Planet Shanghai Book Review
An Intimate and Unique Look at the Culture and People of China
Nov 12, 2008
The new book Planet Shanghai is not just a travel or photography book but a book which transcends categories combining properties of a coffee table book, a photo essay and a cultural study in a compact size published by Chronicle Books.
While the book does include two essays by the photographer Justin Guariglia and co-writer John Krich the rest of the book is comprised of pictures broken up into categories like food, daily life and dogs leaving the reader to explore the book in much the same way a visitor would explore the city, figuring things out for themselves and learning by doing.
The book gives unique insight into the city’s culture through pictures which focus on elements of dress, daily life and food which most other travel books do not including the section called Still Life which features pictures of everything from mattresses and motorcycles on the street to billboard advertisements and graffiti.
The Authors Perspective
In his essay called Planet Shanghai appearing at the beginning of the book Justin Guariglia says that his interest in photo essays and travel started at an early age and he began to notice how many things we take for granted every day because they are seen so often when he began to study art in Venice. He wanted to create a book which reflected the essence of immersion into other cultures which was always the part of travel he was most interested in.
Likewise John Krich in the second essay of the book states that he wishes to present a portrait of the true daily life of the Shanghainese people as something beyond what Westerners typically think of when we hear the term Shanghaied. He argues in his essay that Shanghai is not necessarily the “least Chinese” city of China but that it does have a decidedly different culture where Mah-jong is more practiced than traditional Chinese art forms like calligraphy. He explores Shanghai’s history as one that more or less replaced all ancient tradition with modern living unlike the majority of Chinese cities which try to integrate modern with ancient (although recent reports have shown that this is becoming harder to do).
Shanghai Design
The design of the book overall is eye-catching and revealing in itself. Not necessarily about the people but more about the myths that Shanghai carries with it. Each section has an introduction page featuring traditional Chinese line drawings against a green background revealing nothing about the inner contents except what is reflected in its name. The cover is also eye-catching featuring a photograph which is featured in the Style section of the book of a middle-aged man in a lawn chair in his pajamas reflecting the unique vision of the book from the beginning.
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