Rights statement: “The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, China Information, 26 (2), 2012, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2012 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the China Information page: http://cin.sagepub.com/ on SAGE Journals Online: http://online.sagepub.com/
Accepted author manuscript, 134 KB, PDF document
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Space for the future
T2 - Exhibiting China in the world at the Shanghai Expo
AU - Nordin, Astrid
N1 - The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, China Information, 26 (2), 2012, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2012 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the China Information page: http://cin.sagepub.com/ on SAGE Journals Online: http://online.sagepub.com/
PY - 2012/7
Y1 - 2012/7
N2 - China’s modernization and rise is commonly understood as a key factor that will shape future world order. This article examines narratives at Expo 2010 Shanghai China as an instance of the local constitution of this future world. Such imaginations of China and/in the world actively create the future, through assumptions about time and space that structure the possible imaginations of China, the World, and their interrelation. This article examines how the technological and conceptual innovations that play out at the Expo draw on two common cosmologies, the ‘unit-based’ cosmology of the international state system and a Chinese ‘holistic’ imaginary of tianxia (all-under-heaven). It shows how these two cosmologies order universal/particular, time/space, and self/other through Beijing’s ‘harmonious world’ policy. It argues that the two cosmologies are not mutually exclusive, but are deployed at the Expo in ways that reinforce one another by ordering spatial difference through teleological time. The effect is a story of China and the World where others are not different; they are just behind. This is a problem because the reduction of spatial difference to place in a historical queue makes it difficult to imagine plural futures, as opposed to The Future already inscribed in the story.
AB - China’s modernization and rise is commonly understood as a key factor that will shape future world order. This article examines narratives at Expo 2010 Shanghai China as an instance of the local constitution of this future world. Such imaginations of China and/in the world actively create the future, through assumptions about time and space that structure the possible imaginations of China, the World, and their interrelation. This article examines how the technological and conceptual innovations that play out at the Expo draw on two common cosmologies, the ‘unit-based’ cosmology of the international state system and a Chinese ‘holistic’ imaginary of tianxia (all-under-heaven). It shows how these two cosmologies order universal/particular, time/space, and self/other through Beijing’s ‘harmonious world’ policy. It argues that the two cosmologies are not mutually exclusive, but are deployed at the Expo in ways that reinforce one another by ordering spatial difference through teleological time. The effect is a story of China and the World where others are not different; they are just behind. This is a problem because the reduction of spatial difference to place in a historical queue makes it difficult to imagine plural futures, as opposed to The Future already inscribed in the story.
KW - Expo 2010 Shanghai China
KW - the future
KW - harmonious world
KW - harmony
KW - space
KW - world fair
U2 - 10.1177/0920203X12438000
DO - 10.1177/0920203X12438000
M3 - Journal article
VL - 26
SP - 235
EP - 249
JO - China Information
JF - China Information
SN - 0920-203X
IS - 2
ER -