World Expo 2010
And: why a World's Fair in China is more relevant than ever
By John Mahoney Posted 05.07.2010 at 3:00 pm 5 Comments

Taking Photos John Mahoney

It's been an excellent World's Fair. In case you missed it, here's a guide to our coverage from Shanghai, and some closing thoughts.

At the beginning of the week, I wondered what wild future we'd see here in one of the most rapidly growing, future-obsessed cities in the world. Well, it's very similar to the one we report on every day here--one made better by the brightest scientists and engineers around the world.

Almost every pavilion was focused around optimism for a future where energy is clean, cities are carefully considered, modern places to live, and global openness and sharing is the norm. That last point, however, is notable. It's been estimated that 95% of the Expo's projected 100 million visitors over the course of its run will be Chinese. This is important.

As a tall white person in many places in Asia, you're occasionally gawked at. You're asked to pose with groups for photos, simply for being a standout face in the crowd. There are plenty of foreigners living in major cities like Shanghai, and your presence there is rarely acknowledged as anything out of the ordinary. But let's remember, there are 1.3 billion people in China--20% of all the people in the entire world. Only 40% of these 1.3 billion live in cities--most of which are far less cosmopolitan than Shanghai.

This fair is probably for them--the Chinese who are not inundated with diverse cultural exposures on a regular basis. The ones that take your photo on the street.

That is why many of the best pavilions are elegant distillations of not just the future, but a foreign culture. Spain's pavilion did an exceptionally good job through smart videos and performances (and yes, giant infants) of transmitting some sort of essence of living in Spain. It had a tapas bar and a gift shop with nice Spanish wines and olive oils, rather than the usual trinkets. These are things that Chinese tour groups visiting from far away do not see every day, so for them, it must be pretty special.

Sure, the Internet is rapidly eliminating this gap, bringing cultural exposure to places it's never been. But it's refreshing to remember that the Internet still can't always trump real life; everyone who took my picture this week has of course seen Western people on TV and on the Internet. With this in mind, it's easy to see how events like this, with their incredible architecture (which truly must be seen in person), their visions of the future and most of all their expression of the world's diverse cultures, are still incredibly relevant. And a more perfect host venue than China for a World Expo--representing such a huge chunk of modern humanity--probably does not exist.

Our Expo Coverage:

5 Comments

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Surge64
05/07/10 at 3:08 pm

This is one amazing World Expo! And I got first comment!!!

LOL

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denisengo
05/07/10 at 6:01 pm

"As a tall white person in many places in Asia, you're occasionally gawked at. You're asked to pose with groups for photos, simply for being a standout face in the crowd."

HAHA I totally forgot about this aspect of Asia. It happens even in cosmopolitan, Internet-addicted cities like Taipei :) It's impressive how the World Expo gathered all different sorts of cultures and people into one place.

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mama58
05/08/10 at 9:03 am

Thank you for such excellent coverage of this event. Your photos are incredible and your summary...well, it says it all!

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TrulyVisionary
05/10/10 at 12:09 pm

The seeker of knowledge who seeks to reach beyond the stars to go where no mans gone before to see things no man has seen and bring these experiences back for the whole world to hear and see.

As i have looked into this world expo i have seen some good things if any reading this remember me from other post's i am always going on about how we need to fix are polluting addiction and tho many see pollution as something bad they do not think anything bad can happen in their life time so who cares i tell you now that is not true we are fast tracking are end if we dont stop the carbon emitions we put out are children will suffer. co2 emitions rase each year and it is staggering and that's not the only gas we polute you may not know it but we put all kinds of gases into our atmosphere including gases that were never naturaly their thus we are tanting the natural balance of the earth tho you may feel who cares. try to think. you may not pay for it it but do you want your children to. just couse you did not help fix it. It's bad now if you wait it will be worse in their time and they will have a even greater problem to deal with. our natural cooler our ice caps are melting faster and faster each year
thus our natural cooler will soon be gone not only that those monolithic ice caps hold tons a co2 thus we are excelerating global wartming each year. we nip at solution's but dont take action what can you do anything simply walking and not driving to the corner store help's if you can walk walk.the reason i say all this here you may think.well becouse that's what this expo was about a greener tommorow the buses their they where run on electric enrgy the seed cathedral was made by the bigest seed bank for what in case a major disaster.many think of the earth as something so huge some co2 gas will not hurt it to much well think about it their are more than 5 billion people on earth and more coming each day now think of that 5 billion about 3 1/2 billion think the same as you. driving to the store at the corner wont hurt thats why.even tho something seems small it's huge we pollute every day billions pollute every day all over the earth thats why i love this expo.It showed the collective creativity and inovativeness of the many diverse cultures around the world and allowed us to see many of of their ideas that can help global warming,energy,etc my point one may ask. well we are smart beings we with higher intellegence humans have left a scar on this world which is our home and we will all need to live in it tommorw would you rather live in a harsh and desalit world or a beutiful clean earth healthy and full of energy i felt a great internal happieness thier and tho you
may not understand why think this just three gegree's higher and all plant life dies and all animal life will die after just 3 degrees i hope those who read this know this expo was great and visionary and like i say in all my post i seek out knowledge to tell all and show all thus to bring to those that havent heard or seen a chance to see my vision a vision of great prosparity and a greener tommorow
one with no suffering and where any person can dream and be all that person wishes to be until next time have a great day and a fantastic week....

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Dustin2127
05/20/10 at 9:26 pm

@ TrulyVisionary
if it helps you emphasise your point.. world population is 6.8 closing in on 7 billion, not 5.



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