Due to jet lag and culture shock, I felt like i was a dreamlike state in Shanghai. The city itself isn't drastically different from New York, where I have lived my whole life, but I was still very attuned to the foreignness of my surroundings. I spent many a night in the hotel room thinking to myself "what am I doing here?" I came on the trip so spontaneously and haphazardly so I didn't know enough about the program and I hadn't set goals or plans for myself in the time in China. I didn't know anything about Chinese history, culture, or art. In Shanghai, I started to realize how unprepared I was for this trip.
I visited the Shanghai Museum on two separate occasions. The museum has a tremendous collection of historical Chinese artifacts including a wing dedicated to Chinese ceramics. The time I spent in this museum was my first introduction to Chinese ceramics ever. I was under the impression that all Chinese ceramics were in the "blue and white" style so I was surprised to find some stoneware and a number of black and deep purple glazes. While I did take photos of some of the pieces I appreciated aesthetically, the vast majority of the ancient ceramics were not stylistically conducive to what I am interested in at this particular point in time. I did like the delicacy of the wares from the Song dynasty as well as the Jun wares.
The second time I visited the Shanghai Museum, I rented an English audio guide which provided very little background information to enhance my knowledge of the ceramics on display. Occasionally, the guide would point out a few interstice details about how the ceramics were made, for example the hatch marks on the bottoms of foots on pots that were reminders of posts that held them up in the kiln so that the entire piece could be glazed.
Some of the wares in the museum that I liked the shapes of, especially the bottle 2nd in from the right hand side
I liked the glazing on these pieces - the dark black with blue/purple splash accents
The outside of the museum is designed to look like a bronze
