Calligraphy is a revered art in China and must be studied for many years. Calligraphy style reflects the type of message being sent or expressed.
This day I checked out Shanghai Art Museum on Nanjing Road. It was a weekend only exhibition of very famous calligraphers from all over China (and Japan on the 3rd floor). After viewing the calligraphy exhibition, an informative young Chinese scholar gave me the run-down on what I’d seen. According to him -and he showed me differences between very formal calligraphy once used to write letters and correspondence to the emperor versus an informal style- the artists express an idea or a thought they have about life, humanity or people, and try to share it with others.
Sunday, 29, August 1999 – Calligraphy and Beanie Babies in Shanghai
Calligraphy style also reflects the type of message being sent or expressed. It is a very fine and revered art in China and must be studied for many years. I had already noticed stylistic variations from fine point well-manicured script to broad stroke loose-brushed lettering, portraying and revealing different emotions or evoking various feelings.
The exhibition was shorter than I thought, so I still had plenty of time to stroll the street. After the guy explained everything to me and showed me this large book which was for sale, he explained that the exhibition was only here for Fri-Sat-Sun “because people work during the week”.
He didn’t expect me to buy the book or want anything from me, he just wished me “a nice stay in Shanghai.”
I then ventured mistakenly into a humongous mall-conglomerate called World City or something, where every floor was another “city” like sports, men’s, kids, “costume city” (which turned out to be women’s wear -tacky stuff!) and food city. People were lined up for all of the escalators and even going to-and-from a floor meant waiting in line. It was so awfully crowded, I don’t know what possessed me to wait in line for the escalators (and I was the only westerner there among probably 100,000’s of people). I guess it was Costume City which misled me on floor-7 and the possibility of ceramics and vases on the top households floor, which turned out to be trashy.
Once I caught the shuttle home, I turned around and walked up to the plant, bird, antique, flower market near our complex. It’s the market where I had found some rare extinct beanie babies the day we went with Sophia to get her turtles. Well sure enough, the seller had loads of good, rare, old ones- including many collectors items which fetch a pretty penny according to her BB Collectors Guide, which she conveniently had on hand to show me and match them up, as I piled up a worthwhile collection.
I’ve never even bought one Beanie Baby at home and now here I was going out of control snapping them up at 10 Yuan each ($1.25) already thinking of resale opportunities, as well as hard to find gifts. I left with a bag full and only 5 Yuan left to my name. I bought over 50 of them!!! And I made her sell me a canvas tote to carry them all so Luise and the girls wouldn’t see them and think I was as crazy as I am. (Good thing- as they incidentally drove by in the car picking me up on their way home!!) Small town of 13 million or what?
