“Paramount Peaches” (派拉蒙桃子)

The Paramount Ballroom 百樂門 was the largest and most famous – some say notorious – one of its kind in Shanghai. Built in Art Deco style in 1933 by Chinese bankers, the ballroom is now host to elderly couples drinking tea and doing the slow waltz on lazy Sunday afternoons. Liu Dao steps back into a more robust time in the dancehall’s history, and resurrects some of its most colorful moments.

The luscious Paramount Peaches, simply put, are not your typical gals. Their delicious yellow-fleshed curves and citrusy sweetness are designed to bring your blood to a chilling point, required for any peach to flower. Dainty hands alight upon your imagination with visions of happiness, wealth and longevity. The vivaciousness of the Paramount peaches could ensnare the most conservative of spirits, tantalizing viewers with the most precious of their gifts. Offering this divine fruit was not recommended for ancestors but who could resist the simple temptation to take just one bite? The sacrosanct performance dedicated on this framed altar transports the viewer back onto the ritzy stages of 1930s Shanghai. Where audiences, enthralled, could not stop the watching their transcendental engagement. The Paramount Peaches’ superlative nature and unprofaned beauty are immaculately captured here, and now permanently enshrined.

Blurb credit: Lelia Pollett

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