Shanghai bids bye-bye to street art icons

It's great news for Shanghai’s property market, but a tragedy for the city’s street art lovers and artists. Two of Shanghai’s most striking art locales -- the graffiti wall on Moganshan Lu and the M50 creative zone in Putuo -– are to be torn down to make way for a new business development.

The owner, Shanghai Kaixuanmen Corporate Development Ltd., told eastday.com that the construction is due to start at the end of this year.

“M50 is also within the demolition area,” a Kaixuanmen manager said.

“It’s long been decided that the construction of a business district will start in this area at the end of this year or early next year. To pull down the [graffiti] wall is a must.”

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As an eye-catching attraction in Shanghai and a haven for street art lovers and artists, the Moganshan Lu graffiti wall is one of the very few places in the city where street art is quietly sanctioned.

The 600-meter long wall is situated on Moganshan Lu between Changhua Lu and Nan Suzhouhe Lu, and is just one block away from M50.

The cement wall is festooned with dozens of artworks by both young Shanghai artists and international graffiti artists.

"I'll keep doing pieces on the wall until it is torn down," 26-year-old local graffiti artist Shier told Want China Times.

For William Zhou, co-founder of Shanghai’s first graffiti artist community ReloadCrew, the demolition of the wall means a huge loss because he and his friends need to find other spots to paint.

“Most [places in Shanghai] don’t allow graffiti,” William said. “There are fewer and fewer places for Shanghai graffiti fans now.”

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But to most Shanghainese citizens, graffiti remains a random scribble rather than a proper art form.

"It's hard to understand," said a resident surnamed Gu. "It would be much better if the wall was inside [a] creative park, not on the street."

Kaixuanmen has said it will coordinate with other organizations to keep the surface of the graffiti wall or to build a new wall dedicated to graffiti.

But the company wants future projects to be properly planned, instead of “the random scribbling like in the past.”

Ivy Zhang moved to Hong Kong from Hangzhou to study translation and journalism in college. She enjoys exploring different places and meeting new friends. Her dream is to live in a small town after collecting all sorts of quirky stories around the world.

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