Ancient/Modern and Something in Between

It's been a busy month or so of travel (and I'm leaving for Rome tomorrow morning). I went to the World Expo in Shanghai a couple of weeks ago. Like most people who go to the expo, I was blown away by the amazing architecture of a lot of the pavilions (you can find some amazing photos here). But what has been under-reported are the actual content inside the pavilions. Because of the long wait times, we didn't really get to go into a lot of the popular pavilions (the wait time for the Japan pavilion was 7 hours!!), which meant that we saw a lot of the less popular, and to put it politely, "hastily put together" exhibitions.

What was a common thread among a lot of the "lesser" pavilions was that they were trying to prove that they were simultaneously an "ancient" and wise civilization, but also one that was "modern" and technologically advanced.

No where was this more clear than in the Iran pavilion, where there were billboards trying to show their "ancient-ness."

But they also wanted to show that they were modern -- photos from proving that they can make aircrafts! And that they have amazing oil refineries!

They also displayed their home-made satellites.

The North Korean pavilion was absurd on numerous levels, starting with the insinuation that there are always rainbows in the land, along with the shameless sign "paradise for people."

They also had the complete works of Kim Jong-il on sale. Didn't know that was required reading in paradise.

What was also disturbing was the reification of various stereotypes in many of the booths and pavilions. See for example, the friendly gorilla holding up a "welcome to Rwanda sign" in the African Union pavilion.

Much more can be said about the ahistorical nature of a lot of the pavilion exhibitions, which raise numerous questions -- what exactly is the function of a world fair, who's the audience, and what types of messages are being presented? Some of the pavilions were tastefully done, and tried to educate the audience on the complicated historical relations between its nation and the world, while at the same time laying out a vision for future collaboration. Others peddled clichés, and at times, offensive, stereotypes.