Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
culture.” h e Chinese version focused on the meaning of Haibao from the
perspective of the characters themselves (
hai
= sea, and
bao
= treasure). Cre-
ated by a Taiwanese designer and selected through competition, each of
Haibao's elements is imbued with meaning—“the blue color: implying inclu-
sivement [
sic
] and imagination, symbolizing China which is full of hope and
potential of development. Hair: resembling the rolling waves. . . . Face: sim-
plistic cartoonish expression, Eyes: round body, evoking beautiful feelings
for harmonious life, cute and lovely, Fist: the thumb is raised to praise and
welcome friends from the whole worlds, Big feet: standing fi rmly on the
ground and giving strong support to the outspread arms, which implies that
China has the capability and determination to hold a wonderful world expo-
sition.”
22
Most important (to the organizers), Haibao symbolized that “only
by supporting each other and living in
harmony
between man and nature,
people and society, and people among themselves can urban life be better.”
23
For most people, Haibao was a souvenir, sold everywhere on Shanghai
streets. Others note its resemblance to Gumby.
24
My own favorite picture of
Haibao was one I took on a department store escalator, which told people to
use
wenming
behavior, to “properly use the elevator because the World Expo
concerns everyone.”
Haibao's purported representation of the “harmony between man and
nature, people and society, people among themselves” is tied to another
important question about the world expo. Just how “green” was it? In the
one hand, infrastructure investments, particularly the expansion of the
subway, were a long-term strategy that may reduce air pollution associated
with cars. A mostly positive in-depth 2009 assessment of the environmen-
tal dimensions of the world expo conducted by the United Nations Environ-
ment Program praised Shanghai for having improved its energy mix and
reduced its reliance on coal to 51 percent of its energy needs in 2007 from 64
percent in 2001, and for improving its air quality (a major critique leveled at
Beijing during the Olympics).
25
