Shanghai Illuminations: 1890-2010

As I’ve noted in previous blog posts, I’ve been spending a lot of time lately giving talks about my new book, China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know. And as followers of my blog posts also know, the 2010 Expo is one of the many topics addressed in that book, where I treat it largely, as an excerpt that went online a week ago illustrates, in terms of its connections to the 2008 Beijing Games. Right now, though, I’m at Yale for a conference and preparing to give a joint presentation with Rebecca Nedostup that focuses on the Dianshizhaiillustrated magazine and as a result has a closer tie to my last book, Global Shanghai, 1850-2010, than to my new one. No doubt in part because of that, when I went online just now to look at images of the Expo’s Opening Ceremonies, which took place yesterday (when it was still April 30 in the U.S. but already May Day in China), I was struck by the value of placing the fireworks and fanfare of 5/1/10 into a more local and longer term perspective