Spotlight on: Shanghai Museum
Blog: To China... and Beyond! - 21 September 2009
By: Jess
Almost a year later, the Shanghai Museum remains one of my favorite museums in China. It has vast collections of every form of traditional Chinese art: porcelain, bronzes, sculpture, jade, calligraphy and painting, among others. What makes it stand out is the curation. The galleries are arranged by medium (ie, a sculpture gallery, a jade gallery, etc.), and the exhibits are presented with a novice in mind. For instance, the calligraphy gallery takes pains to explain the different styles of script: among them, official, running and seal scripts. This makes it much easier to understand the significance of what you are looking at, particularly if your background in Asian art is not all that deep, as mine is not. All of the permanent exhibits have extensive well-translated English captions.
A few pieces that stood out:
An example of running script
I love this guy
A beautiful piece of pearly white jade
A Buddhist sculpture
For details about visiting the Shanghai Museum, and for more sites in Shanghai, visit my Shanghai destination guide.
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