Shanghai Pride

As well as being an annual gay festival, Shanghai Pride is a week-long celebration of creativity across all media.

On the street, Chinese-language lifestyle magazines such as Shanghai Tatler, Elle, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Marie Claire crowd every corner newsstand. Christian Dior, Gucci and Louis Vuitton shops glut Shanghai’s top-end malls, while trendy boutiques line French Concession streets such as Changle Rd, Xinle Rd and Nanchang Rd.

However, Shanghai still has a long way to go just to catch up with its own 1930s fashion scene, when images of Chinese women clad in figure-hugging qipao (cheongsam) gave rise to its epithet as the ‘Paris of the East’.

Shanghai Fashion Week (www.shanghaifashionweek.com) is a biannual event showcasing the work of local, national and international designers. There is also the city-sponsored, month-long International Fashion Culture Festival in March or April.

Martial Arts

China lays claim to a bewildering range of martial-arts styles, from the flamboyant and showy, inspired by the movements of animals or insects (such as Praying Mantis Boxing), to schools empirically built upon the science of human movement (eg Wing Chun). Some pugilists stress a mentalist approach while others put their money on physical power. On the outer fringes are the esoteric arts, abounding with metaphysical feats, arcane practices and closely guarded techniques.

An art salon on Moganshan Rd, Image Tunnel (www.imagetunnel.com) screens absorbing independent Chinese films on Saturday afternoons; browse films clips and photos on its website.

Many fighting styles were once secretively handed down for generations within families and it is only relatively recently that outsiders have been accepted as students. Some schools, especially the more obscure styles, have been driven to extinction partly due to their exclusivity.

Unlike Western fighting arts – Savate, kickboxing, boxing, wrestling etc – Chinese martial arts are deeply impregnated with religious and philosophical values. Closely linked to martial arts is the practice of qigong, a technique for cultivating and circulating qi around the body. Qi can be developed for use in fighting to protect the body, as a source of power or for curative and health-giving purposes.

Shanghai’s parks are good places to go to look for teachers of taichi and wushu (martial arts), although language may be a barrier. Check the listings of entertainment magazines such as That’s Shanghai, City Weekend or Time Out Shanghai for classes, or check for courses at the Longwu Kungfu Center, the Wuyi Chinese Kungfu Centre or the Mingwu International Kungfu Club.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14