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| Shanghai - Catch if you can June 2006
From May 1st 2006 Madame Tussauds has just opened a museum in downtown Shanghai, its sixth project worldwide. Visitors can enjoy waxwork models of 75 Asian and international celebrities, including Liu Xiang, a Chinese sprinter, Jackie Chan and Brad Pitt, both actors. Guo Jingjing, an Olympic diving champion, reportedly had to hold her diving pose for two hours while she was measured. The Shanghai museum encourages some visitor participation. Basketball fans will be able to shoot hoops with Yao Ming, while aspiring vocalists can sing along with the popular Hong Kong band "Twins". The only real concern for the museum is whether the waxworks can withstand Shanghai's steamy summer temperatures, which can reach up to 40ºC. In case of a meltdown, spare body parts have been prepared. New World Department Store, Nanjing East Rd, 10th floor. Admission: 100 yuan. Until July 1st 2006 This exhibition is an attempt by Luo Yong Jin, a photographer, to illustrate China's changing approach to architecture. Chinese homes used to hide behind bland, featureless walls. Today, the expanding middle classes take pride in new houses that display their wealth. Thousands of three-storey palaces are springing up all over the countryside around Shanghai. To western tastes they may appear ugly, awkward and unnervingly homogenous, often surrounded by barren land. In this 36-photo display, Mr Luo contrasts such homes with the diaolou of the southern Chinese city of Kaiping. These strikingly beautiful towers from the Qing era (1644-1911) were fortified houses that protected inhabitants from bandits. Artsea Studio and Gallery, Building 9, 2nd Floor, 50 Moganshan Road . Tel: +86 (0)21 6227 8380. Admission free. Open: daily, 10am-6pm.
June 16th–July 7th 2006 This exhibition of work by Chen Wenling explores the human form and man's place in nature. The fluid simplicity of his bronze and glass sculptures suggest a certain optimistic innocence, while his depictions of pigs, either balanced on top of one another or fused with human figures, are playful and entertaining. The display's light mood belies Mr Chen's troubled personal history. In 1996 he was stabbed a dozen times during a robbery in his hometown of Xiamen, and survived despite having the arteries in both his wrists pierced. In a country where violent crime is extremely rare, this was one of the bloodiest incidents in the city's recent history. Doland/Duolun Museum of Modern Art, 27 Duolun Road, Sichuan Bei Road. Tel: +86 (0)21 6587 2530. Open: Tue-Sun 10am-6pm.  |
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