Some good friends from the US were in Shanghai for a super-short visit today (they'll be back very briefly next week). They're interested in religion, history and, especially, monuments and memory so I took them from their Hudek-designed hotel in the former French Concession past the
HQ of the TSPM (Three Self Patriotic Movement) to the Bund, including the martrys' monument at its north end with its little museum. On then to Xintiandi, where we experienced the shock of going from the room where the Communist Party had its first meeting, in a museum of "relics," to the the high-end shopping and entertainment center, built of reclaimed
shikumen bricks, which envelops them. It was my first time for both museums... the rest of Shanghai makes it hard not to gloss over the eventful 1930s-1980s - the Mao years. Next week we go to
Longhua!
Some good friends from the US were in Shanghai for a super-short visit today (they'll be back very briefly next week). They're interested in religion, history and, especially, monuments and memory so I took them from their Hudek-designed hotel in the former French Concession past the 
HQ of the TSPM (Three Self Patriotic Movement) to the Bund, including the martrys' monument at its north end with its little museum. On then to Xintiandi, where we experienced the shock of going from the room where the Communist Party had its first meeting, in a museum of "relics," to the the high-end shopping and entertainment center, built of reclaimed shikumen bricks, which envelops them. It was my first time for both museums... the rest of Shanghai makes it hard not to gloss over the eventful 1930s-1980s - the Mao years. Next week we go to Longhua!
