• Issue
  • Jan 02, 2024

Shanghai: Recovery and Restart

Installation view of TAN JING’s "Inlet of Arid Dreams," at Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, 2023. Photo by Yan Tao. Courtesy the artist and Rockbund Art Museum.

After the unexpected complete lifting of Covid-19 restrictions at the end of 2022, Shanghai, due to the subsequent Omicron wave, did not immediately resume production or schooling for almost two months until after the Chinese New Year in early 2023. The situation gradually stabilized only near the city’s first anniversary of the 2022 Covid-19 total lockdown, euphemistically nicknamed “Shanghai Spring.” Despite the existence of online censorship, authorities still could not completely prevent people from posting related commemorative messages. However, while remembering that traumatic period, professionals in the arts, pressured by the critical economic downturn, stopped discussing the pandemic and delved into a busy schedule of exhibitions and art fairs once again.


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