Participation of Timor-Leste at the 2010 Expo Shanghai in review
After six months and more than 70 million visitors, the 2010 Expo Shanghai, China, closes its doors on the 31st of October. The Universal Exposition – World Expo 2010 Shanghai – has a vast display of culture, ideas and technology from 189 countries and dozens of companies. This is the biggest exposition in history and was the first in which Timor-Leste participated as a sovereign and independent country.
During these six months (from May to October) the Timor-Leste Pavilion was visited by thousands of people who had the opportunity to, even at a distance, get to know some of the aspects that characterize this new Nation, as explained by the Secretary of State for Culture, one of the Timor-Leste Commissioners for this exposition. “The visitors were able to see, not just what is our culture, but also another basic issue which is Timor-Leste’s location. In this exposition we essentially showed our cultural material. We made replicas of our National Collection, especially statues of larger dimensions and exhibited them in our pavilion. This aroused a lot of interest on the part of the international visitors”.
A big part of that interest is owed to the fact that Timor-Leste is one of the youngest nations of the world. “On the 13th of July, Timor-Leste National Day at the 2010 Expo Shanghai, we organized a series of activities that took many visitors to our pavilion. We showed our dances and our music. There were even persons who asked me questions about Timor-Leste. One of the most frequent questions was: Where do you come from? I explained to several persons that we are the first Country to gain independence in this new millennium, that we are situated in Southeast Asia, between Indonesia and Australia”.
This first participation of Timor-Leste in an event of this dimension was truly welcomed by the organizers, “even the Expo International Agency Director himself congratulated us, and we were invited to participate in another festival that will take place next year in China”, advanced the Secretary of State for Culture.
The Timor-Leste Pavilion had around 20 to 30 thousand visitors per day. On the 31st of October, the exposition closes with an official ceremony, that will count with the presence of Timorese high representatives, such as the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the persons in charge of the Timor-Leste Pavilion in the 2010 Expo Shanghai, China.
