Shanghai Surprise - All Hail Chairman Mao

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Day Five means more Fantastic Food

Today I met up with Niall again to continue our political encounters in Shanghai (funny that it worked out this way), yesterday was the American Presidential Election and how appropriate would it be to check out the China Propaganda Museum?

The Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Center has the best collection in the world of the Chinese propaganda posters from 1949-1979. With couple of hundreds of pieces out of its collection of over 4000 original posters on display. In those thirty years there was one man always shone in the sky like the sun from the East. Chairman Mao Zedong directed the stage of China as a drama master of his political movements one after another. His last but worst piece is the Culture Revolution that remains in the minds of the Chinese people as a nightmare. All these posters were cultivated by the tears and blood of people and have witnessed the happiness and bitterness of China.

The small little exhibit was full of posters, all so colorful and backed with such meaning and power. Most of them were drawn up by art students at the time. Not only was the artwork something to admire, but the meaning and history behind all of it instilled a greater sense of appreciation in me. I want to apologize as I didn't get to copy down many of the English translations. I was lucky to even have taken this pictures, as I was not supposed to...(:o)

After the interesting poster tour, Niall and I said our farewells, goodlucks, and safe travels, and I was headed to meet Adeline for some classic snacks. 😊

She took me to a popular spot where they steam little buns/dumplings. They look like buns, but the outer layer is very thin and delicate (much like dumplings) but strong enough to hold in all the succulent juices and soup of the pork or hairy crab filling. Adeline told me that there usually are line ups depending on the time of day. Similar to Yang's dumplings, there was a team of 6 people busy making the little packages fresh from scratch.

From there Adeline and I met up with her husband (Serina's brother), Frankie, at a Shanghai restaurant called Jade Garden. Very VERY good classic Shanghai food with excellent service and all in a preserved historical building. There was even a live piano man, pumping out some Beethoven, Mozart, and one of my favourite classical songs: Claire De Lune (heard in Ocean's 11 ending scene - youtube it). A great dinner with great company. I was sad to say my goodbye's as this was an indication of my time in Shanghai drawing to a close. Down to my last day!!!

However! I obviously wasn't done for the night and did what I do best and met up with Nick for some drinks and a party out on the town. WHOOO! 😱

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Photos

Propaganda Posters
Early Mao Era

Propaganda Posters cont'd
Main Mao era - Russian + Chinese Communist parties are taking over

Prop. Posts
Ending of Mao Era

The Red Sun Rules
"Long live Marxism, Leninism, and Mao Zedong thought!" [caption]

Niall and I
A great cultural learning experience!

Siu Long Bow's
The dumpling/Buns with crab (left) and pork (right) fillings

Jade Garden
As if one sign wasn't enough

I love food
Tofu, Chicken, Pork with Gelatin (it was really good), kind of like a harder Pate.

Eel!
The eel was thinner, but it was in a sweet black bean sauce.

Crispy fish and veggies
You put this in a wrap

Shanghai Noodles!
So apparently, the dish I I thought was Shanghai fried noodles, actually doesn't exist in Shanghai. It's a HK thing. But they had it here and it was so good.