Old Boy driving New Zealand's World Expo image

2/2/2010

New Zealand commissioner-general for the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai Phillip Gibson (1963-67), has just returned from China with a progress report on the pavilion, saying it is on budget and on schedule.

Construction of the $32 million Kiwi pavilion is well under way. It is expected to draw in 40,000 people a day when the expo event runs for 184 days from May 1 to October 31.

Phillip Gibson

New Zealand's growing trade with China – with exports up from $1.9 billion in 2008 to $3.3b in 2009 – was just one reason Kiwis should sit up and take notice of an event the Asian country is spending US$45b (NZ$61.1b) to US$50b on, Phillip said.

It was the biggest World Expo, and the Chinese were talking of it as the biggest grouping of people for a drawn-out timeline event of its kind.

About 70 million visitors – mainly Chinese – were expected on the downtown 5.2 square kilometre site straddling the Huangpu River, and the Kiwi stand had been picked by local media as a "must visit" part of the event.

"Now why are (the Chinese doing it)? Well I think there's a tectonic shift taking place in world political and economic power towards north Asia, in particular China. This essentially is part of China's coming out party to the world," he said.

The Kiwi pavilion was backed by corporates from throughout New Zealand and about $2 million of sponsorship. Regional representation would likely come from Wellington, Hawke's Bay, New Plymouth, Otago/Southland, Canterbury and Auckland.

The pavilion would use wide-screens (some on "Pou" poles) to allow visitors to get a sense of New Zealand via a visit from the shoreline, into the city and suburbs and then out to the country by watching moving and still images on the screens. He said occasionally a strong southerly would whip through the building, but only via the screen images rather than to the discomfort of the visitors.

The 2,000 square metre pavilion site was once a Shanghai steel mill, and the building would be close to the Chinese building.

Visitors would be met by kapa haka groups with about 60 to 70 Kiwis due to attend the site and help make the New Zealand experience a friendly and welcoming one, Phillip said.

The Maori theme would continue with the entrance to the building looked over by Tane – who according to mythology was the god of forests and of birds, and the son of Ranginui and Papatuanuku, the sky father and the earth mother.

The theme for the pavilion was "Cities of Nature: Living between Land and Sky", partly inspired by the Maori creation story. There would also be many Chinese-speaking Kiwis, to explain the "day-in-the-life" presentation via the screens seen by visitors treading along a 112 metre long internal walkway. Visitors would eventually emerge onto a rooftop garden.