i’m writing from now—more on that later. we spent our second morning with lee at the shanghai museum, perusing the exhibits on chinese ethnic minority art and clothing, buddhist sculptures, and bamboo carvings. as lee had only been able to see some of the rooms her first time there, we focused on her leftovers; we plan on returning to do the same—there is so much incredible art and artifacts there! she took off to taiwan for the weekend that afternoon, leaving us to continue acclimating and reducing the number of daily naps. 

we spent time taking tourist-y photos of our corner of shanghai; shopping around the art supplies street; taking walks through and chilling in the numerous, perfectly-manicured (and gorgeous) parks alone and amongst locals; buying shitty umbrellas for the frequent rain; andy and i giving up being vegetarian and gluten-free (respectively—it’s truly impossible here, unfortunately); petting “lucky” the rooftop bar bunny at the hostel; and strolling through the vegas-style light-show that is nanjing road and the bund, the major tourist destination where one is constantly badgered to buy light-up roller-skates and flying things—and also view the classic shanghai skyline that is pudong, across the river. eventually, after five nights, we packed up and trekked to eric and brenda johnson’s apartment near the former french concession, farther west of our original hostel. they met at grinnell and eventually married and have traveled around quite a bit; for now, they’re in shanghai, on the sixth floor of a beautiful tower. we’re incredibly lucky to have been offered a place of this nature to stay as their family vacations in the states.

on the twenty-sixth of june, i turned twenty-two years old, so andy and i celebrated by visiting the shanghai aquarium (which was honestly not as cool or well-designed as the oregon coast aquarium—go team newport!) and meandering about the business district, pudong. again, this is where all the futuristic buildings that china’s put so much money into reside, including the oriental pearl TV tower, the jin mao building, and the shanghai world financial center—they’re all incredibly tall. we took the coolest-lamest trip back to the mainland by way of the bund sightseeing tunnel, a subway ride worthy of a knock-off disney theme park—it was painfully fun and cheesy, with flashing lights and zany sounds for a three minute trip. we walked to the marriott hotel tower at tomorrow square, across from people’s park and took two elevators to the JW lounge, where we had happy hour on the 41st floor. unfortunately, it was quite foggy so all we could really see was part of the park and the streets directly below us, but it was still a treat to sip pina coladas and whiskey from that vantage point. as dusk approached, we headed for sushi-o, a restaurant with an obvious cuisine—and an excellent one. we returned to the apartment to skype with ana before her morning classes began, which was splendid. to end our day, we walked to a nearby pirate-themed bar specializing in varieties of rum; it wasn’t nearly as ridiculous as it sounds, even on a tuesday night. i couldn’t have asked or managed to design a better celebration in china!

i suppose now is a good time to actually talk about the art we’ve found here, seeing how that’s the main reason we’re in china in the first place. the museum of contemporary art had a traveling show about van cleef & arpels jewelry. in brief, there were some beautiful objects and an incredible exhibiting presentation (featuring glass chambers, wicked lighting, and stellar ambient sound), but it was hardly contemporary chinese art, and really isn’t the kind of art that usually does much for me; on a technical level we both appreciated the craft and effort that apparently goes into each piece, but gemstones’ and diamonds’ value still seems pretty distant and uninteresting. the shanghai art museum was similarly less engaging than we’d hoped, though they at least had some contemporary pieces, and we even stumbled upon the show’s opening party. some of the pieces were interesting, but overall was somewhat disappointing.

it took reuniting with lee after she returned to shanghai to finally start seeing the more compelling galleries. again, i’m going to need to consolidate my writing, as i’m already approaching too-long a post. essentially, the M50 district was a warehouse way back when, but now stands as a collection of galleries and studios—a hot spot for shanghai art.  (they also have a cafe with excellent handmade pork-and-celery dumplings.) look M50 up online and you’ll find plenty of information about what’s there; i’m going to discuss just one piece in one gallery there, as it has impacted the potential scope and arc of my own art projects with more force than i would have expected. then, i’ve got another piece to describe.

some actions which haven't been defined yet in the revolution, a 2011 short film¹ by sun xun² and his beijing-based π (pi) animation studio, stands as one of two truly captivating pieces i’ve seen in shanghai. shown at shanghART, the film was made entirely of photographed and scanned woodcuts, most of which were animated not through computer manipulation but through the painstaking process of frame-by-frame stop-motion. (that is, a slab of wood was cut as part of a sequence of nearly-identical slabs, with slight alterations that, when viewed in succession, produced a dynamic, changing image.) even a simple sketched animation of this nature takes much planning and time—so to see an eleven minute film created with highly detailed, inked woodcuts and a stellar soundtrack was not just jaw-dropping but also instantly  inspiring and reactive. accompanying the film at the gallery were two dozen woodcuts from the animation, which made the experience even more incredible. i explained how this has generated thoughts and ideas through a report to my professor, which i will post soon; weekly reports will follow, in case you’re interested in seeing how my ideas develop while in china and back in grinnell.

the other piece was seen far more recently, on the twenty-seventh, at shine art space in the wuwei lu compound in northwestern shanghai. similar to M50, this area used to house industry but has since been overtaken by artist studios and just a couple galleries—if anything, this is where the artists work, and M50 is where the artists show (at least for shanghai). speechless, a painting³ by meng yangyang,⁴ caught both andy’s and my attention immediately. her style of oil painting implements some lovely handling of light through color, and has an excellent sense of composition and narrative, but what was fascinating to look at was how painted the piece felt, especially where the brushmarks overcame the nude, huddled figures. their faces obscured by the angle and shadow (with their backs turned to the viewer), the square canvas had moments that totally wrecked the humanness of the couple, especially in the bulging weight of the man’s head—but this was not a flaw by any means and far more a creative choice, especially with the attachment of the painting’s title. even as we meandered this out-of-town-feeling area of shanghai, where we received far more stares than we’d had yet anywhere in the city, this painting remained burned in my cortex. 

i will conclude the topic of shanghai art by mentioning the possibility of meeting with a sound artist, yin yi of BM space (body and movement), whose interactive music performance we saw at a space near the bund on the twenty-fourth. hopefully he’ll be an interesting person to talk to—and all it took was an email inquiry. perhaps meeting artists in beijing won’t be as difficult as i predicted… in any case, accidental discussions are also possible, as it was with toni, who was at both studio rouge locations in M50 and on the bund when andy and i visited them; at the latter, he recognized us and we talked about the art scenes for a while. we may call him up to hang if we have time before we depart for beijing. i suspect that is where i will next update for whoever is following my writing. i will continue to post photos intermittently, and feel free to ask specific questions regarding anything i wrote about, took a photograph of, or completely forgot. take care out there, until next time.

1. some actions… http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/2012/02_programm_2012/02_filmdatenblatt_2012_20126010.php

2. sun xun: http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/artists/name/sunxun

3. speechless: http://cnc.hihey.com/en/art-3390.html

4. meng yangyang: http://www.shineartspace.com/artists/meng%20yangyang/myy_index.html