The USA Pavilion was a pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China. It represented the United States and was one of the most visited pavilions during the event.
Attendance As of August 31, 2010, the pavilion reported that attendance had surpassed 4.7 million and was averaging more than 41,000, people per day. On September 30, 2010, the pavilion welcomed its 6 millionth visitor. By the end of October, the USA Pavilion had received 7.3 million visits.
Reception The Chinese media reported that the pavilion's content and message left visitors to the pavilion with a lasting and memorable impression of "U.S. Spirit." According to a Fudan University poll commissioned by the USA Pavilion, the pavilion was well liked by Chinese visitors. The Fudan University research study, posted October 14, 2010 on PRNewswire, found that the USA Pavilion met high visitor expectations and generated positive perceptions of Americans. In the study, 95 percent of respondents felt their visit to the USA Pavilions was worth the "time and effort" and 93.4 percent thought it was a good representation of the "American spirit." However, a study conducted by Duke University business school professor Liu Kang, then acting as dean of the Institute of Arts and Humanities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, gave "Thumbs down for US pavilion" and deemed it the "most disappointing" at the Expo According to Liu, "Maybe people had higher expectations so they left disappointed." Reactions among US officials and US media were mixed. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the most senior US official to visit the pavilion, responded "It's fine," when asked to express an opinion on the structure and its programs. US Senator Richard Lugar, in a February 15, 2011 letter introducing a report on public diplomacy efforts in China, noted that the USA pavilion "drew criticism for its hastily organized presentations and lack of a cogent message." A Los Angeles Times editorial commented that the mainly Chinese visitors to the pavilion enjoyed watching the American citizens in the pavilion's introductory film make fun of themselves as they attempted to learn simple Chinese greetings. The editorial also noted that "the pavilion is so loaded with corporate logos that the messages are nearly lost to branding by Chevron, General Electric and others." The Washington Post reported that the pavilion was a hit among the Expo's mostly Chinese visitors. The same paper's Ezra Klein, however, summed up the pavilion's appeal to China visitors thusly: "We're bad at languages, in hock to corporations, and able to set up gardens when children shame us into doing so." Reacting to US media focus on the pavilion's commercial sponsorship, National Public Radio (NPR, US) reported: "Some American visitors find it gauche, but the Chinese seem unperturbed by all the corporate messages." Reporter: "I talked to more than a dozen Chinese visitors. I asked them to resist their urge to be polite and give me a no-holds barred review. No one had a bad word to say. Here's visitor Zhu Shan Bin exiting the pavilion." Bin: "It shows us the American spirit, which is multi-cultural and filled with imagination and creativity. From the movies here, I see Americans value children and a good education." Reporter: "Now that is some brilliant corporate messaging." Pavilion exit interviews by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS, US) program News Hour found the audience pleased by what they saw, and commenting that it showed them another side of America, which was well worth the long lines endured to enter the pavilion. In a typical response, one woman interviewed by PBS NewsHour commented: "My View of America Changed…from what I saw, America seemed more sincere and friendly...right now, America and China, they are good friends."
Themes The pavilion's content was based on four core concepts: teamwork, sustainability, health, and the spirit of striving for success. Visitors passed through four spaces: a welcome hall, a pre-show, a main show, and a post show display area. In the first hall, visitors were greeted in Mandarin Chinese in a series of vignettes featuring a cross-section of the United States' multi-cultural residents. The second space presented the "Spirit of America", promoting collaboration and celebrating opportunity, diversity, freedom, and innovation. The third space featured the main attraction, a 4-D film entitled "The Garden." In the fourth and final space, the pavilion's corporate sponsors displayed their emerging technologies and products. "The Garden" told the story of a 10-year-old girl who envisions turning a blighted vacant city lot in her neighborhood into a beautiful, urban pocket park. The young girl encouraged her neighbors to come together to make the park a reality. In the process, she also created a closer community of neighbors. The eight-minute film was projected upon five 10-meter-high screens trimmed by programmable LED lighting effects (833 lighting cues in eight minutes). Audiences were especially captivated by the 4-D effects, which included lighting, mist, and vibrating seats. These special effects combined with a non-verbal approach made the message universally understandable by all visitors, with no language barrier to interfere. As described in the "Beijing Review," the film, "With its 4-D wind and rain effects, gives audiences an amazing visual and tactile experience. Although there was no dialogue in the film, the excellent visual and audio effects make the film accessible to audiences with different cultural and language backgrounds."
Show design The show aspects of the USA Pavilion were conceived and produced by Bob Rogers (designer) and Tony Mitchell from a Burbank, California-based firm, BRC Imagination Arts, which has produced attractions and content for 11 world's fair presentations, including the film for the Vancouver Expo, "Rainbow War", which was nominated for an Academy Award ("Oscar").
Plaza stage In addition to the theater shows, entertainment was provided at the USA Pavilion on an ongoing basis with live performances by various US artists, including Dee Dee Bridgewater, Herbie Hancock, and Ozomatli. The Philadelphia Orchestra performed during the opening week of the Expo; Harry Connick Jr was featured at the pavilion's National Day celebration.
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