The Shanghai Museum

More of my ongoing project to post various orphaned photos that didn't get used before. These are from the Shanghai Museum. There are some very good museums in Shanghai, but this one focuses on antiquities. I didn't make any attempt to keep track of when these works were made.


A bronze water bowl with a fun feature: there are sculptures of aquatic creatures molded into the bottom, so they are swimming in the water when full.


A bronze wine vessel. About half of the bronzes in the museum are identified as being wine vessels, which no doubt tells you something. This is a very typical Chinese form, and in fact, the building itself is in a stylized shape of one of these vessels. Sometime later, I'll comb back through all my photos and see if I have an exterior shot.




A huge bronze bell. Unless it is actually an inverted wine vessel.



A stone relief known as the "Thousand Buddha Stele". I quite liked it.

Monday Miscellany

I'm thinking of abandoning my post naming schemes, because I don't always post often enough to avoid having a chain of the same titles. I'll stay with it for tonight, however. Here are various pictures that didn't make it into any previous posts.


Our Christmas tree and Santa spread. Christmas photos were supposed to be Lee's blog topic, but she has waited too long and lost her privileges.


The kids with some Christmas morning treasures, which was actually held a few days late due to our Hong Kong trip (which was where we bought all of the presents anyway).


These were for sale all over Hong Kong, but I've never seen them in Mainland China. Click on them for a good look. I'm not sure what that has to say about cultural differences. I didn't visit the homes of any locals, of course, but dare I imagine convenient underwear dispensers on bathroom walls?




These are from a few months ago, on our very first foray into Shanghai. This is in the area known as the French Concession (or the "Former French Concession" for those who are sticklers for their anti-imperialism vocabulary). In other words, it was the part of the city that was on long term lease to the French government during the days of empire.

In their day, the concessions all had "extra-territorial rights", meaning that within their boundaries, the laws of China were superseded by the European laws. Today, that is held up as an example of the humiliation of China, and therefore a rallying cry among ardent nationalists. I really do sympathize, but the fact is that even the local Chinese did their best to keep themselves under European jurisdiction, rather than face the arbitrariness (and brutal punishments), of the Chinese Imperial courts.

In any case, this area of the city really does look like a blend of France and China. It is quite pleasant.