Shanghai Expo 2010 Sriparna Pathak World expositions have emerged as significant tools of spurring economic, scientific, technological and, cultural exchanges between nation states. ‘This assumes ‘more importance, particularly in an era when cooperation and mutual benefit have become key components of .cting behaviour among states in the international system, ‘The Great Exhibition of Industries of All Nations, held in London in 1851 can be taken to be one of the first of such kind of expos. The Great Exhibition, held at the Crystal Palace, was basically to demonstrate the industrial, military and economic superiority that Britain possessed. Britain, at that time was the dominant industrial and imperial power. Ithad colonised countries as far away as India and China. In 1851with the signing of the treaty of Nanking, which came about at the end of the first Opium War, China was being drained by foreign capitalism. Around the same time, it was also being drained by feudal rule of the Manchu dynasty. In fact 1851 was the year when the Taiping Rebellion! began in China. China's sole contribution to the Great Exhibition of Industries of All Nations then was just 12 boxes of silk, sent by a Shanghai merchant. Karl Max had deplored the fair as an exercise in capitalist excess. A fast forward to 2010 shows the World Expo being hosted in China, in which about 200 nations and international organisations will be participating, and about 70 million itors from home and abroad are expected. The Shanghai Exposition is the first registered World Exposition in a developing country. The exposition is slated to run from 1 May 2010 to 31 October 2010 and is based on the theme, “Better City, Better Life’. Besides the pavilions of the various participating nations and international organisations, there are five central theme pavilions at the Expo 2010. exploring different aspects of urban development. They are called'Urban Footprints, Urban Planet, Urban Dwellers, Urban Beings, and Urban Dreams. The prospect of future urban life has become a subject of global interest and concerns all states, developed, developing or less developed. This is primarily because about fifty five per cent of the world population is expected to live in cities by the year 2010. During the Shanghai Expo, the participants will display urban civilisations to the full extent, exchange experiences of urban development, disseminate advanced notions on cities and explore new approaches to human habitat, lifestyles and working conditions in the twenty first century. Shanghai Expo 2010 Inconjunction with the theme, the Shanghai Expo concentrate on exploring and addressing three issues: 1 What kind of city can make life more beautiful and harmonious? a What kind of lifestyle can make a city more beautiful and harmonious? 3 ‘What kind of city development mode can make homes on the earth more beautiful and harmonious? China’s growth, which is of nearly 10 per cent, has been sustained for thirty years now and this is the highest the world has ever witnessed. As such, China has demonstrated its ability of sustaining growth. What is also commendable is its ability to develop new genres of cities. Shanghai now stands as the most modernised city in the world. These features of China will be the most watched ones during the Shanghai Expo. The expo is expected to contribute to human centred development, technological and scientific innovation, cultural diversity and win - win cooperation for a better future. In addition to this, Expo 2010 offers an enlarged opportunity for cross cultural dialogues. World Expo 2010 can be seen as an opportuni to demonstrate low carbon urban development practices, and to demonstrate that economic growth, prosperity and wellbeing are compatible with sustainable urban development. The potential gains are numerous, as are the numbers of city dwellers who stand to benefit from them. According to the conceptualisation of the expo, three categories of activities constitute Shanghai Expo 2010- exhibitions, events and forums. During the expo, six international ‘Theme Forums’ will be held, culminating ina “Summit Forum” in Shanghai on the final day. The purpose of the Theme Forums is to put forward ‘significant strategic recommendations’ for sustainable urban development. The ‘Summit Forum will bring together heads of state and the ULN. and other leading figures. Before the conclusion of the Exposition, a ‘Shanghai Declaration’ will be issued. This declaration shall be a milestone in the history of the World Expositions, and will epitomise the insights to be offered by the participants and will embody people's ideas for future cooperation and development and extensive common aspirations. 379Trade fairs and world expos can be regarded as important aspects of soft power. The concept of soft power and ‘soft’ sources of power that include culture, political ideology and diplomacy- are increasingly being recognised as essential components of a great power status. The concept of soft power can be traced to the works of Hans. J. Morgenthau, Klauss Knorr and Ray Cline. As summarised in recent years by Joseph Nye, soft power is a directing, attracting, and imitating force derived mainly from intangible resources such as national cohesion, culture, ideology, and influence on international institutions. According to Nye, itis the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments. According to Singaporean senior minister Lee Kuan Yew, ‘soft power is achieved only when other nations admire and want to emulate aspects of that nation’s civilisation’. For about more than three thousand years, China has drawn a continuous stream of traders, emissaries, scholars and religious people in quest of power, riches, guidance and inspirations. After the reforms were undertaken in 1978, and opening up (gaige kaifeng) was. initiated, the interest in China and Chinese culture has considerably increased. Reform and opening up have helped China to turn into an economic powerhouse, and the growing economic clout has conjured up images of Prosperity and affluence. As a result of Expo 2010 in ‘Shanghai, the world will gaze upon China, and the expo expected to bring numerous positive effects to the nation, which is essential for a government that considers the international image of the nation as being extremely important. According to reports released by the Chinese state media, China has spent much more on the event than it spent on the Beijing Olympics.” More than six years have been spent on planning the Shanghai Expo. The Shanghai Expo is an opportunity to promote Chinese soft power and to show its growing influence in the world. Itis also an opportunity'to enhance people to people contact, and to promote mutual benefits. According to Jose Villarreal, San Antonio lawyer recruited by the Obama administration inJuly 2010 to save floundering U.S. plans? for the Shanghai Expo; “The obvious conscious message is that China has arrived”. He also added that China is spending US $ 4.2, billion on the six month Expo and 10 times that ifnew roads, rail lines and other infrastructure projects are included in the bill. “We are basically celebrating China's emergence as a world power”. ‘The views of Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Professor of History at University of California are similar. According to Wasserstrom, “One goal the Chinese government hopes to accomplish by hosting grand spectacles such as these is to re-brand China as a thoroughly ‘modern and strong country, dispelling any lingering image of its the sick man of Asia. 380 According to a commentary on the Chinese state radio, “Whether in the field of economics or culture, China has already become a great and pivotal nation in the world, and inevitably the Expo will be a great opportunity to change many perceptions globally”. The Shanghai Expo i an attempt to promote public diplomacy- an attempt to ensure that visitors take home with them a better understanding of modern day China. Besides this, the ‘Shanghai Expo 2010 and the Beijing Olympics of 2008 are regarded as important milestones in China’s modernisation process, World expos are established platforms of exhibiting what has been achieved by humans. The history of world expos is a history of major breakthroughs in the global economy, culture and science and technology. World expos earlier in history have produced the Eiffel Tower and the introduction of the television. The Shanghai Expo 2010, as put forth by Zhao Qizheng, the Vice Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference; isa global stage for every nation, every region and every nationality to gather, to exhibit their diverse cultures, to show off new technologies and products, and to communicate and learn from others. Atthe heart of the Shanghai World Expo stands the Chinese pavilion, which is also known as the ‘Crown of the East’. It is basically a giant latticed crown painted crimson. Packed with exhibits portraying daily Chinese life, China's ethnic diversity, and the standard bearers of Chinese philosophy, the display shows China’s friendliest face to the world. The pavilion is 207 feet in height (63 meters), and resembles an ancient crown. Itis painted in the same red colour as is Beijing’s imperial palace. The main structure of the pavilion is used for an exhibition based on the theme of “Chinese wisdom in urban development” by explaining the values of harmony, nature and spirit. Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan have their own exhibition halls. The Chinese pavilion overlooks the eastern half of the Expo grounds, and sits astride the Huangpu River. Tt took two years for the construction of the pavilion. The Oriental Crown is basically constructed of four pillars with 6 floors expanding upwards. The roof, which is 30 meters high, is constructed from 56 wooden brackets, which represent the 56 minority ethnic groups of, China. Additionally, nine folded scripts engraved on the surface of the building list the short names of China's various provinces. According to Ni Jinping of the Shanghai Institute of American Studies, “China is not only showcasing i 5,000 years of civilisation, but also showing what is going ‘on in today’s China. It wants to show how Chinese people’s lives have improved”. After the expo closes, the pavilion World Focus September 2010will be converted into a museum for Chinese history and culture ‘The Chinese pavilion has been voted as the top choice for visitors. Underneath the giant red inverted, pyramid are the 31 pavilions of the various provinces of China. The choirs of ethnic singers at the Guizhou pavilion ‘and the dancers of the Yunnan pavilion show off the best, of Chinese culture. However as has been stated by the designers of the pavilion, only one tenth of the daily tourists on the site will be able to go inside. The other attractions of the pavilion include a journey on a trolley car to explore China's traditional architectures such as arched, bridges, landscaped gardens and wooden houses. Also, a short movie directed by filmmaker Lu Chuan is slated for visitors. ‘The theme of the movie is ‘Chinese Wisdom in Urban Development’. ‘The Chinese pavilion is about 30 times the size of the Canadian designed U. S. showcase. According to Zhou Hanmin, the deputy director of the Expo's organising committee, China is not trying to show off by building a gigantic national pavilion, It needs the space to house exhibits from 31 provinces and cities, which each have bigger populations than many countries. Despite the fact that itis big, it will be able to accommodate only about 8 per cent of the expected 70 million visitors. The pavilion nevertheless showcases the economic might of China. At ‘atime when the global economy is still recovering from the shocks produced by the global financial erisis, China’s bid for the Shanghai Expo 2010 signals its economic capabilities and its willingness to project its economic prowess. Due to the financial crisis, China faced an economic recession beginning from roughly the end of 2008. Even though there was no “financial” crisis in China because of its possession of more than adequate foreign reserves, there was an economic recession due to a reduction in demands for exports which led to problems of, over supply and unemployment. As a result of the financial crisis, more jobs were lost in China in 2008 than in any other country. The Shanghai Expo, besides fulfilling the goals of advancing cooperation and projecting the image of a powerful China, has another extremely important goal- that, of leading the world economy out of recession. The Preparations for the Shanghai Expo have been expected 0 directly spur investment and increase jobs and effectively stimulate consumption through tourism and shopping, playing an important role in pushing economic growth, ‘Also, the Shanghai Expo can be an important tool for strengthening the confidence and unifying public feelings, which in tum can lead to a speedy global recovery out of the global recession. Shanghai Expo 2010 World expos have played important roles in supporting recoveries out of economic crises. The Chicago World Fair of 1933 for example, was held against the backdrop of the Great Depression. Nevertheless, itattracted 23 million visitors. It created nearly 1, 00,000 jobs directly or indirectly, and helped in boosting confidence during a period of recession. In order to spur investment, Shanghai has carried out a large number of constructions, which in tum are beneficial for Shanghai's urban reconstruction as well as for industrial restructuring. Most of the funds for the constructions of the Export Park have been invested in permanent venues, infrastructure and other public facilities such as cross river tunnels and rail transit lines, while part of the funds has been spent on resettling residents and factories. Thus the investment is playing an increasingly important role in pulling economic growth and improving people’s livelihood. Also, infrastructure has been modemised and the construction of tourist facilities are continuously being promoted in the pan Yangtze River delta region, where the Shanghai Expo is being hosted, What is expected is that the hosting of the Shanghai Expo will directly create the demand for services in dozens of trades, including commodity circulation, fairs, creative design, and public relations. Also, it is expected that the entire city’s services for supporting 70 million tourists in terms of food catering, shopping, transportation, and sightseeing businesses will bring along a large number of Jobs. In order to alleviate the current strains on employment for university graduates, the Shanghai Expo organisers will launch the ‘university students’ service program’ of practical training for graduating university students at 13 categories of jobs. In terms of stimulating consumption, itis expected that the 70 million visitors will not only come to Shanghai for the Expo but also probably tour and stay in other cities in the Yangtze River delta region or go on to even farther places for sightseeing. Their consumption of clothing, meals, lodging, transportation, sightseeing, and shopping will lead to a spur in consumption, which can lead to the easing of the over supply of goods in the Chinese economy which has emerged as a result of the dried up external demand after the onset of the global financial crisis. Also, itis expected that the gathering at the Shanghai Expo wi serve as an important informal platform to discuss the issues concerning global cooperation and development and to explore ways to tackle the crisis. This Expo is also anticipated to heighten confidence and to reaccelerate growth of the economy worldwide. Another important goalpost of the Shanghai Expo is the concern for environmental protection. Through 381