Singapore pavilion at Shanghai Expo a disappointment
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May 7, 2010 - ST Forum
Singapore pavilion at Shanghai Expo a disappointment
I WAS in a group of Singaporeans who visited the Shanghai Expo on its opening day last Saturday. After visiting the Singapore pavilion, we all left feeling rather disappointed and humbled.
The Expo is on a grand and spectacular scale with many countries proudly exhibiting their historical, cultural and social characteristics in pavilions of unique architectural styles. For instance, the China pavilion presents externally a meaningful architectural design with impressive animated cultural displays inside.
Visiting the Singapore pavilion, however, was a disappointing experience. The external appearance of a musical box is aesthetic enough. Inside, one is confronted with a path with lit floor signs pointing the wrong way. On the wall are crude displays showing statistics such as population growth and GDP with some Chinese characters too small to read.
The rest is mainly advertisements of a few commercial firms, apparently sponsors, promoting their products. The brief widescreen movie is hardly more than an ad of a major commercial sponsor.
Inside the pavilion there is little that is representative of Singapore except a few orchid plants in the rooftop garden.
There is nothing that refers to our racial mix and harmony, our educational and health-care facilities, our tourist attractions, and our attempts to maximise use of our limited resources of land and water. There is nothing that shows the 'little red dot', with only human resource, striving to build a home for Singaporeans.
Dr Ong Siew Chey
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good to make it dull so less PRC flooding here.
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May 12, 2010 - ST Forum
Expo pavilion to be fine-tuned regularly
WE THANK Dr Ong Siew Chey for his feedback last Friday, 'Singapore pavilion at Expo a disappointment'.
The pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo, themed Urban Symphony, tells the story of how our small city state has overcome its limited natural resources to become a world-class city where its residents enjoy a cosmopolitan lifestyle within a harmonious multicultural environment.
Our success in attaining urban sustainability - our green city, water technology and housing initiatives, among others - is showcased through exhibits such as 9 Residents 1 Anthem and Urban Bio Rhythm.
At the same time, Singapore's multicultural heritage is infused in almost every aspect of the pavilion - from the cultural dances in the areas leading into the pavilion to exhibits such as Metro-Nome, which features various ethnic cuisines.
The food and beverage outlet also serves well-known Singapore dishes from the various ethnic groups.
The music and video for the pavilion song, Every Touching Moment, involve four of Singapore's most well-known Mandopop artists in China today (A-do, Tanya Chua, JJ Lin and Stefanie Sun), and feature ethnic instruments and locations associated with Singapore's ethnic groups.
Having opened only on May 1, the Singapore pavilion will be subject to fine-tuning and enhancements. During the next six months, temporary exhibits and performances will be refreshed to ensure that the pavilion experience will continue to be an engaging one.
The pavilion experience has been carefully curated to include interesting facets of Singapore that are relevant to the theme for, and audience at, the World Expo.
Muhammad Rostam Umar
Executive Director, Communications
Singapore Tourism Board
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sound so boring...
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Originally posted by Clivebenss:
sound so boring...
because sg is a boring place.... -
Recently, some people were complaining about the mascot?
A durian looking creature?
Nothing wrong with durians except that we import most of them from Malaysia and Thailand.
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how about the Shanghai blue condom?
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how about a SAR virus...as mascot.
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Originally posted by Arapahoe:
how about a SAR virus...as mascot.
The blue condom is good enuf.
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The slave driving old leader is concentrating on money making, has no time to get the country to be innovative.
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saw the picture of LKY dinning with china former president Jiang.
There were 3 wine glasses infront of LKY dinner plate....white wine, red wine and possible a glass of beer or sparkling wine.....not sure how that drinking etiquette works.....
looks like an expo of wine....
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Originally posted by Arapahoe:
saw the picture of LKY dinning with china former president Jiang.
There were 3 wine glasses infront of LKY dinner plate....white wine, red wine and possible a glass of beer or sparkling wine.....not sure how that drinking etiquette works.....
looks like an expo of wine....
Why did he not meet up with the current incumbent - Wen Jia bao and Hu Jing tao?
Guess he was just there to enjoy himself, nothing innovative about Singapore he can boast about. haahhha
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Originally posted by hasene:
Why did he not meet up with the current incumbent - Wen Jia bao and Hu Jing tao?
Guess he was just there to enjoy himself, nothing innovative about Singapore he can boast about. haahhha
well remember he is not representing the head of state.... -
Wah...the Exec Director from STB, his reply damn classic man. That writer gave him feedback based on what he saw and the reply he got was what they did for the event.
At the end of the day, what reply? lol
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Originally posted by Rock^Star:
Wah...the Exec Director from STB, his reply damn classic man. That writer gave him feedback based on what he saw and the reply he got was what they did for the event.
At the end of the day, what reply? lol
agree la, they give an answer for the sake of answer. no passion, just dead fish...
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Originally posted by iceFatboy:
agree la, they give an answer for the sake of answer. no passion, just dead fish...
That's typical of them.They probably have standard guidelines and templates for reply. Next time just be innovative, get a robot to reply since it all sound classic, standard.
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The Singapore pavilion at Expo has to reflect the real lifestyle and environment of Singapore, thats why its so disappointing.
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Originally posted by ahtansh:
The Singapore pavilion at Expo has to reflect the real lifestyle and environment of Singapore, thats why its so disappointing.
Nothing to lose if one were to give it a miss. The queue at China , UK, Japan is long wait of 2 to 3 hours to get in. -
Originally posted by Rock^Star:
Wah...the Exec Director from STB, his reply damn classic man. That writer gave him feedback based on what he saw and the reply he got was what they did for the event.
At the end of the day, what reply? lol
what did he replied? i did not read the articles...or watch any news.
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Even the reply by STB is boring