Ying’s studio
(Ying behind Taikang Lu: Shanghai, China)
Ah, if only Ying had a studio on Taikang Lu! We spotted a perfect photo opportunity though and we took full advantage. This was taken in the wintertime when Ying and I were in Shanghai for the weekend. Taikang Lu and its environs always seem to offer substantial prospects for exciting exploration and for digging up cupcake shops or Chairman Mao memorabilia and coincidentally peculiarly named studios.
I have been studying Chinese names over the past days, finding amusement in deciphering Chinese characters (with the help of the internet of course). I have also been frantically practicing writing my own name in Chinese so I can ‘sign’ it and write it when needed. It makes much more sense here as many Chinese people don’t seem to use the Roman alphabet at all, and are therefore unable to read ‘Cunningham’ if I write it. In fact, the length of the word usually visibly daunts them in the first place. During my research, I was utterly delighted to reveal that one of the masseurs I like is a ‘Glamorous Warrior of the Song Dynasty’ if I roughly translate the name he wrote for me. His surname is ‘Song’ and it refers to the dynasty of the same name, then the first half of his name means ‘glamorous’ and the second, ‘warrior’. Fantastic…
