The Chinese tend to keep things in groups. If you need a button in Shanghai, there’s a street full of nothing but button shops. If you need contemporary Chinese art, head over to M50. It's a converted warehouse district with blocks of art galleries stacked six stories high.
After three days of a hectic tourist schedule, we were ready for a change of pace. Though most places didn’t allow photography, I managed to take some covert snapshots. The art was so incredible, and there was so much of it, that we ended up spending four or five hours wandering up and down the alleyways and industrial stairwells, never sure of what we’d find. In addition to the art, we stumbled upon a clothing factory that had a few designer samples for sale at great prices. Ellen was pleased, and Tori is gonna be pretty happy about it as well.
One of the gallery owners we met was a French ex-pat who’d been spent four years in Shanghai. He directed a troupe of Shanghaiese dancers and performance artists who made and sold very cool LED-based art for “pocket money”. We had a wonderful discussion with him about the Chinese people and the future of China. He echoed what we’d begun to realize – that the control of information is shocking and universal, and that the Chinese people largely don’t seem to care.
He did lament the plight of his dancers, saying that performance artists are kept under tighter control than visual artists. It’s much easier to control a painting than it is to shut someone up on a stage in front of a packed house. Our friend Steve echoed that idea when he told us about his friend the concert promoter, another ex-pat, who’d had his business essentially shuttered when Bjork, in a concert he promoted, decided to sing a “Free Tibet” song.
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