Top trading for topical T-shirts on Taikang Road
- Source: Global Times
- [10:24 August 31 2010]
- Comments
T-shirts on Taikang Road. Photos: Courtesy of Plastered T-Shirts
By Tom Mangione
Tianzifang, an old housing block converted into shops, restaurants, art galleries and bars is one of Shanghai's must-see tourist attractions. And like all tourist destinations, there are a number of different T-shirts on display, many of them displaying the tired tropes of old Shanghai and Mao Zedong. However, Tianzifang does have a number of designers who are offering new designs, many of which have a view to Shanghai and China's past.
From Hutong to here
Plastered T-Shirts was originally started in a Beijing hutong, a traditional northern Chinese lane and the company has recently opened a new location in Tianzifang committed to offering Shanghai-based designs.
Two designs of note are one featuring female revolutionary guards and another designed for the Chinese rock band PK-14 (both 128 yuan, $18.80). The T-shirt featuring female revolutionary guards has two busty female guards below a Cultural Revolution-style banner, in front of a skull with flowers and the words "Shanghai" written in Chinese below them. The two PK-14 shirts by Shanghainese designer Popil feature cartoons depicting teenagers' growing pains, interspersed with imagery from traditional Chinese folklore.
Add: No. 49, Lane 248 Taikang Road
Going your own way
Genyuan is a store which specializes in numerous curios from both China's distant and recent past. For T-shirts, Genyuan offers a number of hand-painted, distressed fashion T-shirts featuring revolutionary guard fashionistas (199 yuan). The words "forever part of the young generation" are playfully written across the bottom in Chinese.
Another T-shirt (99 yuan) features a picture of Guan Gong, a famous character from the Chinese classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms riding a foot-powered scooter in a playful allusion to individualism. A slogan across the top says in Chinese: "Ride a scooter 1,000 kilometers." Guan Gong says: "Take your own road, let others ride in their taxi cabs."
Add: No. 17, Lane 274 Taikang Road
It's (not) a tough pill to take
Perhaps one of the gaudiest and most eye-catching displays on all of Taikang Road is the Pill Art Store at the end of Lane 210. Covered in a number of playful capsule-shaped anthropomorphic designs and portraits of cute, eyeless pigs, the storefront beckons walkers-by to enter and take a look at the T-shirts inside.
The most interesting T-shirts (158 yuan) here are the parodies of famous historical figures and scenes from famous artworks using pigs. The famous collection of busts of the four founders of Communism - Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin - are represented by the store's iconic eyeless pigs. There's also a playful recreation of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling where God gives life to Adam. Of course, the collection wouldn't be complete without a version of the smiling woman of the Louvre herself - the Mona Lisa.
Add: No. 11-A, Lane 210 Taikang Road
