Nanjing

Yesterday, a group of NYU is Shanghai students took a day trip to Nanjing. It's just over an hour away from Shanghai by high speed train. Unfortunately, the weather was cold and rainy, but we still managed to see a lot of the sights and still get some incredible views! We opted to take a private tour of Nanjing, so we had our own tour bus and guide who took us to these various locations. Sadly, everything was in Chinese, so I'm not really sure what these places are or what their significance is, but this is what little I understood:

view from the high speed train (about 150mph) 

Confucius Temple 

interior that I wasn't supposed to take a picture of.

something having to do with feng shui

river boat ride!

Nanjing city wall, it is the oldest city wall in China

top of Zhongshan mountain

Shanghai propaganda poster art centre.

Wednesday afternoon, my contemporary art class took a field trip to the Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre. It's not a typical museum or gallery. PAC is located in the basement of an apartment building near the French Concession, so it's in a very nice area. There's obviously no sign advertising the center and the staircase to the basement is scary, at best. Yang Pei Ming is the Director, and he has been collecting Chinese propaganda posters for over 30 years. He often buys posters directly from printing houses, or from scholarly collections (say, ECNU decided to get rid of their collection, Mr. Yang would look at it and buy some of them). Over the years he has collected over 5000 posters.
All the posters are in Chinese, so I had no idea what they were saying, but it was interesting to see the similarities and differences in drawing/painting style from decade to decade. Most of the posters use primary colors and lots and lots of red. I don't have an interest in politics, so it was very different for me to think of propaganda as an art form.

Shanghai musings.

Classes have finally started and I'm now settling into a routine. Simple things like, grocery shopping, laundry, waking up early for class, etc. It's when you settle into a routine that you really start to notice something I would normally take for granted in the States.
I did laundry for the first time last weekend and it was not a pleasant experience. The majority of families in Shanghai do not own a dryer, so they line dry their clothes from their apartment windows. Thankfully, NYU housing has dryers. But, these are not the same dryers we're used to. These dryers are WEAK. and incredibly old. The dials on my dryer look like an old microwave.....but I think my microwave has more power. I dried my clothes for the better part of six hours Sunday afternnoon/evening and all I had after six hours was a pile of wet, warm clothes. eww.
Another thing is the internet. The internet here is SLOW. and censored, but there are ways around that. There is no way to make your internet faster. I've also found that the internet isn't very consistent either. Sometimes it's super fast,  as if I were in NY, other times I can't even load a single page.
The last thing is something I had not heard/read about before I got to Shanghai. Hallways and lobbies aren't heated. Sometimes the hallway can be older than the outside temperature! The mall is also not heated. Of course, individual apartments, classrooms, stores, etc. are heated, but the transit space is not. I assume this is for economical reasons? But I'm not quite sure. I find this very strange, since many buildings have Times Square-esque, larger than life lighting and advertisements, which is an incredible amount of energy.

the inevitable Shanghai pollution.

Something that Shanghai is notorious for is its terrible air pollution. The first week, I got the same question all the time, "How's the air??" The air in Shanghai doesn't smell any different from another large city, but it certainly looks different.
I've only seen a blue sky twice in the two weeks I've been here. twice. Shanghai also has a humid climate, but this winter was fairly dry which only makes the effects of the pollution worse on our throats! Several of the NYU in Shanghai students (including myself) have already gotten a sore throat from the poor air quality.

你 好！！

I've been in Shanghai for 10 days now and the time has gone by so fast! It takes forever to upload pictures on blogspot, so this blog will become more text based until I figure out how to get a faster internet connection. However, I am still updating my tumblr, so feel free to look at pictures there (I'm still in the process of uploading, but I post about a pic/day).
First thoughts: Shanghai is incredibly metropolitan. There are skyscrapers, taxis, j-walkers, street food, etc. Anything you can find in a major US city, you can probably find in Shanghai. So what's the difference? Well, these skyscrapers aren't commercial, they're apartment buildings, the taxis will actually run you over (and won't obnoxiously honk in the process),  and the street food only costs 1rmb (about 15 cents USD). This is also a city of 21 million people.
The notorious air pollution doesn't seem so bad at first (the air doesn't smell different or anything). But then the sun comes out, and you can't see the sky; you're reminded of this city's terrible pollution. However, the rest of the city is fairly clean. Public transportation is extremely clean (and efficient!), you rarely see trash in the streets, and the garbage bins aren't overflowing. There also aren't that many homeless people (I've seen maybe half a dozen. maybe). You do see a lot of stray dogs and cats, but be careful. They probably have rabies.
Even though Shanghai is at about the same latitude as New Orleans, it get cold here. really cold. Shanghai has a humid client, which means it feels much colder in the winter.
That's it for now—Chinese hw calls!

converse X marimekko (!!)

This spring, Converse has teamed up with Finnish design house (and a personal fave) Marimekko for a fun collaboration. Marimekko was founded in 1951 and is known for their colorfully graphic textiles. You can also shop Marimekko designs at Crate & Barrel.

Chuck Taylor All Star High Tops ($80-85)

Low Tops

Chuck Taylor All Star PJ ($75-85)

I want this one!

Jack Purcell Helen ($75)

(all images via google images and nitrolicious)

completely obsessed with this song.

spring '11 couture

I'm about a week late, but this year's couture shows were outstanding. Haute couture is French for "high-sewing" or "high-dressmaking." It is made to order for a customer, and is usually made out of very high quality fabrics and finishings. However, couture is much more than custom made clothing. The French government has a committee solely devoted to the workings of haute couture. In order to earn the right to call themselves couture, a designer must follow these rules (via wikipedia):

• Design made-to-order for private clients, with one or more fittings.
• Have a workshop (atelier) in Paris that employs at least fifteen people full-time.
• Each season (i.e., twice a year), present a collection to the Paris press, comprising at least thirty-five runs/exits with outfits for both daytime wear and evening wear.

 And now, for the collections!
Alexis Mabille

Chanel

the draping of this skirt is so dreamy

Dior

Elie Saab
Elie Saab always, always delivers a breathtaking couture collection, and this one did not fail. I'm in love with the overall color palette and the beautiful yet delicate textures in the cocktail dresses.

Givenchy
This collection is so stunning (as Tisci's couture collections always are). To me, though, this collection stands out because of the all Asian model casting, which I think only highlights the dresses. There are also a few hats made by Philip Treacy in the collection.

Valentino

(all images via style.com)