Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
reminding us that the metaphor of the doorway is dual: both pathway to
openness and means of closure.
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But, according to Human Rights in China and other activists, the Shang-
hai World Expo relocation has been a human rights disaster for local resi-
dents. For example, Hu Yan and her family faced a fi ve-year ordeal when
their home was demolished without their consent. h ey became the objects
of o' cial coercion, threats, and detention as they tried to petition the
authorities, and Hu ultimately came to New York to (unsuccessfully) plead
her family's case.
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conclusion
h e eco-desire underpinning the idea of one planet/one world is a key part
of the ideological rhetoric of the world expo, as I argue in the next chapter.
At the same time, this idea of one planet/one world is part and parcel of the
Disneyland “It's a Small World” ride, itself conceived at a world expo for an
American corporate brand. Fifty years after the dolls put that chorus into the
heads of millions of American and global consumers, the storyline is roaring
back, but with new green twists in China and in global markets. From the
postwar “American Century” and the globalization of American land-use
patterns (suburbanization and auto-dependence), we now have suburbani-
zation with Chinese characteristics. h ey are recognizably similar to each
other in their green, antiurban form, even as they diff er slightly on what ele-
ments of ecology they emphasize: clean air (h ames Town), low-carbon liv-
ing (An Ting), water (Pu Jiang), or eco-friendly houses (Northern European
Town). For real estate developers, the so-called green architecture trend did
not die with the failures of the One City, Nine Towns initiative. Rather, the
trend has accelerated throughout China, in developments called Eco Town,
Garden Villa, Green World Garden, Greenery Villas, and Beautiful Garden.
One recent chronicler of the phenomenon argues that this trend is less about
actual green technologies or developments than about high-quality and
