关键词 : Theme Development World Exposition publication Preface
“Theme development”or “zhuti yanyi” in Chinese,is one of the most common terms of world expositions. Since Shanghai won the bid for hosting Expo 2010, we have been frequently using or exposed to the word. As the name implies, “yanyi” is a thinking methodology, which goes from general principles into specific illustrations and presentations. It is also a process of reasoning to infer specific knowledge from general principles as well as to draw specific conclusion based on general premises. Theme development is a process in which the Organizer and participants of a World Expo prepare and present, in various forms, the rich and vivid concepts and practices in relation to the theme, based on the thematic system defined in the relevant Special Regulations, which was submitted by the Organizer and approved by the General Assembly of the BIE.
What distinguishes World Expos from ordinary commercial fairs?
The World Expo is a showcase of civilizations. Since it was first hosted in 1851, it has gradually developed a unique core value system over history. This value system reflects the guiding ideologies and features of World Expos, which distinguish them from other exhibitions. It also reflects the consensus between the Organizers and participants. There are three essential elements in this system, namely “progress”, “challenge” and “communication”. “Progress” is the key to the spirit and concept of World Expo and is the main thread that integrates its past and future. “Challenge” reflects an important aspect of World Expos in encouraging discovery and innovation. Finally, “communication” underlines the value of World Expo as a “place”.
Progress
Since the Enlightenment of the 18th century, with the growing human rationality, development of science and technology and the influence of Darwinism, “progress” has become a main pursuit of mankind. It indicates Man’s desire to keep up with the times and to achieve a better life. As early as in 1851, founders of the Crystal Palace had raised the motto of “progress” and had thus laid a conceptual framework for World Expos that has lasted for more than 150 years despite of all the ups and downs. From the London 1851 to the Aichi 2005, “progress” is always one of the key values. As William Mckinley, former US president, pointed out: “Expositions are the timekeepers of progress. They record the world’s advancement. They stimulate the energy, enterprise, and intellect of the people; and quicken human genius.”
The concept of “progress” is realized, first of all, through an integration of manufacturing and arts. In its incipient days in Europe, World Expos were mainly platforms for showing national power. A nation’s development stage is usually perceived through its manufacturing industry and art, which are supportive of each other. The advancement of one would definitely benefit the other. The early World Expos put much emphasis upon the marriage between industry and art. Art was defined as one of the four major categories of the 1851 London Expo. The World Expo 1862 was officially named as London International Exhibition on Industry and Art. The 1867 Paris World Expo demonstrated history of human development from the Stone Age to 1800 and listed art as the first category in its classification system. From then on, the art pavilion has always been one of the highlights on Expo sites.
“Progress” also has a human dimension. With the continuous progress of human society, the World Expo has also become a great promoter of humanities. The 1904 St. Louis World Expo had its message centered upon “man”, which was developed through three perspectives, i.e. “Earth”, “Production” and “Economy”. The theme of 1967 Montreal World Expo, “Man and his World Land”, was explored through several sub-themes, i.e. Man the Explorer, Man the Creator, Man the Producer, Man in the Community, Man the Provider, Man and his Health. Throughout its history, attention to “man” remains an important part of World Expos.
Another dimension of “progress” is peace. After torn by the World Wars, the human society cherishes peace more than ever. The 1958 Brussels World Expo, with its theme on science, civilization and humanism, was the first universal exhibition held after World War II. It provided a great opportunity of dialogue between the previously warring states. Participants exhibited their contributions in science, technology, politics and culture. Marcel Galopin has it in the preface for Les Expositions Internationales au XXÈ Siècle et le Bureau International des Expositions,“We are making great efforts to find out the answer to such a question: Why the world expositions could become one of the most precious seconds of human understanding and love in the world full of conflicts?” It has been proved that World Expo is a venue for promoting world peace and for facilitating the dialogue between cultures.
Finally, “progress” is shown in the scientific development. The World Expos after the World War II more or less follow the thread of reflection, particularly that of the abuse of science and technology during the World War II and that of negative impact on natural environments brought about by technological progress. These reflections gave rise to a strong wish that modernization and progress is no longer maid of economic and political contests, but offers possibilities of improvement of quality of life of mankind and of sustained world peace. With a reflective tone, the post-War World Expos placed their stress on “human needs”, which is well demonstrated in World Expo 1958 Brussels, themed as “Science, Civilization and Humanism”, in Montreal 1967, “Man and His World Land”, and in Osaka 1970’s “Progress and Harmony for Mankind”. In the meantime, it is during this period that the concept of “sustainable development” starts to enter the Expo agenda. It was first raised at Spokane 1974, also known as the International Environment Exhibition, which adopted an environmental theme for the first time. This theme comes back more frequently after the issuance of Agenda 21 by the UN in 1992, at Lisbon 1998, Hanover 2000 and Aichi 2005, and is now carried on by Shanghai 2010. These Expos all offered or is about to offer discussions and explorations of “sustainable development” from various perspectives
In a word, “progress”, as a core value of World Expos, grows with the history of World Expos and embodies the essence of times. It has different connotations and expressions in different historical contexts. What remains unchanged is that it will continue to guide and influence the future Expos.
Challenge
World Expo is a hotbed for discoveries and innovation and is known for the many “firsts” and “debut” that it offers. “Challenge”, or meeting up with challenges in the pursuit of excellence, is an inevitable process in achieving “progress”. “Challenge” is an attitude. It encourages people to explore and unravel the unknown world and the myths of history. It also stimulates creation and innovations using scientific methods. In the early days, “challenge” was more interpreted as that arising from competition. Later it was seen more as explorations of the future.
From the very beginning, World Expo has established an award system as a direct way to encourage competition. Each Expo held in the period from 1851 to the middle of 20th century offered a set of awards, normally no less than thousands of them. The World Exposition Paris 1900 gave out 45,905 awards in total. For more than 100 years since 1851, getting an Expo award was one of the most recognized laud to a nation’s achievements. Later, it was gradually felt that the awarding system, by driving nations to vie with each other with commodities, is not the best way to communicate the core values of Expo, and is rather going against the trend of Expos, which is changing from exhibition of commodities to presentation of ideas and cultures. Therefore, in 1966, the college of commissioners general of Montreal Expo decided to abandon the award system, which was not resumed until the World Expo Aichi 2005.
World Expos are showcases of discoveries and stimulant of innovations. New technological achievements and products made their debut at Expos. Classical examples include the “Crystal Palace” of London 1851, constructed with prefabricated metal and glass panels, as well as the Bell’s telephone, gramophone, and Edison’s telegraph at the Expo Philadelphia 1876, and Kodak color film at the San Francisco 1915. These items were all of milestone significance in their age. People treat World Expos as platforms for unveiling new products and research outcomes. Many of the inventions and innovations went into mass application in the post-Expo years and have benefitted a much larger population since. The classification system of contemporary libraries, theme park, international conference center were all born from Expos, the latter two increasingly becoming landmarks of modern metropolises. “Challenge” is, after all, what World Expos are after. It is also a propellant of the development of World Expos. As William Mckinley once said, “Every exposition, great or small, has helped to some onward step. Comparison of ideas is always educational; and as such instructs the brain and hand of man. Friendly rivalry follows, which is the spur to industrial improvement, the inspiration to useful invention and to high endeavor in all departments of human activity.”
Communication
World Expos are miniatures of the world. They are channels through which people discover and learn about the world. More than 150 years ago, the World Expo organizers ventured to bring the whole world under one roof through an encyclopedic system of exhibition, which allows visitors to see and experience the world’s leading technologies and products; Later, with the content of Expos switching to ideas and cultures, the traditional exhibition format gave way to a thematic exhibition system, which better reflects common concerns of mankind. In the current information age, the highly developed mass media and information technology provide people much more efficient access to the outer world. Under such a circumstance, is the efforts of hosting an Expo still justified? To answer this question, we shall renew our thinking on the value of World Expo and rediscover its significance as a unique “place”.
Coming through 150 years of history, World Expo remains to be attractive. The reason is that people have incessantly injected new forms and life into it in the process of realizing its values.
World Expo is a stage for communication between cultures. There is no differentiation between strong and weak, rich and poor, new and old, big and small. Each nation or nationality has its unique culture. World Expos offer a platform for displaying the cultural tradition, progress of science and innovation power of different cultures and nationalities. People have a growing awareness of the importance of cultural exchange. “World expositions fulfill a deep instinctive need in people for a “festival”. In our mechanistic world we tend to discount the instinctive urges of our society as having little value but some, especially such a celebration of mankind’s achievements and hopes, are worthwhile.” said Arthur Erickson, designer of the Canadian Pavilion of Expo 1970. World Expo is the most ideal venue for satisfying this demand.
World Expo is a forum for exchanging thinking and viewpoints. Since the end of the 19th century, people have been transferring World Expos into a platform for exhibiting “ideas” rather than products and technologies. It is a forum in itself. As Anna Lamson wrote in Les Fastes du Progrès, “Visitors are not (potential) buyers of commodities any more. They are consumers of ideas, life styles, and social programs… World’s Fair gathers the peoples all over the world and offers a unique venue for collision and exchange of various concepts, where its attraction and value lie in.”
In the course of more than 150 years, World Expo has been following a constant philosophy. From the very beginning, it has established itself as a “cultural event” rather than a “commercial space”, which readily distinguishes itself from all other fairs. More importantly, it has developed a distinctive value system over time, which advocates progress, encourages challenge, and facilitates communications. It is this value system that has led World Expo through all its splendors and glamors.
Structure of the Book
Organizers of early World Expos, to layout a framework of the exhibitions, designed a classification system that reflected their intentions. Robert Rydell, an American scholar on World Expos, gave a high praise on these systems, “World’s fairs’ classification schemes may be among the most important contributions by exposition organizers to intellectual history. They not only reflected contemporary thinking about how universe should be perceived…, but also determined how that universe would be presented.” For a long time after the 1851 Expo, almost each World Expo had its own classification system, not only to categorize exhibits, but also to realize the intention of the Organizer. Later on, Organizers gradually felt that encyclopedic classification system could no longer present the dynamic or reflect their more specific purposes. The Chicago International Exposition 1933 started to have a theme, i.e. “A century of progress”, rather than following the old classification schemes. However, it was not yet the real beginning of “theme era” or spelt an end to the classification systems. The following World Expos either adopted the new thematic system, or still used the classification system, or simply combined the two approaches. It is not until 1994 that the thematic system was officially established by the “RESOLUTION N°1 – ‘The theme of Exhibitions’” approved by the 115th General Assembly of the BIE on June 8, which defines: “All Exhibitions will have to have a relevant theme that corresponds to the expectations of contemporary society.”
The book consists of five chapters. Chapter I explores the evolution of concepts and forms of early World Expos (1815-1933), from being single-purpose exhibition to multi-functional presentations, from classification by exhibits to that by content. Chapter II focuses on the development of thematic system between 1933 and 1994, and how the old classification system was gradually replaced by the thematic system. Chapter III reviews how the theme development framework was officially established at the 115th General Assembly of the BIE (1994), which defined the theme development system that was adopted and developed by the later Expos. Chapter IV examines theme development at Expos since 1994 through case studies, which covers all three major forms of theme development, i.e. exhibition, forum, and events. Chapter V describes the formation and development of the theme structure and presentation of World Expo 2010 Shanghai China, accompanied by contemplative questions.
The preface, Chapter I, II and III are written by Wu Jianzhong, Chapter IV by Zeng Yuan, and Chapter V by Mao Zhuchen. Wu Min and Zhu Hang contributed several articles and case studies, and were deeply involved in the content planning of the book and development of the index. Experts and scholars of relevant fields were invited to contribute works and case studies under the content framework of the book. The book also selects materials and documents of relevant topics. It should be mentioned that Dr. Vicente Gonzalez Loscertales, Secretary General of the BIE, offered great support for the work by authorizing translation and publication of relevant works.
In the process of compiling the book, we also got much appreciated assistance from the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination and Shanghai Library. Dr. Ji Lude, Director of Theme Development Department of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, raised much valuable suggestions on the framework and content. A group of young professionals (Mao Zhuchen, Zeng Yuan, Wu Min and Zhu Hang, etc.) actively contributed their thoughts and works, based on their fields and backgrounds. Staff of Shanghai Library ( Zhang Jie, Wang Ping, and Liu Wei, etc.) took in the editing, compilation, and translation work. The efforts of all these people are highly acknowledged.
The theme development for Expo 2010 is still underway. We do hope that the publishing of the book is able to trigger more valuable thoughts and inputs into the process. Your feedback and comments are appreciated.
Wu Jianzhong
January 10, 2008