Exhibition Opening: Asia at the World’s Fairs, April 23 from 3-5 pm
Asia at the World’s Fairs:
An Online Exhibition of Cultural Exchange
Monday, April 23, 2018 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m
Boston University
The Arrival of Asia: Asian Culture on the Stage at World’s Fairs, 1851-1939
The first modern international exhibition or “world’s fair” in 1851 in London’s spectacular “Crystal Palace” launched the idea of bringing together the world’s cultures and goods in one huge exposition as a showcase of human progress. During subsequent decades, the popularity of this medium spread around the world and many international fairs were organized throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, and more than 100 such international fairs have been held in more than 20 countries. In these expositions a wide variety of industrial, scientific, and cultural items were on display. These vast exhibitions became a focal point where the world’s people and cultures found a space for communication, exchange, and understanding and inspiration.
Ever since the earliest international exhibition in London, Asia has been represented in these universal expositions, with its rich, vibrant and diverse histories and cultures providing many fairgoers their first encounter with Asia. While these fairs frequently highlighted the industrial and technical prowess of the host country, they also were eager to present the richness and diversity of the world’s cultures to a public fascinated by the prospect of seeing itself in a world context. Taking place during a time of widespread colonialism, the notion of the world presented at these fairs had many layers of meanings. In many cases, local arts and crafts were selected and showcased by the colonial administrations. Yet, many Asian countries also played an active part in confronting and redressing the asymmetry of power in their relationship to the West by presenting in these exhibitions their own image of their country and culture. These expositions served as a stage that displayed a complex history of conflicts, contradictions, and engagement of Asia with the world.
Our online exhibition focuses on the presence in these early international fairs of Asian cultures and the stimulus they gave to transcultural interactions in areas as diverse as performing arts, architecture, painting, sculpture, print and even food. Not to minimize the unequal political and economic backdrop of the various early world fairs, this exhibition intends to create a platform for an open discussion of the contributions Asian cultures have made on the world stage at these fairs and the enormous impact they had on millions of fairgoers for whom the “world” as a concept became real for the first time. The dynamics in the field of cultural interaction show a give and take enriching all sides.
Please join us for the celebratory opening of our exciting new online digital initiative, Asia at the World’s Fairs: An Online Exhibition of Cultural Exchange.The symposium (Monday, April 23, 2018 from 3:00 – 5:00 pm) will be featuring presentations on the cultural, political, and economic roles of international exhibitions through history, and an exploration of the inclusion and impact of Asian cultures at these wildly popular and influential events. We will be presenting our evolving exhibition’s first two “themes” that will focus on Asian dance and architecture at the fairs, and discuss how this online exhibition can serve as an engaging, interactive vehicle for the study of many other themes in the future.
Asia at the World’s Fairs: An Online Exhibition of Cultural Exchange
Director and Project Curator: Catherine V. Yeh
Web-designer: Janet Liu
Co-curators: Janet Liu, Robert Murowchick, Alice Tseng, and Wen-hao Tien
Organized by BU Center for the Study of Asia, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies