Streets of Shanghai at the 1934 Chicago World’s Fair
Posted: March 25th, 2016 | 1 Comment »It didn’t turn out quite like this in the end but here are the plans for the Chinese Village to be erected at the New World’s Fair in Chicago in 1934 – “A Century of Progress”. The theme was, supposedly, “Streets of Shanghai”. The pagodas got built as the entrance but it was a bit more scaled down inside eventually.
This temple, copied after the one in Chengde, which was itself a copy, did get built and displayed. I believe two were made. One ended up at Oberlin College and later Indiana University. The other went to Stockholm – the connection there was Sven Hedin.
1933 CHICAGO WORLD’S FAIR GOLDEN TEMPLE OF JEHOL BY NIGHT: Replica of the celebrated Chinese Lama Temple, is the gift to the Exposition of Vincent Bendix. The Golden Pavilion, seat of worship of the Manchu emperors, was copied faithfully by North Chinese architects and artisans, shipped in 28,000 pieces to Chicago and put together like the parts of some huge Chinese puzzle. (Curt Teich 3A-H11)