(101 Things About Shanghai) Trippy but Pointless Public Art

The multi ethic Haibaos join the hideous egg

In the wilds of Pudong, deep down in Zhang Jiang Gaoke where I used to catch the bus to work in Lingang (don’t even ask how far away that was) there is a giant Delete button standing on one of it’s corners at the edge of a park. A Delete button, like the kind you have on the PC in front of you, except it’s about one storey high and standing on one end in a park. There are also statues of people just standing around for no good reason. One metal fellow is seemingly just waiting for a bus, briefcase in hand. There are similar ones in Nanjing Xi Lu, where whole families of cast-metal statues are just hanging out on street corners.

Somewhere on Yongjia Lu near the police station where I have to constantly re-register proof of my existence is a lone statue of a woman holding an old skool mobile phone. She’s not doing anything. She’s just standing, holding her slightly larger than normal Nokia.  On Huai Hai Lu at regular intervals there are endless variations on the topiary theme: Haibao dancing, Haibao playing, Haibao as Mexican, Haibao with Random Ethnic Friends.  Some Haibaos are the traditional annoying blue ones, others are carved from bushes. They are everywhere. Hello Expo 2010, Better City, Better Life.

The pinnacle of Shanghai pointless public art is the giant egg of flowers on the road out to Hongqiao airport. Doug vomits and screams whenever he sees it but , really, I am riveted. How could you not be? Honestly- it’s a giant easter egg covered in supremely gaudy mixed blossoms: