People Add Color to World Expo

Thomas Rohdewald， Director of Luxembourg Pavilion

Thomas Rohdewald is highly reputed among modern Chinese artists， for his appearance in an oil painting series simply called “Thomas Series” in the late 1990s， created by Mao Yan， a teacher of art at Nanjing Academy of Arts. At that time， 25-year-old Thomas was studying the Chinese language in Nanjing. After graduation， he worked as a clerk at the Luxembourg Ambassador to China before he took an MBA course at China Europe International Business School in Shanghai. The construction of Luxembourg Pavilion came into full swing when he graduated from the school and was searching for a job. The Luxembourg consulate in Shanghai chose him to work as the director of Luxembourg Pavilion. He is probably among the youngest pavilion directors at the World Expo Shanghai 2010.

Thomas is in charge of public relations， reception， narration， publicity， security， and employee management. The exhibition was commissioned to a French exhibition contractor. Thomas said he was chosen as the director because he has lived in China for more than ten years， speaks impressive Chinese and has good relations.

Personally Thomas thinks Shanghai is great， full of vigor and idiosyncrasy. It is hard to make friends with Shanghai natives， he says， but once you become friends， you will find Shanghai people trustworthy and pragmatic. His impression is that Shanghai people honor contracts. The hardest thing is that he feels excluded when his Shanghai friends speak the local dialect. He likes Shanghai. He now and then tours back streets and lanes in Shanghai to see the everyday life of local people. He is not sure he will continue to work for the consulate after the world expo. Finance may not be his first priority. But he will try to stay in Shanghai.

Another person that plays a significant part in Luxembourg Pavilion is pavilion architect Francois Valentiny. A brilliant architect， he was chosen to represent Luxembourg at 1991 Venice Biennial in 1991. He launched the first architect journal in Luxembourg in 2002. He jointly designed some famous projects in Germany， Norway and Austria.

Valentiny took us around the Luxembourg Pavilion， a 9-million-Euro project. Valentiny emphasized it was a small-sized pavilion， a fitting image for Luxembourg， a green heart of Europe. But if calculated at the ratio of the pavilion and the country’s land area， Luxembourg Pavilion is probably the largest pavilion. It is the largest pavilion Luxembourg set up since Brussels World Expo 1958. Thomas Rohdewald commented it explains the four Chinese characters (亦小亦美 or small is beautiful) on the outer wall of the fortress-looking pavilion.

Thomas went on to explain that the literal Chinese translation of Luxembourg means forest and fortress， delivering a perfect picture of the miniature country as the green heart of Europe. Famed as a country of fortresses， Luxembourg boasts many fortresses， some in the capital and most scattered across the rural area. Some are more than 1，000 years old. Many are not safe for living now.

Noyan Rona， Head of Foreign Volunteers Group

Noyan Rona looks a typical Turk with deep eyes and hooked nose. He is head of foreign volunteers group in Changning District， where he lives. The bookshelves in his office are full of books in Chinese. Asked if he has any difficulty in reading Chinese， he beams that he is the only Turk who has acquired a master degree in China. He studied Chinese in Beijing Foreign Languages University and the ancient Chinese history in Wuhan University. “The fact that I wrote a dissertation in 40，000 Chinese characters proves that I have no difficulty in reading. Some foreigners who speak Chinese fluently are illiterate because they can neither read nor write Chinese. I studied traditional Chinese characters and even inscriptions on oracle bones. I interpreted for our president when he came to China and talked with Chinese President Hu Jintao.”

Rona came to study Chinese 30 years ago after studying the Chinese language in Turkey. He was the second Turkic student sent to China by the Turkish Government after China and Turkey set up diplomatic relations in 1971. He worked at the Turkish Embassy to China after graduation. In 1996 he was appointed consul general of Turkish Consulate in Shanghai. Three years later he turned to business. Now he is the chief representative of Shanghai Office of Garanti Bank of Turkey. Rows of certificates of honors， medals and trophies in his office testify to his contributions to Shanghai’s economic and social undertakings. Among these honors is 2005 Magnolia Award issued to him for his outstanding contribution.

Rona has lived in Shanghai for ten plus years. His ties with the World Expo Shanghai started 10 years ago. He appeared in a short film produced by Shanghai in 2000 to apply for the right to host the world expo. “I was kind of a celebrity in Gubei， a community where foreigners live in Shanghai. The organizers wanted to find a foreigner who had live in Shanghai for years to promote Shanghai as a cosmopolitan city. They came to me. That’s how the world expo became a top priority for me.”

His active engagement with the expo became intense at the 600 days countdown to the expo. He attended a few forums held by the city and district authorities， held to hear comments and suggestions from foreigners working and living in Shanghai. Rona spoke on these occasions. Part of the volunteer work under his guidance was to check mistakes in public signs， a work he has been doing for a long time even before the expo came onto his agenda. Rona and his friends gave Shanghai a physical in public signs， environment， behavior， etc. They visited parks， office buildings， shopping malls. They found many translation mistakes. They also invited local residents to some lectures on foreign lifestyles and public civility.

Rona explains that there are different kinds of volunteers. He and many other foreigners are volunteers engaged in activities beyond the expo site. “All the foreigners in Gubei Community are our potential members. This is an open organization. People can come and go. We don’t pay wages and members have no obligations. It’s flexible. When we organize an event， we send out a notice and invite people to participate. People can decide how they will participate and make arrangements accordingly. Sometimes we have 20 some volunteers and sometimes we have only a few.”

Volunteers come from various countries and from all walks of life. Many work in foreign companies， some are hotel managers， some are English teachers and some are homemakers. Since they are from different countries， they can offer help to their visiting compatriots.

Wu Zhiqiang， Chief Planner

Six years ago， a design team under Wu Zhiqiang was chosen after rounds of competition to design the master plan for the site of the World Expo Shanghai 2010. The winning team was from Shanghai-based Tongji University， especially known for its architecture education. Wu is president of the college of architecture and urban planning of Tongji University.

The major consideration for the general plan was to highlight the expo’s theme “better city， better life”. Individual pavilions are the concerns of participating countries and organizations， but the overall site designed by the host city should play a key part.

In order to formulate a best master plan for the site， he chaired many symposiums to discuss advantages and strengths of various plans and try to find a way to assimilate all these strengths and advantages into one master plan.

During those days working on the master plan， he arrived at his office at Expo Tower at 3588 South Pudong Road at 8 o’clock every day and worked hard. Factors that came into his consideration included the total number of visitors， VIP visitors， transport， health， accidents， and new technology.

Wu believes that just like Olympic Games， the world expo is a key event in which nations compete against each other for creativity and exploring spirit. All these represent a future and a promise we have for urban centers in future. These experiments at world expo are destined to bring profound and active influence to civilian architecture in China. □