shanghai

 third time in shanghai in less than a year. and this time with george, rupali and ten students from the third year doing a study on housing and rehabilitation processes. they followed the history of the family home of their chinese friends as they moved from neighbourhood to neighbourhood through generations. from the old shi ku men of the old town to the extended suburbs; from the slums to the old town to the workers housing of the 50s. each of the stories was a story of erasure- a perpetual movement upwards and away- outside the inner city as it instead becomes a hotbed of activities catering to international investment. these stories then were made into fold out narrative drawings that were reminiscent of chinese scrolls. i don't think there was a better way of seeing the city.

meanwhile, george, rupali and i, walked streets i had been to before and so many new ones. naturally a trip through the swanky tianzifang and xintiandi areas, along with the new hotels being built on the way. some of the old shikumen still lie untouched but are to become a museum for shikumen by displacing everyone who lives there. the irony is felt by no one.

shikumen

clothes mall

north of the suzhou

the bund

the suzhou

the bund

nanjing road

shanghai railway station

around baoshan road

shanghai university

a trip another day to the outskirts of the city went past relentless housing slabs and gardens- an american suburb redux- complete with a central park. the shanghai institute for international studies was disney lived.

of all the fascinating new things we did, the underground theatre of communist memorabilia films was perhaps the most exciting. salvaging old film that had been neglected from being destroyed in the post mao years, this man collected scraps of history and projected them in a room packed with posters, cups, trophies of the mao years.

communist memorabilia theater

mall dancing in the evening

final presentations

 

in and around the shanghai international studies university