Shaping mega-event flagships: case studies ofthe big four of Expo 2010 Shanghai China

Abstract

As spotlighted urban occurrences of significant global influence, mega-events such as the Olympics and the Expos usually create a great demand for mega-event flagships (MEFs). These purpose-built cultural, civic or sports landmarks not only serve as prominent event venues but often play a catalytic role in long-conceived renewal initiatives on a much broader scale. Lacking no successful event stories, it is not unusual to hear prominent post-event failures in MEFs. Despite its lasting appeal, such a highly controversial and challenging development has received surprisingly little in-depth analysis in existing literature. Academic interests have long concentrated on assessing impacts rather than profiling risks. Moreover, to realize such a dually oriented initiative clearly needs a competitive organization. Yet, this driving force behind becomes another understatement. Apart from tangential studies on western-based practices, pinpoint research is rare in emerging economies towards which MEFs are shifting their grounds. Such a triple imbalance may likely keep ambitious yet inexperienced hosts ignorant of tremendous risks behind overstated rewards.

To argue that MEFs should be pre-post oriented than treated simply as a legacy issue, this study presents four landmark cases of Expo 2010 Shanghai China – a mega-event as not only a crowning touch to China’s thirty-year economic rise but a catalyst for Shanghai’s renaissance towards a global center. As the centerpieces of this mega-undertaking, the Big Four (the Big4) represent the largest MEF cluster in history and the latest epitome of major projects of national significance. To explore how the Organizer has forged the sixty-year vision beyond the six-month extravaganza, participant observation is adopted due to the author’s special role as a key project coordinator of Expo 2010 during the early stages of the Big4. In gaining more useful insights for future practices, this multiple-case study takes the following three steps. First, rationales and practices of MEF development are analyzed through a historical review of eight selected cases of mega-event built legacies in five countries over 150 years. Next, programming practices of MEFs and non-MEFs in China are investigated through a pilot questionnaire survey in 2009. Finally, the 600,000-sq.m Big4 are explored respectively and collectively against the ongoing Trilogy of the Huangpu Riverfronts Renewal.

Multifold findings from previous and present cases confirm the hypothesis that MEF development is rather an issue of dualism than dichotomy. To meet existing and emerging challenges, a framework plan is developed containing four approaches and ten steps key to the vitality of MEFs. Conclusions are made from both local and global dimensions. Four major breakthroughs, two pressing problems and two emerging trends are identified for major project developments in China; whereas six essential conditions to sustain MEF development are generalized for significantly comparable cases worldwide. A timely reminder of rethinking the commitment to MEFs and a much-needed complement to related western literature, this pioneering research would be of cross-boundary value and spark interdisciplinary interest.