As we only had a the morning today as we are back on a sleeper train again this evening, we decided to head over to the Shanghai Propaganda Poster art centre as it was recommended by some of the other guys who had visited yesterday. The place was a bit hard to find as it was in the basement of a block of flats, but definitely worth the effort to find it in the rain.

This collection of posters serves as a valuable historical document providing a remarkable glimpse into a critical period in the history of twentieth-century China.

As Winston S. Churchill famously said, "The Empire of the future will be the empire of the mind." In the days before CNN and Fox News, a still image truly was worth a thousand words and these posters were how Mao and his group informed and restored the collective mind of the Chinese people. It was a time of a heroic saga of countless victories over momentous struggle. Even so, behind the cheerful faces beaming from the posters, one can sense the true-life anxieties and hardships of the people they are purported to represent. Indeed, each poster is both a work of art and an insight into the events of those times.

www.shanghaipropagandaart.com

The gallery was a few rooms full of posters that the government had released over the last 80 years or so, many of which had been aimed at how great Chairman Mao was and how bad the US and English imperialism was. These posters depicted the changes in Chinese political views and alliances with different countries. I even managed to buy a 42 year old original felt poster “wishing chairman Mao a long long life of a thousand years” and a few postcard prints of some of the other posters.

I was glad to leave Shanghai as the Expo 2010 was just about to start and was advertised absolutely everywhere and unlike Beijing it was full of tourists and I know the I am a tourist, but I have actually got used to be the only western person around and seeing some of the real China.

The train journey this afternoon is the longest one of the trip, stated as 22 hours in the agenda, but actually turned out to be 26 hours. I swapped bunk beds with Jane as she was having trouble climbing up to the top bunk and as I had the middle one, it was easier for her to get in. I kind of liked the top one as you didn't get disturbed by anyone although it was a little claustrophobic up there.