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The world's creativity comes to Shanghai Expo
By Robert Lawrence Kuhn |
July 7, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
EDITOR'S note:
This is the second of the author's two-part article contributed to Xinhua news agency. The first part was published yesterday.
A WISE Chinese friend, with an American PhD in science, tells me that while Shanghai has a fascinating history, its future holds far more significance than its past.
He encourages me to focus on Shanghai's science: "It's becoming world class," he says with pride.
A culture rooted in science is a prime goal of China's leaders. A new national policy supports world-class talent.
Top Chinese scientists, educated and working abroad, are now returning to China - a China which now has the resources to back them with first-class equipment and talented students.
China is targeting a dozen or more critical areas of science, where it intends to be among the world leaders. To investigate, I select stem cell research, the basic science underlying regenerative medicine, a foundation of 21st century health care.
At Shanghai's Institute for Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Executive Director Jing Naihe tells me, "Our top stem cell labs are now 80-85 percent of the world's best."
Five years ago, he says, "we were at 50-60 percent" and in "10 to 20 years we should be top level."
Design characterizes Shanghai, from urban planning to fine art. Indeed, Shanghai has become a center of contemporary art.
How extraordinary for a city and a society that only a few decades ago shunned modernity and coerced homogeneity.
Before reform, China was a drab, monolithic country. Everyone ate the same kinds of food and wore the same styles of clothes.
"Art" was dictated by the state: it was coercive, superficial, mediocre, and boring.
Not so today! With reform, Shanghai exploded with vitality and creativity. Here one can see the most ambitious, the most audacious avant-garde art.
In a Shanghai galley, situated in a converted steel factory, I marvel at the original and shocking visions - from the elegant to the bizarre, the soothing to the sexual.
When future historians write the book of Shanghai's epic story, a middle chapter will be about Expo 2010. Expo's about the future. Shanghai's about the future. It's all you see. It's all you hear.
Expo is expanding how people think. The world's creativity has come to Shanghai.
No city is quite like Shanghai. Energetic. Adventuresome. Dynamic. Distinct.
It is said that Shanghai-born basketball player Yao Ming symbolizes Shanghai's height; Shanghai's subway, Shanghai's depth; and Shanghai's Maglev train, Shanghai's speed.
Shanghai's new epic story is to become a world city - a leader in business, finance, trade, science, technology, and even in culture.
One can see all this at Expo.
Expo 2010 Shanghai is a historic event.
(The author is an international investment banker and corporate strategist. He is the author of the book "How China's Leaders Think: The Inside Story of Reform and What This Means for the Future".)
This is the second of the author's two-part article contributed to Xinhua news agency. The first part was published yesterday.
A WISE Chinese friend, with an American PhD in science, tells me that while Shanghai has a fascinating history, its future holds far more significance than its past.
He encourages me to focus on Shanghai's science: "It's becoming world class," he says with pride.
A culture rooted in science is a prime goal of China's leaders. A new national policy supports world-class talent.
Top Chinese scientists, educated and working abroad, are now returning to China - a China which now has the resources to back them with first-class equipment and talented students.
China is targeting a dozen or more critical areas of science, where it intends to be among the world leaders. To investigate, I select stem cell research, the basic science underlying regenerative medicine, a foundation of 21st century health care.
At Shanghai's Institute for Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Executive Director Jing Naihe tells me, "Our top stem cell labs are now 80-85 percent of the world's best."
Five years ago, he says, "we were at 50-60 percent" and in "10 to 20 years we should be top level."
Design characterizes Shanghai, from urban planning to fine art. Indeed, Shanghai has become a center of contemporary art.
How extraordinary for a city and a society that only a few decades ago shunned modernity and coerced homogeneity.
Before reform, China was a drab, monolithic country. Everyone ate the same kinds of food and wore the same styles of clothes.
"Art" was dictated by the state: it was coercive, superficial, mediocre, and boring.
Not so today! With reform, Shanghai exploded with vitality and creativity. Here one can see the most ambitious, the most audacious avant-garde art.
In a Shanghai galley, situated in a converted steel factory, I marvel at the original and shocking visions - from the elegant to the bizarre, the soothing to the sexual.
When future historians write the book of Shanghai's epic story, a middle chapter will be about Expo 2010. Expo's about the future. Shanghai's about the future. It's all you see. It's all you hear.
Expo is expanding how people think. The world's creativity has come to Shanghai.
No city is quite like Shanghai. Energetic. Adventuresome. Dynamic. Distinct.
It is said that Shanghai-born basketball player Yao Ming symbolizes Shanghai's height; Shanghai's subway, Shanghai's depth; and Shanghai's Maglev train, Shanghai's speed.
Shanghai's new epic story is to become a world city - a leader in business, finance, trade, science, technology, and even in culture.
One can see all this at Expo.
Expo 2010 Shanghai is a historic event.
(The author is an international investment banker and corporate strategist. He is the author of the book "How China's Leaders Think: The Inside Story of Reform and What This Means for the Future".)
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