It was another bright but hazy day today. There are not as many people wearing masks out on the street as I expected, but I’m told that the pollution doesn’t feel as bad at this time of the year. My breathing is noticeably heavier though and anyone with asthma or other breathing problems must really struggle. Veronica gave me a mask yesterday, but it makes me feel claustrophobic and sweaty and when you’ve got a schnozzle as big as mine, that’s not good!
I took the Metro to the French Concession area today so I could visit Shanghai library. It is ENORMOUS, a planet of a building (see clunky composite photo). It was easy to join, you just need your passport. The reception area and stairwells repeat the phrase “Knowledge is Power” in several languages. I noticed that the French translation is “Savoir, c’est pouvoir” – that emphasis on voir, the looking, echoed the reason for my visit. I will be travelling to the library as many times as I can while I’m here as part of my research. I have several visual themes to explore: changes to the act of reading; the increasingly dualistic nature of the library; the collision of ancient and modern; the hierarchy of designated areas…
After spending the best part of the day watching and thinking, I felt that my overriding impression of Shanghai so far had been underlined all the more strongly by this first visit to the library. Shanghai is a place of simultaneous constraint and potential. There is so much energy here, but so little room for it to wiggle – what effect does that really have on knowledge, regardless of what the walls say?
