Expo Mania!

As Beijing was wild with excitement and anticipation for last year's Olympics, Shanghai is preparing in the same way for next year's international exposition. They have a furry mascot, whom I initially thought looked like a tooth but it turns out is actually supposed to represent the Chinese character ren 人, meaning person or in this sense humanity. They've got billboards plastered all over the city advertising Better City Better Life, echoing of the Olympics' One World One Dream or New Olympics New Beijing. Hell, they're even tearing down a large area of old housing on the riverbank south of the city center to create a massive exposition park...sound familiar?

The Chinese are really taking to the culture of internationalism and international events: trade forums, Olympics, expos, etc. But what seems to be the case is that more often than not the local residents end up suffering at the expense of impressing the rest of the world.


But hey, this girl above (taken last weekend at the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum's exhibit on the Expo) seems pretty captivated by the model of China's pavillion at the Expo, which interestingly enough is based on the traditional wood bracket design of the very Chinese buildings that have been leveled across the country for the type of economic modernization and globalization celebrated by events like the Olympics and the Expo...