shanghai expo
The Saudi Arabian Pavilion: The Ultimate IMAX Experience
What does a city smell like? How does it feel? Why do we prefer one place and dislike another? These are some of the questions that will be asked to children in a workshop at the innovation stage in the Swedish pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai China. The headline and main subject is ”When people matter”.
If measured by wait time, Saudi Arabia has one of the most popular pavilions at the Shanghai Expo. So what do visitors, who typically have to queue for 4-5 hours, actually see and experience? Pavilion Director Abdulhamid Hasan discusses an innovative use of the conventional medium of film to present his country.
Now it’s time to shift our thoughts and talk about a rarely mentioned issue: our nation’s branding at the Shanghai World Expo 2010, a grand gathering for the world to boil down the essence of participating countries into a medley of striking pavilions.
The national pavilions at the Expo are, in essence, a themed, branded environment, that aims to convey a positive and distinctive narrative about a country. So, how is the mundane space of a pavilion transformed into a stylized and, for some countries, a spectacular location that gives it meaning, identity and, above all, resonance with visitors? The pavilions being a field of cultural production, they pursue a wide range of communication approaches to create and deliver an ultimate nation-brand experience.
From texts and visuals, to experiential
Nation Branding: Japan at Expo 2010 Shanghai.
A Tale of Two Japans
Japan’s soft power seems to derive from the country’s ability to achieve a delicate balance between “modernity” and “tradition.” Pavilion Commissioner General, Mr. Hiroshi Tsukamoto, discusses how both the “hi-tech Japan” and the “cool, beautiful Japan” are presented at Shanghai Expo. He also shares thoughts on the Expo as a venue for public diplomacy.