About the Film
Shanghai Deco is a one-hour documentary on the Art Deco design style popular in 1930s Shanghai. During the 1920s and 30s, Shanghai was the most glamorous, cosmopolitan city in Asia. Dubbed “The Paris of the East,” it had both an expatriate community and a middle-class Chinese population that adopted many of the trappings of Western lifestyle: jazz, dancing, and nightclubs, as well as Art Deco design. The film focuses on the contributions of the Chinese designers and the problems of artistic repression in times of war and political upheaval, as well as the factors that led up to the adoption and eventual demise of Shanghai’s Art Deco lifestyle.
About Us
Denise Richards
Producer/Director
Director's Statement: As a graphic designer, I recognized immediately that Art Deco in Shanghai was not a replication of the Western design, but rather a unique style in its incorporation of traditional Chinese elements such as stylized clouds, waves, and coins. Since China was closed to the outside world for so long, I thought it vital that this very short period of design history, and China’s contribution to it, be preserved for both the Chinese people and the rest of the world. The Deco buildings are deteriorating and the few people left who remember that era are dying off. After 6 long, difficult years, I’m pleased to say this Shanghai Deco is finally finished.
