Unusual Restaurant Decor

[jkarpf]

I found this decoration in a Chinese restaurant a few years ago.

[liuzhou]

9 hours ago, jkarpf said:

I found this decoration in a Chinese restaurant a few years ago.

 

What the heck is that? Two broken plates glued together?

The left half looks like willow pattern. aka blue willow, which isn't Chinese at all, but originated in England. The right hand side looks like faux-Chinese, too, but I don't recognise the pattern.

 

Edited May 15, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[jkarpf]

7 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

What the heck is that? Two broken plates glued together?

The left half looks like willow pattern. aka blue willow, which is't Chinese at all, but originated in England. The right hand side l;ooks like faux-Chinese, too, but I don't recognise the pattern.

 

Not broken at all. My best guess is that it's a dishware manufacturer's sample.

 

The owner of the restaurant (Jiangnan-style food with lots of patrons from a China Institute center nearby) declined to sell. I'd hoped to make it a gag gift for a friend who collected only eighteenth-century Worcester and Meissen porcelain.

 

[liuzhou]

51 minutes ago, jkarpf said:

The owner of the restaurant (Jiangnan-style food with lots of patrons from a China Institute center nearby) declined to sell.

 

Here's a real Chinese plate.

[liuzhou]

There are (or were) two restaurants near me with somewhat idiosyncratic decoration. The first has now gone, as the building was demolished to make way for urban 'improvement'. I.e. they are going to build yet another shopping mall which no one wanted and few will frequent.

This place, actually a bar and restaurant, was called '1970s' and featured a number of areas, each with a different 'theme'. One area was what I called 'the art gallery'. This had items of decorative art festooning the walls, which were roughly papered with brickwork effect wallpaper. Nearly all these pieces were for sale.

 

 

 

 

 

The next one now hangs on my wall at home. It weighs a ton!

 

 

Another area, which I called the nautical area, had tables like this one which is actually a military dugout canoe with a glass top - one of number of strange tables.

 

Again, there were some objets d'art and random pebbles inside the boats. These were not for sale.

 

 

Then there was the utterly peculiar 'army ordinance cinema' area. This is where, in the evening, they showed movies from the early 1970s, i.e. the cultural revolution These were silent movies shown using original film and a tempamental, 'working' 1970s projector. The actual movies were usually of the red guards going about their mayhem and anarchy, or of rallies depicting the millions chanting and waving their little red books. Alternatively, and most bizarrely, they would show the 'politically correct' Chinese Opera's Mao's mental wife, Jiang Qing introduced in place of the traditional fare which was banned. Yes! Chinese Operas, purged of 'bad elements' and counter-revolutionary thinking, in black and white and thankfully silent - always the best way to 'listen' to Chinese opera, PC or not!. Scattered around the 'cinema' was military hardware of the type which the red guards used at the time. Machine guns and the like. You could even pose with a  gun and pretend to be a red guard, if that was your fancy.

 

 

Photos are of scenes of contemporary life during the cultural revolution - i.e. armed chaos.

 

 

I'm not sure what the random drum kit was about. It was never used and wasn't old. To the right of the young man posing is, I think, the projector for the movies.

 

Despite the macabre theme, the place was quite fun but it may be significant that I remember nothing about the food, although I know I did eat there more than once or twice.

______________________________________________________________________________________

 

Secondly we have 韶山饭店 (sháo shān fàn diàn) or Shaoshan Restaurant. Shaoshan is the Hunan village where Mao was born and which has now turned into a sort of Mao theme park is popular with elderly tourists. The restaurant, situated near my home was a shabby, three floored place with, of course, a Mao theme. As you eat, the insane dictator, responsible for the deaths of miillions, stares benignly down at you from the walls. There were dozens of photos of the 'Great Helmsman'.

 

 

 

 

Despite the shabby and grisly decor, the place did great Hunan food and was popular enough for the owners to save for years and finally to afford to move across the road into smart, newly built premises, just after I took these pictures. Now, although it retains the same menu, the decor is more conventional and the Chairman has disappeared. So far.

 

Edited May 15, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[KennethT]

@liuzhouGreat stuff. I love the stone piece you picked up.  There was a restaurant in Bali that's now very famous - they now also have an inn, gift shop, etc. The restaurant is huge, and filled with sculptures, statues, etc... all of which are for sale - the problem is how to get it home!

[liuzhou]

21 minutes ago, KennethT said:

the problem is how to get it home!

 

Yeah. That's why I have never gone back 'home'!

 

Between that artwork and my marble mortar and pestle, I think I'll have used up my luggage allowance weight and some!

[liuzhou]

34 minutes ago, KennethT said:

There was a restaurant in Bali that's now very famous

 

Is that in Ubud? That is the artists' colonoly of Bali. I may have been to that restaurant.

There is a smallish chain of restaurants here in Guangxi, opened by a guy from Ubud. The original branch in Nanning is beautiful. There is one in Liuzhou about ten minutes away from where I am living now. Also artistically decorated, but not quite to the levels of the first. I have photos of the Nanning branch; I'll try to post them later.

 

[heidih]

@liuzhou Just looking at the guns tightens my stomach. Could not eat there.

[KennethT]

7 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

Is that in Ubud? That is the artists' colonoly of Bali. I may have been to that restaurant.

There is a smallish chain of restaurants here in Guangxi, opened by a guy from Ubud. The original branch in Nanning is beautiful. There is one in Liuzhou about ten minutes away from where I am living now. Also artistically decorated, but not quite to the levels of the first. I have photos of the Nanning branch; I'll try to post them later.

 

Yes, Ubud.  It is a very famous place, around for a long time (known for their betutu) so if you've been to Ubud I would assume you've been there - Murnni's Warung.  Funny, by "home" I meant your place in Liuzhou - I just assumed that after living there so long, that's what you would consider as home.

[liuzhou]

23 minutes ago, KennethT said:

Funny, by "home" I meant your place in Liuzhou - I just assumed that after living there so long, that's what you would consider as home.

 

Indeed I do consider my Liuzhou to be my home. Getting it home from the restaurant wasn't a great problem. It was about 15 minutes walk; no flights required! And it was a long time ago (2008), when I was younger!

By 'home' in inverted commas, I meant England.

 

Edited May 15, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

17 minutes ago, KennethT said:

if you've been to Ubud I would assume you've been there - Murnni's Warung

 

Yes. Been there. 2005. The decor of the place in Nanning that I mentioned is similar.

Here is a vdeo of Murnni's Warung