Today a group of us were doing a bit of shopping on Nanjing road and were stopped by a nice group of Chinese girls who spoke English. They told us that they were art students at a university in Shanghai and were making use of the May holiday to exhibit some of their pieces. We followed them to the fifth floor of a very modern office building and into one of the conference rooms. There we found all sorts of beautiful Chinese art on all sizes of scrolls. The girls showed us around, explaining the meaning of the various pieces, and then began offering to sell some of them. I finally decided to buy a painting of yin and yang horses, two horses running together and never seperating representing boyfriend and girlfriend.china toys I left feeling pretty satisfied having only paid 260 yuan for what I thought was hand-made art. Then my illusionment faded when I was walking down the street a few moments later and had another group of girls tell me that they were art students displaying there work, and then a few moments later another group, and so on and so on. However, regardless of whether it was a scam or not, our group felt pretty satisfied with our purchases. Also, as Taylor pointed out, if you did happen to be an art student looking to sell your wares in Shanghai, where better to go if not the Nanjing road?
-Alex Weberchina arts and crafts
