Dispatches from China: View from the Street

Having just returned from China, this will be the first of several posts on the some of the printeresting things seen while traveling. I should say that I didn’t attend the Sanbao International Printmaking Symposium and tour in Jingdezhen organized in part by Minna Resnick and Jackson Li, so I won’t be making any reports on the wonders that group may have seen (if anyone on that trip would like to post here please email me).

The observations and photographs in this post are meant to convey  a few observations of how printed matter fits into everyday life in China.

Branded fruits! I’m sure this coming to a super market near you soon.

I should add at this point in my education I can only read the most basic Chinese characters and have no idea what’s written on these fruits (any translations from our readers are most welcome).

The media buzz about China often starts with some statement about how the country is building a 21st century infastructure, well you can add their print infastructure to the list of great leaps forward fueled by the ascendent Chinese economy. Walking the streets of Beijing and Shanghai one can’t help but think that there isn’t a problem that can’t be solved with a large vinyl banner, billboard or sticker. Like many technological leap-frogs the local sign industry seems to have moved past screen printing or any US-style nostalgia for hand-painted signs.

The walls leading to an internet cafe are plastered with digitally printed posters and banners.

My what tasty offerings the food court holds!

A newly printed isometric map of a seemingly historic town.

Unlike most US cites where graffiti seems to be about self-expression and reclaiming public space from advertising, graffiti outside of gallery/artist neighborhoods is often entirely about advertising small commercial ventures, as you can see from the postings above.

Adhering to the strict hip-hop rules on sampling this umbrella skirts any Disney copy-right issues by dismembering the mouse.

There is very few things I enjoy seeing when street-walking more than commercially printed fake brick vinyl banners.

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