TRAVEL | CHINA | STREET ART

Discovering An Abundance of Street Art In China

A surprising discovery in my long-lost photos.

Finally, after procrastinating and putting it off for multiple months while I’ve been back in Canada, I dug out my old hard drive that I had stored at my parents. The tote that it was in was buried at the back of their storage unit in their condo parking garage.

It seemed a daunting task to try and get it out since we had to remove a bunch of other stuff to get at it. But a couple of weeks ago, we dug the tote out and reorganized the rest of the stuff that was in the storage unit.

I hoped that on the hard drive were my 2008 photos from China. For some reason, I had photos from the same trip and other parts of South East Asia saved in my Dropbox account, but I didn’t have any from China.

It was strange.

I was a bit concerned that they wouldn’t be recoverable, but after just a few clicks, I located them and copied them over to my computer. Easy peasy.

Now I wonder; Why I didn’t do this sooner? I have been back in Canada for 5 months now, after all.

Some of you who have read my previous writing may recall me complaining about not being able to find my China photos. My skyscraper submission in June was lacking my photos from Hong Kong. I knew that I had taken lots, but I couldn’t find them in my files.

Little did I know, they were not that far away at all.

This evening, as I was scrolling the pictures and gleeing with joy that I had found them, I started to see a common thread in my photos. It turns out that I took multiple photos of art and street art around China.

Since ‘street art’ is the Globetrotter's prompt for the month of August, I have decided to start my China series of articles with Chinese street art.

Starting with a powerful one. The iron fist.

I can only assume that this sculpture represents the heavy hand of oppression that the Chinese feel like they are under.

During our three weeks in China, we stayed in Beijing, Kunming, Yangshou, Macau and Hong Kong. So these photos are from a mix of places around the country.

I’m not sure what is going on in this image. I see fish scales and water, chicken feet and wings. But I also see a tail of sorts and get the gist that this represents a dragon. What do you see?

One thing is for sure, this art has a distinctly Chinese flare to it.

While my memories of China are a bit scattered, I definitely remember the stunning carvings that we found around the country. Most official buildings displayed incredible works of art and these carvings would draw us into their interiors.

After seeing so much detail, this cool sculptured door caught my eye. I was impressed by the modern and understated style of it in contrast to the ancient and detailed carvings that we had been seeing.

This building was in a Beijing art district.

I also loved this cool door frame.

In my initial ‘street art’ article this month, I wrote about the African schools displaying beautiful and bright artwork on their exteriors. Could this be the Chinese edition of that? Sadly, I don’t remember anymore.

Either way this tile mosaic is pretty cute!

Occasionally we would happen upon a place that had incredible and intricate artwork painted on all parts of the walls and wooden surrounds. I’m pretty sure this picture was taken on one of the walkways that connects the streets of the Summer Palace.

The side of this building was painted with some beautiful and colorful abstract flower vines. I definitely don’t see much Chinese influence in this design. But maybe I am wrong.

As you may expect, red is definitely the color of China. In many public places, red lanterns decorate the spaces, along with other bits and pieces of red decor.

This outdoor skating rink is a good example of the use of red to decorate spaces.

I’m assuming that this is Mandarin script, but it might also be Cantonese. Do any Chinese writers or readers know what this means?

Buildings can be artwork as well. We spent a couple of days in Macau and marveled at some of the incredible buildings there. This glass building really stood out to us. According to Google, this is known as the Macau Glass Building. Sadly, I can’t remember if we went and looked in it but I also read a suggestion that it is simply a sculpture and not a building at all.

The building below isn’t necessarily artistic but I thought it was so cute. It actually contained ceramics and crafts and was part of the traditional Hutong district in Beijing. This area used to be a maze of small alleyways in the center of the city. Sadly, with the imminent arrival of the Beijing Olympics later that year, this area was rapidly being leveled and rebuilt to modern standards. Our friend told us that much of it had been demolished already. I’m so glad that we got to get some last glimpses of this historical area.

And look, there are those red lanterns again!

Of course, a visit to Hong Kong should definitely include visiting the bronze sculpture aptly named The Big Buddha. This sculpture is 34m (112 feet) high and sits atop a long staircase on Lantau Island. It is easily accessed if you are able to climb the 268 steps to get up to it, and you can also enter into the Buddha. Though that is an extra charge.

This is a major center of Buddhism in Hong Kong and is a popular tourist destination.

When I visited China in 2008, I was only 2 years into rediscovering the artistic side of my brain and certainly wasn’t calling myself an artist just yet. Because of this, I was surprised when I looked back through my photos to find that I had really appreciated the artwork around the country.

Now, as a full-time artist (and street artist), I’m sure there is much more creativity and art in the country that I may not have noticed 15 years ago. Sadly, I don’t think traveling in China is the same these days. With the exception of a possible visit to Hong Kong, I’m not sure if I will ever return to the country.

But, one never knows what the future will hold and I would certainly be interested to see much of the art that I likely missed the first time around. It’s obvious that China has an abundance of art and creativity to look at.

Now that I have found my China photos, I look forward to sharing more stories from my time spent there. As a teaser, here is a photo that I am particularly proud of.

Here are some other stories about China that have been written by fellow Globetrotters:

Marianne O visits Shanghai

Adrienne Beaumont visits Beijing

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