Wang Yanbing

On January 22nd, 2008, Mr. Susan Gregson, Canada's Consul General in Shanghai, was authorized by Canada Government to announce: Canada decided to officially sign the participation contract for World Expo 2010 Shanghai with the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination and build Canadian National Pavilion in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil. 

When making this announcement, Susan Gregson specially spoke in Chinese and her excitement could be easily felt from her non-native pronunciation. 

In talking with Susan Gregson, we reminded of a number of unforgettable classic moments together. The nostalgic feeling and understanding were very special. 
The relation between Canada and the Expo Shanghai can be concentrated into three classic moments. 

Moment 1: We will never forget the support by Canada for Expo Shanghai

Susan Gregson said, "Canada is an important supporter of Expo Shanghai", and as best footnote to such word, on March 22nd, 2006, Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, officially confirmed on participation immediately after receiving the invitation letter for the Expo Shanghai from Wen Jiabao, Prime Minister of China. Canada was one of major overseas supporters of Expo Shanghai and also the first country to officially confirm on participation of Expo Shanghai. 

Definitely, we would not forget the strong support provided by Canadian government and people during Shanghai's application for the World Expo 2010 six years before. At that time, Susan Gregson already placed great expectation on Shanghai and expected that the World Expo, an "Event of Transformation" would change this city in an unimaginable manner. 

And now, the preparation of Expo Shanghai has been progressed comprehensively. Susan Greson became more confident that the participation in Expo Shanghai to the maximum extent was so important and it must be helpful to implement Canadian's policy on foreign trading and strengthen the international communication in economic, foreign affairs and cultural aspects. At the present, China has become the second trading partner of Canada. Through participation in the Expo Shanghai, Canada can display its emphasis on inclusive and environmental protection as well as encouragement on innovation to the whole world.

Moment 2: Nearly two hundreds of questions brought out for the first negotiation of participation contract! 

For this time, Canadian government was the pioneering country in North American to sign the participation contract. It was not the first participation contract for the Expo Shanghai, but it was the first time that there were nearly two hundreds questions raised for participation contract. On February 8th, 2007, the first negotiation guests arrived at the Expo Building and brought along nearly two hundreds. 

These guests were Canadian officials delegation led by Wayne Scott, head of the Canadian delegation to the BIE, and Paul Bisson, manager of Canada Pavilion Development and Operation. 

At that time, the international recruitment of Expo Shanghai was conducted comprehensively and more than hundred countries and international organizations have confirmed on participation. In such satisfactory circumstance, how to turn the political commitments made by the host into legal guarantee, how to completely communicate with the participating parties and how to sign the participation contract became the key points for international recruitment of Expo Shanghai. 

 
The goal of their visiting was negotiation on participation technology and it was the first time for the Expo Shanghai to conduct negotiation on participation contract. 
First negotiation on participation contract and nearly two hundreds questions! Susan Gregson could not help knowingly laughing when she thought of these scenes. "At that time, we really brought out a lot of questions focusing on technical details of participation." These questions covered all aspects from location of pavilion, design requirements, traffic control of visitors, even to some trifles, such as gas, water, and power supply, banking services and accommodation conditions. For example, Canada planned to arrange some wonderful and unique cultural performances, so they hoped to build an outdoor stage beside the national pavilion so that the visitors could enjoy comfortable space and rich events while waiting for entrance into the pavilion.
Of course, these questions were fulfilled by the negotiation team in details eventually.

After that, the Canadian officials expressed, "With the strong support from the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, we will be confident to start the next step without any hesitation." In fact, these two hundreds questions also provided valuable experiences to the Organizers of Expo Shanghai in comprehensively conducting participation services. This negotiation also indicated the commencement of negotiation on participation of the Expo Shanghai. 

In November of the same year, these experts who experienced several world expositions came to Shanghai again for negotiation. The course was important and the achievements were more satisfactory. The fact that Canadian government promoted participation works in a practical way not only reflected the emphasis of Canadian government and people on the Expo Shanghai, but also embodied the traditional friendship between these two countries.

This fact makes us place more expectation on performance of Canada, a great country that participated in almost all world exposition events since 1851.

Moment 3: "Canadian maple leaf" flies to Expo Shanghai 

During Susan Gregson's demonstration of the design for Canadian national pavilion of Expo Shanghai, we remembered three key words: maple leaf, Cirque du Soleil, and innovative idea.

Maple leaf was the most direct expression to every people at first sight of this pavilion. The Canadian pavilion with a land area of 6,000 square meters will be built in an open public space and the whole pavilion is not a building simply "embedded" into a module structure. We can find in the design that the three major structures like three splits of a maple leaf. The pavilion is anchored by an open public exhibition area about the size of two and a half NHL ice hockey rinks, where the visitors can access to the pavilion. In addition, the exterior wall of pavilion is covered by a special kind of greenery and the rainwater is recycled. 

This piece of "Canadian maple leaf" will fly to Shanghai China in 2010 and will absolutely become the most beautiful "Canadian maple leaf" in China with the help of innovative design customized by Cieque du Soleil. 

"In every city we have been to, Cieque du Soliel always acts as a cultural envoy of Quebec even Canada." "It is our great honor to be selected by Canadian government to design the concept of Canadian national pavilion of Expo Shanghai and it also ignites our innovative inspiration." Susan Gregosn repeated such words by Daniel Lamarre, president of Cieque du Soleil to us. At the same time, she added that Cieque du Soliel would display the theme of Canadian pavilion, "The Living City: Inclusive, Sustainable, Creative" through its international reputation and unique features.
When Susan Gregson said "Cirque du Soleil carries all of our wishes", we had to remember "Secret man", the tour performance made by Cirque du Soleil in Shanghai in the summer of 2007. This "circus overthrowing traditions" has displayed their innovative features and unique perspectives in design and performance to Chinese audiences and it could be regarded as a rehearsal for performing activity during the Expo Shanghai. 

In future, the world famous Cirque du Soleil will interpreter the theme of Canada's participation in Expo Shanghai with architectural terms and present a colorful Canada Pavilion and a great cultural event during the Expo Shanghai. Besides that, the wonderful "innovation" is also embodied in the cooperation between Canadian government and brand. This is an unique contribution by Canada for the World Expo while providing other participating countries with valuable hints and instructions on how to cooperate with enterprise, integrate various social resources to complete the cultural design for the World Expo and present a wonderful exhibition pavilion.
When we wanted to have a further look at the mysterious Canadian Pavilion and enter into this piece of "Canadian maple leaf", Susan Gregson left us in guessing and said, "This is a preliminary conceptual design only, and the exact answer will be disclosed to the public in future."