Clashing portraits, Shanghai, China, 2006 by Phil Douglis

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19-MAR-2006

Clashing portraits, Shanghai, China, 2006

A huge Mao button can't quite hide the allure of a vintage advertisement on the wall of an Old Shanghai antique stall. The two portraits superimposed upon each other almost randomly make an incongruous match. The Mao button abstracts the face on the ad as well. All we see of it is the eye peeking out at us. The scale, colors, styles and the genders clash, and so do the ideologies. Mao did not approve of capitalism, and that is what advertising is all about.

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Phil Douglis		12-Aug-2006 21:19
It was the antique dealer's display idea which initially created the incongruity you see here, Jude. But I was able to intensify it by shifting my vantage point very carefully to give you that teasing eye look.

Jude Marion		12-Aug-2006 19:38
I find this image very humourous. The 'old' postergirl partially covered by the 'old' Mao image - an interestng juxtaposition. Symbolically, this is incongruous, too, as you mention, because Mao's ideologies did not approve of capitalism / advertising. But I see the postergirls eye looking at the viewer ... her face covered but not completely, as if she is saying, teasingly, "I'm here, I've come back. Can you see me?"

Phil Douglis		13-Jul-2006 04:38
I am sure you are right about that -- everything in China is new, even though it may look old. But the clash of symbols is still there, kitsch or not.

Guest		10-Jul-2006 22:39
that was newly-reproduced tobacco poster behind a mao icon everything there in that shop probably are newly-reproduced nostalgia kitsch

Phil Douglis		23-Apr-2006 18:01
And your comment is very special to me, Jen. You give us a view of Mao as symbol from a Chinese point of view. It is wonderful to know that my image, made from a Western point of view, is so special to you. Your eloquent sentence "Sadly, it only took a few decades to put what my grandma truly believed into an antique stall" picks up where Tim and I left off in our discussion. Your comment tells us how much China, and indeed the world, have changed since the days when Mao buttons were held holy by many. I am glad I made you remember how you honored your grandma's passions with that gold Mao pin. You are confirming your own roots as well. Together we view this image of the past peering at us through another part of the past as nostalgia. Antique stalls sell nostalgia, items that awaken sentimental longings and affection for the past. I am happy that this image helped you to awaken memories of your own past, Jen.

Jennifer Zhou		23-Apr-2006 06:45
When I see this Chairman Mao button, I still vividly remember the old days when I was a kid, there was a drawer in every family that stored all kinds of Chairman Mao's buttons and badges, and the kids would show them off to each other to see who has got the biggest collection. We didn't think too much about the button itself at that time, it was pretty much just a thing to play with. But I also remember that my grandma worshiped Chairman Mao, and always wore one of those. On one of her birthday, I bought a gold Chairman Mao badge as a gift, she loved it, she put it on and never really took it off again, until she passed away. Sadly tt took only a few decades, to put what my grandma truely believed in in an antique stall. This is how things go, one period covers another, but nothing can really replace anything completely. As in here, that attractive young woman is peeking through time at this present world, it is somehow still familiar, because they were our past, where we came from.. Thank you Phil for making this photo, it is very specail to me!

Phil Douglis		19-Apr-2006 21:06
Thanks, Tim, for adding this summation. You are right -- the components of old and new China make fragile partners. But China is no longer sealed off in its own world -- the economic engine of the new China is having a profound effect on the entire world, and the world reciprocates. What we see in this image are stereotypes, icons of a past that are nostalgic but no longer at the core of this culture.

Tim May		19-Apr-2006 17:22
And now both appear in an "antique" stall - in the new China - an uneasy conglomerate of both.

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