Thursday, October 14, 2010

4D Cinema at USA Pavilion Expo 2010

The USA Pavilion, located at Zone C of the Pudong section, is one of the large-size pavilions in Shanghai Expo 2010. The pavilion architecture is simple but beautiful, shaping like an eagle with open wings. Separated from the exhibition areas, an American restaurant is situated at the rear part of the building. There is a waterfall running on the side wall at the  main entrance to the exhibition hall. What are the exhibitions? In contrast to visitors' expectations, there are not any high-tech products or  demonstrations of the latest achievement in advanced scientific technologies. Instead, the exhibitions highlight the American culture and values in building a harmonic community with better urban environment. The theme of the pavilion is "Rising to the Challenge". To express the American spirit, three films are shown. Although there are not any stunning effects with the films, the stories are meaningful and educational.
The first film was taken place in an open hall without any seats. The film showed a street interview with the local residents in the United States who were making their first attempts to speak Chinese. There were warm greetings and there were jokes when the native Americans were striving to say "Hello" or "Welcome to the American Pavilion" in Mandarin. These friendly greetings came from people of various ages, ethnicity, and occupations. The audiences responded in joyful laughs and smiles when interviewers were uttering the new language in a funny way. The key elements of the second film were welcome speeches from Hillary Clinton, the Secretory of State, and Barack Obama, the President of the United States. The last film entitled "The Garden" was a movie with 4-dimensional effect in the expression of the passion of  a 10-year-old girl for the improvement of living environment. The outcome of the story emphasized that an individual effort from a little girl could make a great influence to the neighbors for community building. There was not any dialogue but songs and music in the film. When storms and rains appeared  in the film, water sprinkled from the ceiling of the cinema on our heads. The  real sense of raining made everybody yell with surprise and fun. After we had finished watching the movies, we came to an exhibition hall where American business firms were advertising their products. The USA Pavilion had been criticized of being too commercial in the States. I think it should limit to the last part of the exhibitions.


There are three films in the USA Pavilion

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