Shanghai - Kuan Yin's Birthday and more

On the 19th day of the 2nd lunar month (April 7 in 2015), Buddhists celebrate the birthday of Kuan Yin, Goddess of Mercy, so we headed back to Longhua Buddhist Temple to check out the action. For report on our visit to Longhua in 2007 click here.

It was a cold, breezy, cloudy day but Longhua Temple was busy with Buddhist devotees, ancestor worshippers, and the superstitious. We met up with our friend Weiqing for a look around the temple, then walked over to the Long Museum to check out some contemporary and 20th century Chinese art, and ended up at our favorite Xi'an restaurant for a late lunch.

Note that this post is out of chronological order. I wanted to get Sun-Ling's birthday post done ASAP which delayed this post. -john

Longhua Temple was tranquil by the dahlias located in the rear by the vegetarian restaurant, but it was near impossible to get close to the Kuan Yin image on the back side of the main temple.






Burning joss sticks and bowing to the 4 cardinal directions.


Assembling gold bars made of paper to be burned and symbolically sent to ones ancestors.


This woman is tossing a coin into the mouth of the fish drum for good luck. It took her several tries so I had multiple opportunities for a decent photo. ;-)


After a quick look at the West Bund promenade Sun-Ling, Weiqing and I toured around the Long Museum.


We all liked the large solo exhibition of contemporary works by Xu Zhen. They filled the large spaces, were smartly executed, and made us think and laugh.
European Thousand-Hand Classical Sculpture








Eternity Grafts




Metal Language collects words from political caricatures and spells out independent and yet vivid phrases with metal chains, thereby fully developing the tactility of thought [from the thelongmuseum.com].


We also enjoyed the several exhibits of 20th Century (mostly) Chinese Art. Many were so-called Socialist Art but many were not.
Metallic Forest (1962) by XU Xingzhi (1904 - 1991)


Cock Fight (1982) by Affandi (1907-1990), an Indonesian artist. Several years ago we saw some of his work at the NEKA museum in Ubud, Bali.


And there was an exhibit of older Chinese scrolls; this one from the 13th century.


Lunch.