Haipai surreal: The light spectrum and Shanghai futurities

This article draws on visual studies and material culture to explore the compelling role of light in negotiating a haipai surreal. Haipai characterizes Shanghai’s innovative and commercial aesthetic, of which light plays an essential role. My analyses follow the light spectrum – from visible colours to the invisible X-rays of ultraviolet (UV) and infrared – that illuminates and regulates the city, shaping the images of the city. Colourful wavelengths on buildings and infrastructure dazzle audiences, creating a novel spectacle that highlights the centrality of technology and elicits Sinofuturistic imaginaries, while invisible light waves generate a separate surreality of ethereal control. I suggest that this haipai use of light constructs an image of a surrealist Sinofuture, drawing on the approaches of André Breton and Salvador Dalí. I argue that visible light alters how the city is perceived and understood, evoking a poetic transformation of the real reminiscent of André Breton’s work. I demonstrate how the ubiquitous and insidious use of invisible light transforms the representation of the city and its citizens as data and computer images, reflecting Dalí’s focus on obsession and the ‘ image double ’. I further position the extent to which these effects of light make the haipai experience one that is both technological and surreal in relation to Jean Baudrillard’s notion of hyperreality. This article stresses the role of light in casting images of a future that are both fascinating and fixated.