jesus, you wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to upload photos around here. some net cafes’ USB ports are disabled, while others will allow you to use their USB ports for a higher hourly rate (VIP lounge = 5 RMB/hour). it doesn’t make sense. not that i should whine about it, cuz it’s still satisfyingly affordable.

you also wouldn’t believe how many snickers bars and american fast food meals i’ve consumed. the mao muffintop is doing quite well. did you know that in china, KFC far surpasses McD’s in popularity?

remember when starbucks first opened in the forbidden city seven years ago, to a resounding firestorm-starting “BOO!!!” ? well, i guess starbucks finally succumbed to the battle and closed, but now a new debacle is a brewin’: it’s been replaced by another cafe.

last piece of trivia: napalm death recently played their first show in china. i wish i could’ve gone!

this is my another shanghai-related post, and it’s about two excellent, solid, first-rate museums: the shanghai museum, and the shanghai munipical history museum.

the former is shanghai’s pride and joy, and rightly so. it’s gloriously classy and well-done. the galleries–each with its own flavor–are intelligently executed, with clear organization and creative design. effective educational tools included wall charts with examples (i.e., shards of ceramics to illustrate different dynasty styles), and a reproduction of the ceramics/porcelain process, replete with kilns. i was beyond impressed. not only does it possess a strong collection, it also showcases it very well.

the latter was simply tons of fun. don’t let the stale name of this must-see museum fool you. it was wicked AWESOME. half the time i was laughing out loud to myself, overtaken by the immensely clever, diverse, and endearing methods that were used to convey ideas and tell a grand story – that of shanghai’s history and how it came to be. they used frighteningly realistic wax figures (a little too come-to-life), miniature cardboard cut-outs of photographed people, dioramas, photo backdrops, music and ambient sounds, video installs, elaborate settings, etc. this is crude, but it was slightly reminiscent of disney’s pirates ride. god it was cool.

if you’re ever in shanghai, you’ve got to check out these two institutions.

i’ll shut up now and let the photos speak for themselves!

SHANGHAI MUSEUM

looks like a giant bamboo steamer, eh?

the fake kiln even had flickering flames, and this was the source

one gallery was devoted exclusively to seals/chops

and another to numismatics

now, on to the SHANGHAI MUNICIPAL HISTORY MUSEUM

i thought this was such a nice touch

um, cleanup in the 1920s aisle?

adrian tomine, what are you doing here?

omg, this was one of the FUNNIEST THINGS EVERRRRRRRRRR – an opium den

this guy’s face…man oh man…mirthquake!
kids, don’t ever try this at home

mr. huang, i, uh, i…i think you’ve had enough

uhh, talk to the (elegantly gesturing) hand!

this just totally blew my mind. think of aaaaall the work that went into creating this

gotta get my money gotta get my money gotta get my money gotta get my money *scratches self a million times*

getting her hair did

i’m *cough* not *HACK* feeling too…hot *falls over*

tiny video installation depicting brutality of poverty

check out the poor wallflower. this display was illustrating the opulent lifestyle of the foreign aristocrats. these dolls were so funny because they were so ugly and scary. the heads of the ones sitting down were all hanging back like they were drunk, and everyone wore an oversized wig

they were all this terrifying. no wonder no one wants to dance with fuggos

to top it all off, they had a blue screen where visitors could be superimposed onto a busy 1920s-30s street. talk about ending with a bang

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 29th, 2007 at 9:59 am and is filed under arts, asia, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.