What's on in Songjiang District in January
Purple cotton on display
A purple cotton cloth exhibition is at Songjiang Cloth Art Gallery until February 28. A natural colored cotton, purple cotton comes into purple flowers in its blooming season, but its cotton balls are yellow. Fibers of purple cotton are soft and long. When woven into cloth, they show a natural yellowish color and are durable in use. Songjiang used to be one of the most important purple cotton flower production areas. In the contemporary era, its purple cotton cloths were exported as far as to European countries. Light, tender and air-permeable, they were widely used in making women’s underwear and long skirts, and men’s trousers. At the Museum of London, visitors can still see fashionable clothes worn by high society gentlemen in Britain in the 1830s, and trousers made of Chinese purple cotton cloths are one of the items exhibited. The purple cotton cloth on display in the Songjiang gallery was mainly collected from Songjiang District, Jiangsu Province and Henan Province. Their manufacturing dates range from the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the Republic of China period (1912-1949) and the earlier period since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. The majority of the patterns are plaids.
The purple cotton cloths exhibited at Songjiang Cloth Art Gallery
Date: Through February 28 (closed on Mondays)
Tickets: Free
Venue: Songjiang Cloth Art Gallery
Address: 203 Zhongshan Road W., Songjiang District
松江区中山西路203号
City artist’s show
An exhibition displaying around 40 landscape, bird-and-flower and figure paintings and calligraphy by Shanghai artist Xu Jianrong is at that Cheng Shifa Art Gallery in Songjiang District. Xu, who graduated from Shanghai Normal University majoring in physics in 1980, later obtained his master’s degree in fine art from the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. Xu started a friendship with Cheng Shifa, a renowned Chinese painter, in the early 1970s despite their age gap. Like Cheng, Xu is a humble and amiable painter who is always willing to offer help to young painters.
A painting by artist Xu Jianrong
Date: Through February 21 (closed on Mondays)
Tickets: Free
Venue: Cheng Shifa Art Gallery
Address: 458 Zhongshan Road M., Songjiang District
松江区中山中路458号
Flowers for a new year
A flower show to celebrate the new year is at the tropical center of Chenshan Botanical Garden in Songjiang District. The venue has been decorated with Christmas wreaths, traditional Chinese ceramic flower pots and adiantum reniforme, a second-class state-protected plant in China. A highlight of the flower show is a selection of poinsettia in four colors.
The flower show at Chenshan Botanical Garden
Date: Through January 15
Tickets: 60 yuan
Venue: Chenshan Botanical Garden
Address: 3888 Chenhua Highway
辰花公路3888号
