Decolonizing Shanghai: Design and Material Culture in the Photographs of Hu Yang

Abstract

In considering the current state of design in Shanghai, particularly in relationship to the question of globalization, it would be easy to fall into the traditional binary East-West narrative that sets up inherent tensions between a native Chinese past and Western influences ushered in by the colonial era. Remembering the significant imprint left on Shanghai culture through the partial occupation by Western nations of France, Great Britain, and the U.S. from the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries, one can sympathize with the many scholars, critics, and popular commentators who have promoted such readings. After all, even the physical composition of the city, with its distinct historical Chinese and colonial districts, serves as a daily reminder of Shanghai’s complex political and cultural past. The dichotomy is further accentuated by the metropolis’s present role as one of China’s main entry ports of business and cultural exchange with Western nations. In these early years of the twenty-first century, however, prudence should compel us to reassess whether the single East-West narrative, with its accompanying subtexts of center and margin, colonizer and colonized, remains sufficient for describing the complexity of the milieu of design and visual culture of contemporary Shanghai. In addition to questioning our conceptual framework, we also must address the issue of source material when dealing with design in Shanghai. A natural and common approach is to undertake a survey of the design products available on the Shanghai retail market. From this, one can easily construct a narrative about the types of cutting-edge global design products available in Shanghai today. However, while this type of product survey offers information about market availability, it remains one step removed from the consumer, showing what is available for sale, but revealing only marginal information about actual acquisition and the behaviors of Shanghai consumers and their cultural predilections towards design and visual culture. Also, while this type of approach may indicate something about the values of a limited subset of the Shanghai population, it tells us little about the pervasiveness of these values, and nothing about the values of those outside of this group. What are the people of Shanghai actually bringing into their spaces? What is the spectrum of their sensibilities concerning design? In what