Matthew Davis

Questions

What was the national government’s goal in hosting the Shanghai Expo 2010? How did it affect the urban branding of Shanghai? How did people, both foreign and local, view the Expo?

Discussion

Urban branding is a crucial element of city development, but it also is an opportunity for the state to solidify its image and power projection. The potential for how a city brands itself continues to increase as the world becomes more globalized. Tourism is a dominant industry that synthesizes economics, culture, and leisure, and cities continue to seek out opportunities to capitalize on tourism. To reap the largest benefits, tourism can be super-charged to grand scales through large international events. China has recently sought out and realized two of these events with the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. Both of them surpassed previous standards in magnitude, accentuating the branding capability these events had on the host cities and China in general. In particular, the 2010 Expo is a vivid case study of how the government 

used the event to promote Shanghai’s urban branding, and the reaction to the Expo shows the event’s efficacy of improving the city’s international reputation.

Held throughout the summer of 2010, the Shanghai World Expo was the largest expo in history by all metrics––it had the most participatory countries, it had the largest budget, it had the largest World’s Fair site, and it had the largest attendance, at seventy-three million visitors (Pletcher). The event was an important catalyst for the growth of Shanghai, for even though the city has experienced dynamic development since the opening up of China in the 1980s, the pressure of the World Expo provided the Shanghai Municipal Government an opportunity to renew many industrial areas. Ying Deng speaks to this city development in his article “Planning Mega-Event Built Legacies––A Case of Expo 2010,” particularly focusing on what happens to the city after the mega-event has concluded. The Expo fairground was the centerpiece of the city’s fifteen-year riverside restoration project, revitalizing the Puxi (west side) and Pudong (east side) of the city, improving “issues of aging housing, lagging infrastructures, insufficient amenities and heavy pollution” with the goals of implementing adaptive reuse of building, intentional layout, and environmental sustainability (Deng 2015: 167).

A graphic of the World Expo’s fairgrounds, showing the pavilions and features that aided in the developmental beautification of the riverfront. “Construction Plans of Expo 2010,” Travel China Guide, April 7, 2021, https://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/shanghai/worldexpo/construction.htm. 

While this development was beneficial, an important consideration was to ensure this construction––built for a one-time event––would have long-term benefits for the city; Shanghai planners needed to make sure they were fulfilling “the longstanding mandate after the cessation of the ephemeral role,” a problem many host cities have failed to pay attention to until the legacy of the event began to crumble (Deng 163). To uphold the Expo’s legacy, the municipal government created the Leadership Panel for the Post-Expo Development of the Expo Site, which was tasked with proactively planning out how each expo component would function for years to come,

consolidating features and buildings into multi-use zones to target the retail, government, real estate, and cultural sectors (Deng 169). In the creation of this large-scale space, the developers targeted luxury consumers by creating high-class functions such as eco-living quarters and retail space. This beautification of Shanghai has many benefits, but it adversely made it “hard to find any trace of street life and local culture” (Deng 173).

The exhibitions and events were dazzling, but the Chinese government did not hold the Expo simply as an avenue to develop the city. It was a calculated tool to promote a specific image of Shanghai. Drawing from the city’s history as a melting pot of the West and East, the government promoted a brand that seamlessly combined Shanghai’s international roots while turning towards the future. The Expo closed with fanfare from the international community, with the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang saying at the Expo’s closing ceremonies, “as the first developing country to host an expo, [China had] ignited the imaginations of people and leaders of all countries, but especially those in the developing world. Well done, Shanghai!” (Sha 2010).

Fireworks light up the fair grounds to celebrate the Opening Ceremony of the World Expo. Citation: “World Expo 2010 Shanghai China,” China Central Television, 2010. https://www.cctv.com/english/special/2010expo/homepage/index.shtml.

Urban branding is a form of soft power, a force China is continuing to export more and more as it settles into its place as a global superpower. Michael Barr discusses in his article “Nation Branding as Nation Building: China’s Image Campaign” how the central government has pursued soft power politics not only for “international image building” but also domestically as a way to “rebuild Chinese culture to help people cope with a rapidly changing society” (Barr 2012: 82). After the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party met in 2007, soft power

was written into the political agenda, with a focus on using it for state building and the establishment of  a “national identity . . . [to] create loyalty to a communal identity” (Barr 84).

When considering the urban branding of this event as a form of soft power, the most visible element is the Expo’s slogan. There is an interesting discourse on the meaning of the slogan “Better City – Better Life.” The official explanation, as discussed in Henrik Larsen’s research paper “The Emerging Shanghai City Brand: A Netnographic Study of Image Perception Among Foreigners,” is meant to invoke a desire to improve “the quality of life of local  residents,” as well as “building a harmonious, international and modern society with traditional Chinese values,” as stated by Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee Yu Zhengsheng (Larsen 2013: 20). However, if read in Mandarin Chinese (城市让生活更美好), the slogan means “Cities Make Life Better,” a nuanced differentiation that is decidedly pro-urbanization, an important message in a country that has experienced dramatic shifts in its rural-to-urban population in recent decades (Barr 84). Regardless of the slogan’s translation, the propaganda reflects a careful branding that “showcases China as a leading model of future global development with a particular emphasis on technology and innovation,” setting a tone for the urban branding the Chinese government aimed to receive by hosting the World Expo (Barr 85).

A building displaying the Expo’s English and Chinese slogans. Citation: Synthesis11, “Better City, Better Life : Expo Shanghai 2010,” Reddit, September 18, 2016. https://www.reddit.com/r/Cyberpunk/comments/53ec9y/ better_city_better_life_expo_shanghai_2010/.

The official expectations of what China wanted to present to the world are important to understand; however, it is even more important to determine how the city’s branding was experienced by people, both foreign and domestic, for it is people who will ascertain whether a city’s urban branding is “valid, distinctive, appealing, durable, and communicable,” according to Huachun Wang (Wang 2012, 1285). Wang’s study considered information found in the city’s own literature, official Expo documents, interviews with municipal officials, and a survey of 180 attendees of the Expo (Wang 1286). Generally, there was a prevalent sentiment  that expectations exceeded reality for Expo-goers, who failed to see the results the Expo promised to bring. For example, the expensive investments in the city’s infrastructure only led to more traffic congestion and even architectural failures, such as a fire which engulfed a 28-storey apartment complex built for the Expo (Wang 1290). Wang’s study showed that although the Expo greatly altered the physical appearance of the city cosmetically, “it did not change the general experience of Shanghai,” leading to “a mismatch between the city’s identity branded by the government and realities experienced by the public” (Wang 1284). A common theme of critique was that a city’s image cannot be benefited by a mega-event if the event does not strive to truly address the salient issues of the city. This attitude was examined by Larsen, who analyzed how foreigners felt about Shanghai based on their website postings before, during, and after visiting the Expo. Using a process called netnography, which studies social interactions online, Larsen found that foreigners felt an overwhelmingly negative sentiment after visiting Shanghai for the Expo (Larsen 20). There was a high frequency of posts regarding Shanghai’s native population being “uncivilized” and “unfriendly,” and the density of the city aggravated people’s view of Shanghai’s pollution and traffic problems (Larsen 24). Overall, experiencing Shanghai was not to experience a blend of culture and modernity. Instead, foreign visitors felt stressed, angry, and underwhelmed. Importantly, however, the author does consider the many possible flaws in studies of online communities. Specifically, through an online medium, people have the ability to hide behind anonymity, empowering them to express thoughts they would not feel comfortable expressing in person. Similarly, Larsen notes that while 80% of the world uses the internet, only 16% actually contribute to its content, providing a minority of users an oversized voice in netnographic surveys such as Larsen’s (Larsen 21).

Dense traffic pattern in Shanghai the day before Chinese National Day, a year after the completion of the World Expo. Citation: Cao, David. “Shanghai in Traffic Jam 2011,” Beijing News, October 3, 2011. https://www.beijingimpact.com/society/2190-shanghai-in-traffic-jam-2011.html.

Equally as important is how the Expo was perceived by the residents of Shanghai themselves, since they would have to live with the ramifications of the mega-event after all of the crowds  dispersed. Kangjuan Lv analyzed their responses in his article “The Image of the 2010 World Expo: Residents’ Perspective,” surveying 148 locals at public places from December 2010 to February 2011. The survey gauged how satisfied people were with the Expo’s effectiveness at improving seven factors: “culture, economy, environment, science and technology, community, urban and rural regions, [and] life condition” (Lv 2017: 209). The study found that residents saw noticeable improvements in the environment, “economic development and enhancement of technology,” which makes sense because there were elements of the Expo, such as “infrastructure and facilities, which can be used by citizens afterwards” so these things were “regarded as big benefits” (Lv 211, 208). However, residents did not see an improvement in living conditions or the integration of rural people, which were goals explicitly stated by the Shanghai World Expo Bureau to build a “harmony society” (Lv 211). This survey concludes that while specific improvements to things like infrastructure were noticeable, a cohesive reimagining of the urban experience was not actualized, so the Shanghainese felt that the Expo upheld the “Better City” motto but not necessarily “Better Life.”

In Larsen’s conclusion, he considers how Shanghai could alter this foreign perception by looking at other cities as models. For instance, Germany was able to embrace positive feedback from international crowds during the 2006 FIFA World Cup “almost exclusively” because of “encounters with friendly and hospitable people and a multicultural atmosphere” (Larsen 25). Just as importantly, a city needs to understand its brand, for that brand clarity may be able to negate potential downsides. The author mentions that while Los Angeles and New York are both rather dirty places filled with unpleasant people, they are desirable locations with strong brands because they know who they are, such as New York’s image as the “city that never sleeps” (Larsen 26). This view encapsulates the true efficacy of urban branding. As shown by the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, a forced brand will not only ring hollow to city goers but also will not benefit the city by truly advancing its goals. The city must accentuate its inherent features to market a true brand that will reflect the city’s past, present, and future.

Sources

1. Barr, Michael. “Nation Branding as Nation Building: China’s Image Campaign,” East Asia, 13 April 2011, https://www.springer.com/journal/12140.

2. Deng, Ying, et al. “Planning Mega-Event Built Legacies––A Case of Expo 2010,” Habitat International, 09 June 2015. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286034893_Planning_mega-event_built_legaci es_-_A_case_of_Expo_2010.

3. Larsen, Henrik G. “The Emerging Shanghai City Brand: A Netnographic Study of Image Perception Among Foreigners,” Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 11 May 2013, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260026381_The_emerging_Shanghai_city_bran d_A_netnographic_study_of_image_perception_among_foreigners.

4. Lv, Kangjuan. “The Image of the 2010 World Expo: Residents’ Perspective,” Inzinerine Ekonomika-Engineering Economics, 2017, https://inzeko.ktu.lt/index.php/EE/ article/view/3048/8744.
5. Pletcher, Kenneth. “Expo Shanghai 2010,” Encyclopædia Britannica, 24 April 2021, https://www.britannica.com/event/Expo-Shanghai-2010.

6. Sha, Zukang. “The Closing Plenary Session of the Summit Forum,” United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 31 Oct. 2010, https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/usg/statements/uncategorized/2010/10/at-the-cl osing-of-the-shanghai-world-expo.html.

7. Wang, Huachun. “Mega-Events and City Branding: A Case Study of Shanghai World Expo 2010,” Journal of US-China Public Administration, November 2021, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nashwa-Ghoneim-2/publication/284133742_Assessi ng_the_Voting_Experience_of_Egyptians_Abroad/links/5ee4e7c8299bf1faac52d199/Ass essing-the-Voting-Experience-of-Egyptians-Abroad.pdf#page=66.