2010 Jul 02 Shanghai Expo: the Fun, the Funny and the Absolutely Frightening
The sheer crush of humanity knows no mercy. It honors no man. Its yawning mandible will consume you with a dizzying hotness and bereave all of civility, courtesy and cordiality.
Should you be curious to experience this unique sensation of being trapped inside an outdoor box of confusion, frustration and forestallment -- and pungency, as in the sweet smell of summer sweat -- may we suggest the world's fair of world's fairs: the Shanghai Expo.
I can see it now, our Shanghai friends angrily pumping their fists at us, shouting, "You're one to talk, with your Olympics silliness and that sea of concrete known as Olympic Green!" Well, I'm no hater. I actually appreciate Shanghai's efforts, like the free shuttle. But this... this is darkly, horrifyingly funny:
Of course, you have to suck it up and visit. Haven't you heard? This Expo is once-in-a-lifetime. It's big and brassy on scales never before encountered (you could fit 20 Spain 2008 Expos inside this year's Shanghai Expo), it's the architect's Disneyland, the technocrat's wet dream, a showcase of friendship and cooperation and huggsy-wuggsies. It's also, far as I know, the only place to see a ginormous baby made out of human flesh. (Okay, not human flesh.)
Now, don't misunderstand: I appreciate these displays of soft culture and realize the diplomatic significance of participation. (Seriously, thank you Hillary for bringing the U.S. pavilion to fruition; the only thing worse than spending millions on a building would have been not spending anything at all.) But, again... this:
And... wtf, mate?
So, if you go -- when you go, if you haven't already -- our only advice is to arm yourself with a sense of humor. It's probably your best defense against the unholy hordes.
Below, more pictures from my day at the Expo. (Note: much better pictures here, via the Boston Globe.)
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All Expo-ed Out
After reading numerous articles about the over-the-top kitsch, long lines, overpriced food and generally poor organization of the Shanghai Expo, my wife and I have spent the majority of this summer resisting the idea of going. And were it not for my insistent in-laws (who really, really wanted to go), we very well would have not. But in the spirit of filial piety we finally succumbed this past weekend and went along with our daughter to witness “Le Grand Spectacle.”
Korean Boy Band Triggers Cyber War
Here at the Beijinger we’ve mostly refrained from commenting on the Shanghai Expo, figuring anyone who was interested could check out what our comrades on the spot down south were saying. But we couldn’t resist this Expo-related story – a Korean boy band triggering a war in cyberspace, demonstrating just how stupid so-called patriotism can get.
Shanghai's Past As Seen Through Photos
As good Beijingers, we all ostensibly harbor a loathing of Shanghai. (Those damn Shenhua beat our beloved Guoan -- excuse me, I mean champions Guoan -- 3-2 on Saturday.) But hard as it is to admit, it's impossible not to be impressed by our cousin city to the south, which boasts heaving monuments to modernity, world-class restaurants and bars, homely cafes and diners, intimate communities that formed organically, panoplies of local flavor and opportunities galore. Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' lyric, "concrete jungle where dreams are made of," might as well use Shanghai as the refrain.
H.S. Liu and Karen Smith's newest coffee-table book, Shanghai: A History in Photographs, 1842-Today, impressively renders the city in all its layers, weaving a pictorial history that begins from the 1842 Treaty of Nanking and ends in modern time. Tonigth (Wednesday, May 26) starting at 7:30 pm at the Bookworm (RMB 30), Liu and Smith will talk all about their book's subject, the "Paris of the East."
Han Han on Haibao: “Does he have a butt crack?”
“Haibao makes my head hurt. When everyone saw that he was flat, it raised a big problem for those who were trying to make three-dimensional Haibaos: what should his back look like? Does he have a tail? Does he have a butt? Does he have a butt crack? No one knew…” Haibao’s derriere is just one of the amusing issues raised in a recent post about the Shanghai Expo by controversial best-selling author Han Han. ChinaSMACK have translated the post here.
