Sensation Macao

 

  "To touch - Macao's inner world
     To see    - Macao's present and future
       To hear  - Macao's silence and noises
         To taste - Macao's traditional and fashionable flavors
           To smell - Macao's cross-cultural fragrance"

                                                                              

 

      

Rabbit Lantern shines in Shanghai Expo

By Michelle Ho, Angela Kuok, Victoria Ieong

 

It was a hot morning, though it had just stopped raining. There were already hundreds and even thousands of people queuing at the Shangnan Road, Shanghai, waiting to enter the Shanghai Expo. With excitement, people had been looking forward to their visits to the Expo for months. One of the pavilions that were on the top of their list is Macao Pavilion known as the Rabbit Lantern.
Macao people were especially excited as this was the first time for Macao to take part in such a big world exhibition. This was a good chance to show the world about her traditions and cultures. People were also interested in how the interior and exterior of the Macao Pavilion presented Macao. Did it successfully fulfill the job? What will be the future of the Macao Pavilion?
May 1, 2010 is a memorable date in the history of China, as it was the grand opening of the Expo 2010 Shanghai China (Expo), a world-wide exhibition. The Expo lasted for six months and ended on October 31, 2010, with an accumulated 73.08 million visitors. Around 190 countries and 50 international organizations took part in the Expo. The Expo 2010 Shanghai China is the biggest ever Expo in terms of the size of the venue, the number of participating countries and organizations and the number of visitors in its history of 159 years.
“It was tiring, but there were many things to see. There were several countries that I wanted to visit in my trip to Expo,” Edwin Ho, a secondary student who visited the Expo with his family, said.
For the first time to participate in this world event, the making of the Macao Pavilion went with the theme “Spirit of Cultures, Essence of Harmony”. Aiming to bring forth the message “Returning to the Motherland, Macao: a better city” through the Expo platform, this project also attempted to answer the question raised by this year’s Expo: What kind of city will make a better life? It corresponded well to the slogan of the 2010 Shanghai Expo: “Better City, Better Life”.  

The Macao Pavilion, also known as Jade Rabbit the Imperial Lantern (Rabbit Lantern), was designed by a Chinese firm Carlos Marreiros Architects. The lantern was placed on the Portuguese stone tile patterned ground. This makes the pavilion even more outstanding as it strongly shows the combination of eastern culture, the traditional rabbit lantern, the western culture as well as the stone patterned
ground. "The rabbit (outlook of the Macao Pavilion) successfully shows the world the tradition and the city development of Macao," Sam Ieong, a businessman said.
Moreover, the pavilion is actually a big theater connecting two rings. The inner ring brings visitors to the top of the outer ring and visitors can walk along the outer ring down to the exit. The journey starts from the past, reaching the present and to the future. "The 360° screen (inside the Macao Pavilion) which shows the daytime and night-time of Macao is really marvelous. It is beautiful," Fina Ho, a university student commented after her visit to the Macao Pavilion in the Shanghai Expo.
"The video helps a lot in leading the visitors to know more about the 400 years' history of Macao," Ieong said. "Following the three characters in the video I walked my journey through the history." He thought that the Macao Pavilion has done a good job in showing the world how Macao has changed. Macao was an unknown place to many people years ago, but in the past decade, it became more well-known to the world.
Moreover, "The distinguishing feature of the Portuguese stone tile patterned ground made you feel like walking in Macao. I think this is one of the very unique characteristics in representing Macao. Also, the 360° screen is showing the scenery of Macao which makes me feel like I am standing in Macao. As a Macanese, I think this is a very good representation of Macao as a city of eastern and western combination," Ho recalled her visit to the Macao Pavilion.

Aside from the Macao Pavilion, Tak Seng On, a famous pawnshop in the Macao history has also gained the entry to the Best Practice of Urban Development of the Shanghai Expo, as it demonstrates a successful effort in protecting and reusing the cultural heritage.
Since the Macao Pavilion won the Red Dot Design Award for its fantastic interior design, people are all concerned about the future fate of the pavilion
-- whether it will be staying in the Shanghai Expo site or be demolished.
Unfortunately, according to the arrangement of the Shanghai Expo, the Macao Pavilion will be demolished after the closing ceremony. However, since Macao citizens think that the Macao Pavilion represents so much about Macao's tradition and culture, the Macao Government is planning to show the Pavilion again in Macao. However, it still needs time to obtain opinions about the place and ways of re-establishing the Pavilion. So it may take sometime for Macao citizens to see the Rabbit Latern in our city.