Design writer Jen Renzi is on assignment for MoCo Loco at 100% Design Shanghai, here's the first of many trip diary entries from China.

Thursday 10:30 AM
The show venue: Russia in Shanghai

If the show venue itself is any indication of what we’ll find inside, then we should expect design with a side dish of communist propaganda. Built in the 1950s as an art museum, the Shanghai Exhibition Center was apparently a gift from Russia to Chairman Mao. And it shows: although its Nanjing Road facade looks rather classically inspired, once you walk inside, the complex’s fascists splendor reveals itself. Imposing, yes, but strangely flirtatious, too….it practically cries out, “Hey baby, check out my spire!”.

Click on the image above for a closer view.