TASTE OF SHANGHAI:

RETHINKING THE WHITE RABBIT CREAMY CANDY

Spring 2012 (Shanghai exchange semester)

Visual Communications

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Acknowledgements: Wiley Ng, Aaron Chan, Wu Chi Yu

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PROJECT STATEMENT

 

White Rabbit Creamy Candy is a famous Shanghai product since it launched in 1943.

 

A Chinese merchant from the Aipixi Candy Factory tasted a milk candy from Britain and thought it was delicious, so he decided to bring it back to China. Despite the long history of the brand, the candy is still widely popular among Chinese families.

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We investigated into the manufacturing process of Milk Candy because Shanghai’s history of development actually matches with it.

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Firstly, the raw material of milk candy is in powder form, which symbolizes the Chinese scattered villages before Shanghai industrialization and urbanization.

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Then, gelatin and water is added in as referred to the foreign concession acting as incentive for urbanization. The milk itself blends with it and crystallizes to form a solid and static identity of Shanghai.

 

Hence, in our design, we explore the connections between the old taste of Shanghai and the way how milk candy is made.

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We have discovered many foreigners often consider the new Shanghai as  Pudong and old Shanghai as the Bund, which is in fact  ignoring the complex urban fabric of old Shanghai, e.g. the Yuyuan Old City, the French Concession, lilong, temples, Shikumen, etc.

In the introduction of the video, the unwrapping of the White Rabbit Creamy Candy represents the removal of the modern metropolitan image of Shanghai, the Pudong Commercial Area.

The zoom-in of the white mass of the candy reveals the delicate crystalline structures of the elements that contribute to the fascinating East-meets-West image of Shanghai.

During the zoom-in, we can see the breaking down of crystalline elements into simpler forms, and this process represents the dating back of the urban Shanghai historic timeline, from the 1930s Bund to agricultural and fishing villages before the settlement of Western colonial powers in 19th century.

In conclusion, we believe the process of Shanghai’s formation is much more intriguing than the generic comparison of Pudong and all old Shanghai, in worst case, only the Bund.

We believe the power of small elements can give a new and more comprehensive image of Shanghai.

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