Proving that nostalgia never goes out of style
New exhibitions, including a 1970s retrospective, were announced yesterday at the venerable Shanghai Great World.
“Meet 1978” is an immersive exhibit featuring recreated scenes of Shanghai’s shikumen neighborhoods, home interiors, childhood games as well as the state-owned stores and canteens of four decades ago.
All items on show were given by local collectors, including a Forever bicycle, a telephone booth, a laohu zao, or “tiger stove” and the earliest locally made 9-inch television, said Chen Xuan, general manager of Shanghai Great World.
A curator arranges a “Meet 1978” exhibit at Shanghai Great World yesterday. The scene recreates a typical 1970s residence.
A laohu zao, (tiger stove), which was a communal water heater. Residents took flasks to the stove to get water for cooking and bathing.
There are also documents, such as the city’s first foreign bond, a 1977 notice of the resumption of college entrance exams and a bus map.
The popular suit and fake collar, once a unique way to save money and still be respectably dressed, is sure to bring back many memories.
Once familiar local products will also on display, such as sugar figurines, clay sculptures and bamboo painting. There will be acrobatics, magic, stage dramas and traditional opera.
A former grain store is recreated at a “Meet 1978” exhibition at the Shanghai Great World. Locals once used grain coupons to exchange food from such stores in the 1970s.
A nostalgic photo exhibition of the Great World was also unveiled yesterday.
Photos will tell the life story of the center from its founding in 1917 through the takeover by mob boss Huang Jinrong in the 1930s to the recent reopening.
“The Great World wants to be a brand of both cultural heritage and city memories,” Chen told the press yesterday.
The exhibitions will officially open to visitors on October 1, National Day.
