When staring into the unblinking eyes of little anthropomorphic beings made of tin, whether they are soldiers, farmers, astronauts, animals or robots, one can't help but imagine that they can talk with their fixed mouths, which remain forever wide-open or closed. Despite their silence, these playthings from the past can tell us a great deal about history.

The exhibition Tin Toy Era shows once-popular tin toys made in Shanghai from the 1930s to the 1970s. The toys all belong to Marvin Chan, a former designer whose collection of over 10,000 old Chinese toys, toy catalogs, advertisements and pictorials has earned him the nickname "King of Toys." Born in Hong Kong in 1965, Chan has been collecting vintage toys for the last 25 years.

Toys displayed at Tin Toy Era

Toys displayed at Tin Toy Era

Toys displayed at Tin Toy Era

"The oldest ones were made in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and are around 100 years old now," Chan told the Global Times, with a smile.

Toys, according to Chan, "contain panoramas of times," a theory that is backed up by the exhibition. For example, the appearance of the very first tin toy animals corresponded with the rise of national industry in the 1920s. Likewise, toy cars rolled out soon after Hongqi limousines were used in the ceremonial parade celebrating the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1959. In the 1960s, astronauts and rockets became popular as the Soviet Union and the US faced off in the Space Race.

Chan said that he began as "a rather ordinary collector who collected old things, like stamps and posters, just stuff interesting to a designer." What changed him from a casual hobbyist to a serious Chinese toy collector was a visit to a Japanese toy museum in Yokohama in 1993. Until then, it had never occurred to Chan that toys could be the subject of a museum.

Toys displayed at Tin Toy Era

Toys displayed at Tin Toy Era

Toys displayed at Tin Toy Era Photos: Cai Xianmin/GT

"A country is not just a piece of land. We must also protect our unique culture," Chan said, paraphrasing a quote by Israeli President Shimon Peres, as he remembered. Realizing that toys can genuinely epitomize national culture and history, Chan established the Museum of Shanghai Toys in Singapore in 2005.

Chan recalled that vintage toy collecting used to be easy and fun, since they were mostly left to gather dust in garages - especially in Southeast Asia where people were thrifty and kept toys imported from China - or sold cheaply in street markets. Before Chan relocated to Shanghai in 2008, he visited the city at least once a year to buy toys produced in Shanghai factories and from every trip he brought back "boxes and boxes of toys."

But the prices of old toys kept rising through the years, which in turn resulted in an increasing number of collectors. Chan has grown used to questions about how much his collection is worth. In earlier years, people questioned the purpose of his hobby and he had to explain that even from a purely financial point of view old toys are valuable.

"Now it's unlikely that I'd sell them. But I'd like to exchange them with other collectors," Chan said. Now he has even transformed himself into a manufacturer of tin toys, which he thinks never really become outdated, "like jeans."

Date: Until February 10, 10 am to 10 pm

Venue: Réel Department Store

芮欧百货

Address: 3/F, 1601 Nanjing Road West 南京西路1601号3楼

Admission: Free

Call 2230-9788 for details