Toy Museum and Dragonboats

OK, I apologize for my lack of posts lately.  I've been either (1) super busy at work, or (2) sick and not doing anything exciting.  But, I was feeling better this weekend, and had the time to do several exciting things.

On Saturday, I visited the Museum of Shanghai Toys.  Anyone who has travelled with me knows that I love completely random museums.  I think the best example of this was a combination internet cafe/indigenious burial jar museum that I made Claire and Rebecca visit with me on La Isla de Ometepe, in Nicaragua.  And it turned out to be a really cool museum!  Anyways, this museum seemed to fit the bill, so I decided to check it out.  It was actually really neat.  It was started quite recently by a Singaporean who is just enthused about toys, and wanted to showcase his collection and use them to illustrate cultural movements and historical events throughout the 20th century in China.  A lot of the toys were pretty funny and creepy looking.  This toy, made out of celluloid from the early 20th century, gets the prize for weirdest/most inexplicable toy:

The museum traced the modernization of China and the various social movements that influenced toys during the last century.  At the beginning of the 20th century, China was still closed to nearly all Western goods and influences, so the toy market was not very developed and most toys were very crude and made out of paper or straw.  However, when more Western goods, including toys, started appearing in Chinese markets, this created a push for the Chinese to modernize their own toy industry.  Another interesting example is that, before around the 1920s or 30s in China, it was not believed that toys could be at all educational.  Again, due to Western forces, the Chinese then realized that educational toys such as puzzles and mazes could be used to help children learn various skills, and this sector of the toy industry exploded.  One funny example of the Chinese toy market imitating the Western market was a collection of knock-off Disney toys, such as these creepy Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs masks.

However, the best toys were ones from the second half of the century.  Toys were one of the many ways used to indoctrinate Chinese children with Communist ideology during the Cultural Revolution, so there was a large exhibit on this.  Here is one toy that is entitled "Child Soldier":

There was also a list of some of the other toy names, which included "Ten thousand tonnes hydraulic machinery", "White Hair Women", "Female Mine Workers", "Sales Girl", "Defeating Paper Tigers", "Oil Refinery Pagoda", "Little Civilian Soldier", and, my favorite, "Offer Congratulations Truck".  I can just imagine little Chinese kids running around: "Hey guys, let's play Oil Refinery Pagoda!"  "No, I want to play Female Mine Workers!".   

Another large collection focused on Space Race themed toys.  I really liked the different renditions of what toy designers thought spaceships would look like in the future.  Here is one good one, the Universe Boat:

Something interesting that can be seen here - a lot of the "people" figurines in these toys were actually very Western looking, with blonde hair and big blue eyes.  There was a series of posters for Chinese children, which, I think, were supposed to illustrate lessons such as going to school, being polite, obeying your parents, etc, but all the children in these posters were white, even though the writing was in Chinese.  I actually still see this today in Singapore - often when cartoons are used in advertisements, public service announcements, etc, the cartoon people are obviously white.  I saw one at the grocery store the other day that tells people not to shoplift, and features a cartoon of a freckled, red-haired man getting caught shoplifting.  (Those darn gingers!  Always causing trouble!)  I find this really strange, since these images don't represent the large majority of the target audience.     

Anyways, here is one last picture from the toy museum.  It is the saddest panda ever!

Today, I met up with some friends to watch Dragonboat races in the Singapore River.  Dragonboats are traditional Chinese boats that are very long and skinny and have decorative dragon heads and tails.  They used to be used mostly for folk or religious rituals, but today Dragonboat racing has evolved as a serious sport.  This weekend's event was huge!  Races ran all day Saturday and Sunday, from about 9 AM to 5 PM.  There were all sorts of teams - high school/college, serious adult teams, company teams, and expat teams from various countries.  One of the cool parts about Dragonboating is that, instead of caller (such as in crew) to keep time and tell the paddlers when to stroke, there is a drummer who beats out time.  The drums are huge and the drummers are normally teeny tiny girls, so it's pretty funny to watch.  We had fun hanging out on the riverside and watching the various races go by.

Also, if you read my last blog post, I talked about the various government campaigns here in Singapore, and specifically the most recent kindness campaign.  In the train station on the way home, we ran into a relic of the previous kindness campaign: Singha the Friendly Lion.  He reminds you to let train passengers out first before you board.

In other news:

Research success!  I'll probably post some pictures and an explanation sometime this week when I'm bored at work.

In order to fully complete my transformation into a cranky old lady, I've taken up knitting.  It's really fun, and has the ability to completely mesmerize me for multiple hours at a time.

I finally finished Infinite Jest!  Maybe I'll write about it here, if I can ever get my head around it.