What to do and see in Changning, Shanghai Region: The Best Specialty Museums

Reviewed By Athamese - San Francisco, United States

As others have written, this place has recently moved. Google Maps had it listed under its old location (in the basement of some apartment complex) but that's not right anymore. The address listed here is correct. No photos allowed in the museum, sadly, but it's well worth a visit. The posters all have translations of the captions into English (some in French, too) and many of them also have a few paragraphs of interpretation and context. My experience is that Chinese people use the word "propaganda" unironically and without any hint of negativity that English-speakers usually do. Looking at these posters, some of which I'd seen in books before, I was amazed at how quotidian some of them are, and how powerful and striking others were as well. I certainly appreciated the view into a part of Chinese history that gets represented through a particular lens in US education. I also appreciated looking at what is openly labeled propaganda, and how that made me think about what we see in the US that is not so openly labeled propaganda (but is obviously and clearly analogous). Take the time to visit this museum. It's got a great little gift shop where I bought far too many postcards, and they have a nice collection of books and even original copies of Mao's little red book in multiple languages. They also have posters of varying sizes for sale.