the view from the playground
On my ride into work today I played a game with myself. I wanted to see if I could cycle one full block without seeing any sign of preparation for the coming World Expo. It wasn’t possible.
People who lived in Shanghai during the early 1990’s say that the city then was a nightmare. The frenzied activity that was unleashed when Shanghai was eventually allowed to re-open its doors turned the entire urban landscape into a construction site. Today, as Shanghai gets ready for the 2010 World Fair this state of affairs has returned. Even those accustomed to the speed and scale of Shanghai’s recent growth cannot but be shocked by the frenetic pace of the contemporary transformation. Every sidewalk is being dug up, every shop front is getting a paint job, scaffolding is everywhere. Near the expo site itself, Shanghai looks like a war zone.
It is hard not to admire this immense ambition and I am certainly looking forward to the results. When May comes around it is not the expo site that will draw in the visitors. In 2010 Shanghai itself will be on show.
Nevertheless, there is something a little terrifying about this unity of purpose. After all, is this not the same spirit that, under a different direction, but not so long ago, killed most of the country’s sparrows and melted down nearly all the functional cooking pots into useless pieces of steel?
A friend of mine last week said she was relieved that her street was finally \expo’d\. Mine has yet to have its makeover!