Here on Earth: Expo 2010

I appeared on the radio program Here on Earth today with Jeff Wasserstrom and host Jean Feraca. We talked about world's fairs, China, and Expo 2010. Look for the tiny "MP3" button.

http://www.wpr.org/hereonearth/archive_100504k.cfm

Expo 2010 Construction Photos

Pascal Deseure, in Shanghai, sent us construction photos of 36 pavilions. They're now on ExpoMuseum's Flickr site.

Here are a few of them:

Greetings from Shanghai

This trip has been pretty amazing so far. Unfortunately, it's taken me a few days to be able to access my blog in order to report.



Friday, I was honored to be the guest of the Australian Pavilion for a quick tour around the Expo 2010 site under construction and an amazing look at the Australian Pavilion under construction. It's truly amazing how much creativity and time-consuming work goes into creating a pavilion that likely been in operation for just 6 months, hosting 5 million of the 70+ million visitors expected.

I'm deeply grateful to the folks at Ogilvy PR and World Expo Blog who were able to arrange my visit, Michael Darragh and Lina Han. Our Australian Pavilion host Peter Sams, who I was delighted to find out was a reader of my site and blog, is the pavilion director and veteran of the Australian Pavilion at Expo 2005 in Aichi.

I've posted some photos from the visit at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/expomuseum/

Saturday, I played the role of a more traditional tourist and visited People's Park and the adjacent shopping areas. In People's Park, the city has an Urban Planning Museum which, right now, is mostly about their preparations for Expo 2010.

I was rather tickled to see a couple of my photos in an exhibit about the history of expo mascots. It's rather satisfying to see photos of my own world's fair memorabilia collection in a museum on the other side of the planet.

Haibao and ads for Expo 2010 blanket nearly every square foot of surface in this town that's not under construction. As I type this in my hotel room, I can hear the sounds of construction from various places in the city. As with Nagoya and Hannover, which I also visited in the year before their respective expos, the whole city is getting ready and everything seems to have the same deadline: 1 May 2010, opening day of Expo 2010.

I have plans to meet more folks that are working behind the scenes here in Shanghai. It must be thrilling to be working on all the little projects that will come together next year in the largest world's fair in history. I'm reminded of what it must have been like to work on the World's Columbian Exposition the year before: 1892. I find myself pondering what sort of anticipation there was in 1938, the year before New York's 1939-'40 New York World's Fair. In so many ways, I see parallels between Shanghai's Expo 2010 and Osaka's Expo '70. Imagine what it must have been like being a part of putting that together in 1969!

Expo 2010 Sweden Pavilion Groundbreaking Ceremony

For the groundbreaking of the Sweden Pavilion on 20 April, two Volvo excavators performed.

Music by Anders Rimpi and choreography by Veera Suvalo Grimberg

BRC Imagination Arts' Brad Shelton

Once again, I had the distinct honor of appearing on the Season Pass Podcast. The main guest this episode was Brad Shelton of BRC Imagination Arts. We talked about world's fairs naturally, but more specifically Shanghai's Expo 2010 and the efforts to ensure the United States has a pavilion there. We also talk about the United States' last two world's fairs in Knoxville and New Orleans and the history of expo mascots.

Here are some links related to our conversation:

Expo 2010's China Pavilion

Expo 2010's United States Pavilion (plans by Nick Winslow's group)

The BH&L Group

ExpoMuseum's 2017-2018 page

ExpoMuseum's 2020 page

ExpoMuseum's photos of Expo mascots - including 1984's Seymour, 2000's Twipsy, and 2010's Haibao

You can hear the podcast via iTunes or by visiting The Season Pass Podcast, episode 77

Expo 2010 Fake Souvenirs a Good Sign?

Today, the People's Daily (China's government paper) ran this article, entitled "Crackdown on Fake Shanghai Expo Goods."

I don't recall there ever being a problem with Expo souvenirs being counterfeited at any of the recent expositions. Of course, those countries (Portugal, Germany, Japan, and Spain) have much longer traditions of trademark protection.

Here's why I think it might be a good sign that fake Expo 2010 souvenirs are out there: We're one year and 9 days from opening day and there's already a market for Expo 2010 souvenirs.

ExpoMuseum's 2010 Shanghai page: http://www.ExpoMuseum.com/2010/

Expo 58 United States Pavilion: What's My Line

In the last year, I've become a big fan of the Game Show Network's reruns of the classic panel game show What's My Line. They've been running episodes in order and they're currently showing episodes from 1958.

The host, journalist John Charles Daly, left for two weeks to travel to Europe and mentioned to the audience he was going to see "the fair in Brussels." I thought it was interesting that he didn't feel the need to elaborate what was going on there, despite this being an era when very few Americans had the means to travel abroad.

Weeks later, when bandleader Benny Goodman visited the show, he was asked about his visit to Expo 58 and what he thought about the United States Pavilion and its exhibits. He was generally favorable about the music venue but attempted to be diplomatic in the face of some criticism about the exhibit. Panelist Dorothy Kilgallen, also a columnist who'd visited Expo 58, expressed high praise for the exhibit.

I think there are a couple of interesting things about these exchanges. I'd like to hear more about what sorts of criticism was being leveled at the design of the United States Pavilion in 1958. I also find it interesting that this was considered a large enough issue to take two or three minutes away from a game show to discuss.

I think it's instructive that the quality of the United States Pavilion was seen as an important issue, one that affects other nations' perceptions of the country.

Fifty-one years later, it has become questionable whether the United States will even have a presence at next year's world's fair, the largest in history and China's first.

Expo 2010 United States Pavilion Press Release

"US Must Act Rapidly to Ensure Participation in China's 2010 World Expo or Risk Major Diplomatic Blunder, Says Consortium"

That's the headline of a press release today from the BH&L Group, of which I'm a member of its advisory board. We're hoping to save the troubled efforts to create a United States Pavilion at Shanghai's Expo 2010, China's first world's fair.

To that end, I created the website UnitedStatesPavilion.com. I'm hoping this might finally get the ball rolling.

The press release can be found at: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/12/prweb1702724.htm.

Sad News about the Expo 2010 United States Pavilion

I've received word tonight that the group that the State Department had chosen to fund, plan, design, build, and staff a United States Pavilion at Expo 2010, has announced that they've run out of both time and money.

Expo 2010 opens in May 2010 and it was estimated that the cost of a US Pavilion would have been about 100 million dollars. Under current government rules, all of that money would have had to have come from private industry.

It now looks like there will be no United States Pavilion at history's largest world's fair, a world's fair in perhaps the most important country of the 21st country, an exposition that will host over 200 other countries and 70 to 100 million visitors.

We need to change United States policy toward international expositions. Not only do we need to be able to fund pavilions for government monies, we need to rejoin the Bureau International des Expositions, an organization that now boasts over 100 member nations.

Nicholas Kristof Article in New York Times

An interesting article by Nicholas Kristof appeared in today's New York Times. Entitled "Rebranding the U.S. with Obama," he talks about how public opinion of the United States will undergo a big change if Barack Obama is elected president of the United States. It includes this fascinating interchange between Mr. Kristof and a Chinese friend about Barack Obama's likely win:

She: Obama? But he’s the black man, isn’t he?

Me: Yes, exactly.

She: But surely a black man couldn’t become president of the United States?

Me: It looks as if he’ll be elected.

She: But president? That’s such an important job! In America, I thought blacks were janitors and laborers.

Me: No, blacks have all kinds of jobs.

She: What do white people think about that, about getting a black president? Are they upset? Are they angry?

Me: No, of course not! If Obama is elected, it’ll be because white people voted for him.

[Long pause.]

She: Really? Unbelievable! What an amazing country!

Setting aside the political aspect of the article, I think it serves to illustrate how people's attitudes about a country can be changed with simple information.

Imagine the potential of a United States Pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai. There's so much opportunity there, not just economically but also diplomatically. I would love to be working in the United States Pavilion and overhear Chinese people leaving the pavilion saying "What an amazing country!"

Now, imagine that there's no United States Pavilion because the funds couldn't be found. Expo 2010 will host over 200 countries for six months in Shanghai. They're expecting 70 to 100 million visitors. What will the Chinese people think if the richest and most powerful country in the world couldn't find the money to participate in China's first world's fair.

NBA and AEG at Expo 2010

From the Los Angeles Times today:

SHANGHAI -- The NBA and the Los Angeles sports and entertainment firm AEG announced plans Tuesday to help develop a $280-million arena and recreation center for the Shanghai World Expo in 2010 -- the first of a dozen multipurpose arenas that the new joint venture hopes to build in China.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-china15-2008oct15,0,7372063.story?track=rss

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any new news about plans for a United States Pavilion at the site.

The Lure of Towers at World's Fairs

In my early days as a student of world's fairs, I was fascinated by the towers created at world's fairs. As a child, tall structures really have a greater power than perhaps they do as an adult. In architecture school, an interest in skyscrapers over more "artsy" buildings is looked down upon by many professors.

In the most recent expos, there haven't been as much a reliance on tall towers as a draw, but I think they were disfavored in more recent decades as being distractions from the more serious nature of world's fairs and can take away from the theme's goals.

I think they still have a power outside their own physical existence. 1889's Eiffel Tower, 1962's Space Needle, and even 1982's Sunsphere have a draw. San Antonio's Tower of the Americas from Hemisfair '68 just reopened with great fanfare.

I think the towers can provide a certain level of initial excitement about an exposition. It acts as an exclamation point to send the message that what's going on underneath is important.

For that reason, I was happy to hear that Expo 2010 will have a tower. Theirs will have, if you'll pardon the expression, a twist. They're using an existing chimney on the site to create an observation tower. To get to the top, visitors will ride roller-coaster-style cars.



By reusing the tower, they can illustrate the benefits of reusing existing structures instead of tearing them down to rebuild, thus fitting with the environmental aspects of the "Better City, Better Life" theme.

I know I can't wait to go up it in two years. I just wonder what the ride back down will be like!

Expo 2010 Theme Song and Mascot

Expo 2010's theme song was presented at the unveiling of Haibao, the Expo 2010 mascot.

I'm hoping to find translated lyrics in English soon.

The frame around the video screen is meant to convey the design of Chinese National Pavilion.

Expo 2010 Switzerland Pavilion

In the year or two before a world's fair, I'm always anxious to see what pavilion designs are being developed. Years ago, it was impossible to get this information beforehand. Now, with the internet, it's amazing what you can find.

Expo 2010 starts in about three years, but already preliminary designs are being unveiled. This week came news of Switzerland's plans, the result of a design competition.

Apparently, visitors will ride on ski lifts which will take them on a tour through the pavilion and onto the roof. (The articles I read called them "cable cars," but living in San Francisco, I've learned to be very picky about the term "cable car" ...but, I digress.)

Switzerland previously had a ski lift (and an indoor ski slope with artificial snow) at their Expo 88 Pavilion.

I can only imagine this will be a huge hit in Shanghai.

Expo 2005 Photo Retrospective

I live not far from San Francisco's Japantown neighborhood, which means whenever I feel like an inexpensive mini-vacation to Japan, I can be there in just a matter of minutes. Japantown Center was a great resource for me prior to my trips to Japan for Expo 2005. I often go in there now, but with the next two expos in Spain and China, Japan isn't as much on my radar these days.

One of the greatest things about Japantown Center is their San Francisco branch of Kunikuniya Bookstores. While browsing through architecture books there last weekend, what should I come across, but an Expo 2005 that I'd never seen before... and trust me, I thought I'd seen them all by now.

One of the first things that struck me about the book was the logo on the front. Anyone's who's seen the 12-segment dashed circle logo for Expo 2005 over and over would see that something was a bit off with the cover's logo. However, the photos inside were fantastic and very representative of what was shown at the expo. From what I can surmise the book was created in China with Expo 2010 firmly in mind. Much of the book seemed created with the next large expo in mind. Other than the logo issue, some typos, and no mention of the Linimo trains, the book is an excellent resource for anyone planning for Expo 2010 without a mental idea of what a 21st Century exposition looks and feels like.

I've added the book to the ExpoMuseum Store if anyone else is interested in it.

City Participation at Expo 2010

China Economic Net published an article today entitled "Cities to strut their stuff at World Expo" announcing that cities will have the opportunity to participate in Expo 2010.

I think this might be an excellent opportunity for San Francisco given its sister city relationship with Shanghai. I've previously created a web site (SFPavilion.com) that proposed something similar.

At Expo 70 in Osaka, San Francisco hosted a pavilion as a result of its sister city relationship with Osaka.