Delin Lai (University of Louisville)

Once a colonialist and capitalist icon of China, Shanghai’s image has been characterized by Neoclassical-style banks and hotels that form the Bund, high-rise apartment buildings and lantern towers of department stores that dominate the metropolis’ skyline, and neon signs that highlight movie theaters, ballrooms and their fashionable patrons. The 1959 movie, Jintian Wo Xiuxi (It’s My Day Off), however, exhibits a socialist image of the city. Through the activities of a policeman and their spatial settings, this comedy visualizes the social organization, urban administration and gender roles of citizens of socialist Shanghai, as well as architecture of various types for shaping and serving this society. Differs from most of the former visual representations of Shanghai, this movie is a socialist reconfiguration of a modern Chinese city... (read more at event page)