Time: 15:29 3rd. Nov. 2006
Location: Num. 870, Huai hai Road (M), shanghai
This is A cinema for Firday~~ 
happy Firday my friends…
This is the “Cathay Theatre” located on the Huai2 hai3 Road(Middle), we call it “Guo2 Tai4 dian4 ying3 yuan4″(国泰电影院)，five Chinese characters(in literally): guo2 = country, tai4 = peaceful, dian4 ying3 yuan4 = cinema. It was built in 1932, designed by a Hungarian architect C.H.Gonda.(Sorry, I didn’t find more useful information about him, but some articles said he was once very famous in Shanghai in 1930s.) At that time, the newspaper “Shen Bao” reported the Cathay Theatre was “the most luxurious, the most modern “ cinema in Shanghai. Before 1949, the films showed there were mostly from America or England. The building is the typical ART DECO style.
Now the cinema was redecorated,and it’s a very great choice for Friday night.
(When I prepared for this post, I looked up more information online about the ART DECO, and I am shocked, because Shanghai is the second city (first is New York) of the Art Deco-style old buildings left. I found 12 famous ones:(name & year)
1. Jing Jiang Hotel–old part (1932),
2. Peace Hotel (1929),
3. Park Hotel (1931),
4. Paramout Hall (1932),
5. Cathay Theatre (1932),
6. Hamilton House (1933)–now called “Fu zhou house”,
7. Metropole Hotel (1934),
8. Broadway Mansions Hotel Bund (1933),
9. Henshan Hotel (1934),
10. I.S.Gascogne Apartments (1934)–now called “huai hai apartment”,
11. Empire Mansions (1935)– now called “huai hai house”
12. Dong Hu Hotel (1935)
Very interesting statistic! I like all things Art Deco too.
ce theatre est magnifique et bravo pour les explications et les statistiques
Bonne journée a toi
this success is splendid and cheer for the explanations and the statistics. Good day has you
On the North Island of New Zealand, there is a town called Napier; practically the whole town was decimated by an magnitude 7.8 earthquake on Feb 3, 1931. They had to rebuild the whole town quickly, so the central section is almost entirely Art Deco. It’s probably in no competition with New York or Shanghai in terms of the number of buildings, but quite enchanting because it’s the whole centre of the town. In February each year they have an Art Deco festival, where people not only dress like the 20′s, but drive cars of that vintage, too. Just a bit here: http://www.hawkesbaynz.com/pages/artdecotrust
Ummm.. how many times did I say ‘whole town’ in the previous comment? My apologies. Can you tell I really like Art Deco?
w, & Meg
I am beginning to know the Art Deco when I am preparing the homework for the DP. I found its very interesting to know and understand more about the building and its background. I think Shanghai is like a big mine –lots of things to discover!
Olivier
thx for your nice comments…and have a nice weekend there.
We have some lovely art deco cinemas in melbourne too, they have such great character.