In case you were wondering,

THIS is what is going on in Shanghai right now.  And this.  But my favorite has to be this. These days I’m just as likely to click on Shanghaiist as I am SFist.  It isn’t enough that I have to keep up with what’s going on in San Francisco; I have to take our sister city arrangement very seriously.

While there’s plenty of excitement in all this potential energy, I’m actually more interested in what will remain after the Shanghai Expo.  We seemed to make out alright, didn’t we?

PS good job Shanghaiist!  We look forward to your reportage over the coming months.

The Other Shanghai: JG Ballard

I would sum up my fear about the future in one word: boring. And that’s my one fear: that everything has happened; nothing exciting or new or interesting is ever going to happen again… the future is just going to be a vast, conforming suburb of the soul.

–JG Ballard

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neighborhood love

The way I see it, there are two ways to go: either wear yourself out hitting every event, every screening, and every talk for the SFIAAFF (um, cloning option, please?), or, just deal and hope that the shorts program isn’t as good as it looks.  I may be reasonably motivated as far as film goes, but give me one night to see something and chances are I’ll keep my fingers crossed for good distribution luck.

Perhaps for this reason I am grateful for longer-running exhibitions, not the least because I’m lazy, but because I’m a glutton for return visits–especially if they involve something that can be done during my lunch hour.

This afternoon I was watching the final touches being put on the Main Library‘s Korean Comics exhibition.  U.C. Berkeley’s Dr. Sung Lim Kim curated the show in the Jewett Gallery, which runs through June 13.  Trina Robbins–who will be at the Asian Art Museum for an exciting lecture this June–will be part of an esteemed panel on Manwha for girls on April 8th.

While you’re at the museum, take the elevator up to the third floor to visit the Chinese Center, a drool-worthy collection of books rivaled only by the excellent Shanghai embroideries on view there until May 31st.
It’s no mystery why I rarely leave the neighborhood.

Your Weekend Plans

And because this is San Francisco, your weekend starts now.

You have just Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to catch the Swinging Chinatown exhibit at The Old Mint.   A colleague and I took a walk through the beautiful decrepitude of the old building last Monday and were enthralled by the stories of the performers and artists responsible for changing the way Asian Americans were perceived.

A group from Creativity Explored was in the museum today, probably in part because of this great show at the 16th Street gallery.  The opening is tonight, but I can almost guarantee there won’t be Shaolin monks in the Mission, because they’re all at tonight’s MATCHA!.

What else is going on this weekend that I’m going to miss?

Meanwhile, in the frozen North

We’re all swept up in Shanghai’s opening weekend, but I didn’t want to wait another moment to congratulate the fantastic design team that is Meomi (aka, Vicki Wong and Michael Murphy).  When I first got word that they were responsible for the Vancouver Olympics mascots, I was doubly happy.  Firstly, because I’m a huge fan of them as illustrators, and secondly because this represents a savvy design move on the part of the Olympics.  Click over to Meomi’s Olympics flickr set and you’ll see what I mean.

We try to keep their Octonauts series in the museum store, but I’m expecting their books to sell out as quickly as Oliver Chin’s Year of the Tiger books did for our Lunar New Year celebration last weekend.  Obviously, I am powerless when confronted by the charms of a cartoon Sasquatch.

The Other Shanghai: 凱蒂貓

You have been given entry into the exclusive province of museum installation; as our guest, you are witness to the realization of years of planning and much strenuous labor.  An air of expectation is palpable, as always, in the fleeting days  preceding an exhibition.

What awaits us is a land at once imaginary and real–Shanghai the concept, the dream–and its rise from a divided, shanty-filled port to innovative megalopolis.

But I want to talk about something you won’t see in the exhibition.

Shanghai’s Hello Kitty House was one of the first images to turn up while I was doing research last year, and although I’ve yet to find anyone who has actually stayed there, I’m willing to believe the place exists.

Thanks to the encyclopedic nature of the internet, I later discovered that the Shanghai subway’s #6 line is also known as the “Hello Kitty Line,” distinguished from other lines by its decidedly femme details (it makes more sense when you see it on the map).

Shanghai represents an imaginary place for me–I’ve never been, but whenever friends return I hear that I’d love the place.  Much in the same way early mapmakers set a course over paper without having seen a land’s shores, I’m doing the same to Shanghai.  Curators and couriers bring us the proof of another world, and we piece together the idea of a place.

I can’t wait to see what the ephemeral city holds for us.

New Year, Old Gift

image courtesy of ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive

As much as I’d like to give you red envelopes stuffed with cash (for the whippersnappers, of course–red envelopes are traditionally given to those younger than yourself), I’m a little broke right now.

Instead, for your Lunar New Year gift, I will give you the first Chinese feature-length animated film, Princess Iron Fan (Tie Shan Gong Zhu).

This 1941 film by the pioneering Wan brothers came out of the Xinhua Film Company, a feat in itself, as Shanghai was under Japanese occupation at the time. Xinhua may have been one of the last of the Shanghai studios to hold out against occupying force’s business interests, but was eventually merged with Japanese-controlled studios.

The details of the film are charmingly Fleischer-esque, and for those familiar with Chinese epics you’ll know that film is based on an episode from Journey to the West. When the film was screened in Japan, a young Tezuka saw it and it influenced him greatly.

Here’s a preview on youtube–but you can watch the film in its entirety at the Internet Archive.

We hope to see you all for this Sunday’s Lunar New Year Celebration!

a new neighbor?

Public art: love it or hate it, you can’t deny that it provokes a lively public debate (and a lot of name-calling on SFist or Craigslist).

Personally, I’m looking forward to the possibility of seeing this in our front yard.

You may remember Zhang Huan as the cover boy for Britta Erickson’s exhibition and catalog of the same name, On the Edge: Contemporary Chinese Artists Encounter the West.

Zhang Huan, My New York

Splitting his time between New York and Shanghai, Zhang’s work is dynamic and physically demanding.  Although trained as a painter, his oeuvre is largely comprised of rigorous performances and monumental sculpture, the latter of which is no less challenging.  In this instance, the artwork may prove too heavy for the Civic Center Garage, which is housed beneath the expanse of the plaza.

Whether the piece will make it remains to be seen; however, there’s no denying that the Buddha would be a nice addition to the roster of exhibition-and-expo-related events that are taking over the city for the rest of the year.

See you in Shanghai

The end of Emerald Cities, a farewell to the treasures of Burma and Thailand, and words fail me.

Better to let a photograph do the work.

Pandaphants. AFP/Getty Images

Joyous Holiday

If you grew up in a Chinese-American household (or had extended Chinese family like I did), you know that holidays can be a big deal regardless of religion.

Traditions of years past have have included the requisite dim sum breakfast and North Indian dinner, with occasional forays into pho and Burmese samusa soup.   Seeing restaurants in the Richmond District packed on Christmas Day is proof that the combination of food, family, and friends makes a holiday in this city more than anything else.

Our museum isn’t open on December 25th, but that doesn’t mean that Asia doesn’t know how to celebrate putting shiny stuff on a tree.

Adam Minter makes just this point in his blog, Shanghai Scrap.  For your culturally incongruous pleasure, here are 141 displays of arboreal enhancement.

I kind of want to offer a prize for the first person who finds me this project’s equal for menorahs–given Shanghai’s Jewish history, I was surprised to not find more pictures.  Anyone?