A few weeks ago, a local Chinese coworker, Hannah, and I went to the Shanghai Design and Fashion Fair (or DAFF for short) hosted by The Ice Cream Truck. We rode the metro after work to an area called Cool Docks alongside the river just south of the Bund. Cool Docks is a hip spot with Western and Thai restaurants, coffee shops sprinkled about, a covered outdoor event area with a fantastic view of the Oriental Pearl, and one bar that even has a few outdoor sand volleyball courts facing the river. DAFF was held in the outdoor event space.
The event was advertised as free, but there was a suggested donation at the door. Some people ignored the suggestion; including us (we only brought enough money for food man!). Western food vendors were all clustered together at this one event! They typically take a decent amount of traveling to get to, unless you live in the more expensive parts of the city. Hannah got a jumbo hot dog, but at the gumbo booth I got turned down because the Louisiana native had just run out of food. Instead, I opted for a Japanese booth’s egg and cabbage thing, a dark beer imported from Kentucky, and a brownie. Y’all, it didn’t just look like a brownie (which, if you’ve ever been to China, you know is an impressive feat because food isn’t always what it seems), but this tasted like a real, chocolate, home-baked brownie. It’s always fun to get Western food with the local Chinese because their opinions about what tastes good makes me laugh. Hannah thought my brownie was too sweet, and so goes most Chinese opinion about Western style food. The food you're crazy about and think everyone should love can get the completely opposite reaction from the typical Chinese person.
There were craft vendors stretched out along both sides of the event, mostly selling jewelry and bags and such. My two favorite booths were the lamp and the crowd-funding booths. The lamps were made out of old Chinese tin cans and the crowd-funding booth was representing an organization that’s taken the same idea as the Kickstarter, Fundly, and Indiegogo platforms and tailored them for easy use in China. Some of the well-known fundraising platforms have found it hard to do business or grow in China because of laws surrounding the funding of nonprofits, international currency exchange, internet firewalls, etc. These guys really have something and I’m excited to watch and see if their organization will take off. The Chinese government is starting to encourage more creativity and social enterprises are popping up at rapid rates in the large city centers like Beijing, Chengdu, and Shangahi.
After eating dinner and meandering around the booths, Hannah and I watched the fashion show. Honestly, I have no opinion. It was somewhat entertaining, but I am in no position to be a judge. It was more fun watching everyone else and seeing their reactions to the different fashions. I also found it interesting that most of the models were not Asian.
DAFF was oh so fun, and worth attending, but being at the event you wouldn’t think you were in a city of over 23 million people. DAFF was heavily advertised all around Shanghai, targeting local and expat Chinese creatives. That’s just China, though. As my roommate would say, “Shanghai can be rather monochrome. A city of this size should not be this flat line.” While I could formulate a hypothesis based on government structure, the expanding economy, and recent history, I’m not really sure why this is. Creative leaders in the city feel the same way. Last month I went to a short film festival at The Nut. The Nut is a multicultural arts and events space in Shanghai committed to bringing a diverse array of artistic content to the people and was founded by Marcin Gajewski who was recently interviewed by Time Out Shanghai. In response to why The Nut was hosting free short film nights, Gajewski said, “I believe it’s important to actively build up a community. I might sound like a wishy-washy hippy, but I really mean it. Shanghai is a place of fleeting interests and is constantly in flux. It’s easy to party every night but it is hard to be surprised and stimulated, especially from a cultural point of view.” (Davison, 2013) Props to Gajewski at The Nut and all those from The Ice Cream Truck for organizing DAFF and other creative events in Shanghai. While I’m not an artist nor have I even been a part of an artist community, I certainly appreciate what they create.
Katie Welborn is a native South Carolinian and recent Shanghai resident. She currently works at an international school while helping out with two of Shanghai's non-profits, The Nest and GoodToChina. Find out more about Katie in her mini interview or check out her blog at http://katiewelborn.wordpress.com/.
Want more...?
Check out more pictures from the DAFF event at The Ice Cream Truck's website!
Or visit their Facebook page.
Experience The Nut for yourself at their official website.
Check out more pictures from the DAFF event at The Ice Cream Truck's website!
Or visit their Facebook page.
Experience The Nut for yourself at their official website.