Acrobatics and Art

I have had another exciting week in Shanghai and this week also marks the fact that I will have been in China for 1 month. Though it’s a complete contradiction,  it feels like it has gone both slowly and fast. I think because I have done so much it feels like I have been here a lot longer.

Tonight I went to the Shanghai Centre so to a Chinese acrobatic show. It was really interesting and showcased many different forms of acrobatics and entertainment from circus acrobatics to magic to ‘Cirque du Soleil’ style acrobatics. It was simple yet very impressive, especially the agility and skill that goes into the performance. It was a very enjoyable evening and makes me want to see more theatre here.

After already having seen the ‘Pixar: 25 Years of Animation’ exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) which was of course an international exhibit,  I also had the opportunity to go to the opening of ‘Huang Yao: Cartoonist, Scholar, Painter 1917-1987’ at the Shanghai Art Museum.

Hosted by The Huang Yao Foundation, the exhibition is a retrospective of his varied work. He started as a journalist at the Shanghai Post and is considered an important artist from 1930‘s period. In the earlier half of his career he was an innovative cartoonist created a famous Niubizi Chinese cartoon character which went on to be published in Malay. His cartoons range from children’s cartoons to comical to revolutionary political protest.

I was very intrigued by this exhibition on a personal level considering my heritage and find it fascinating learning about the context and relationship of place and time in Asian art.
In the middle period of his career, Huang Yao travelled all around Asia including to Kunming, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok an spent much of his later life in Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Alor Setar. He helped shape many educational policies in Malaysia including libraries and adult education and wrote the book ‘The History of Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore.’ Later in life Huang Yao produced more paintings with a less politically charged edge than his earlier work including scenes of children. He was once quoted as believing that “art is our common source of happiness” and I couldn’t agree more.

Both museums are located in People’s Park which an extremely nice serene respite from the bustle and buildings of the city. There are many gardens and tree and pretty lotus ponds and people sit around playing mahjong and little kids run round and play.

oolong tea and tea snacks

Also this past weekend after collecting my fabulous dress from the fabric market (which fitted and looked even nicer than expected!) I went to famous Huxinting tea house in old town located in the middle of the lake pavilion at Yuyuan Gardens. I had the oolong tea and also ordered tea snacks - fermented quail’s eggs, green tea jelly sweet things, some kind of dried fruit, fried bean curd (tofu) which were interesting and of course very different to the usual type of things we have for tea in England (I had been expecting sweet rather than savory foods!)

Aside from the tea snacks, I have also continued with my culinary exploration and tried out different regions. I had Yunnan food at Lapis Yun at Mall 88 on West Nanjing Road where I sampled black pineapple rice, chicken curry, spring rolls and Yunnan noodles which was very nice and different from other Chinese food I have eaten before. Also had really nice Sichuan food from a place called Pinchuan - had the beef meatball soup and green beans with chilli which was very spicy and hot which I liked very much. And finally went for dinner at Crystal Jade and had crisp pork served with mustard, green beans, chilli and mincemeat, lemon chicken, duck pancakes - all food which I missed very much from eating it in Singapore so really enjoyed it!

Being British i have to discuss the weather - which is still very extreme! Scorchingly hot one minute then pouring down with rivers of rain and thunderstorms the next! Last night there was a lot of lightning which was kinda of freaky. Actually the type of temperature after it has rained (but isn’t pouring down on you) is probably the best time to be out walking about as it is relatively cool.

xoxo