Mr. Hong Hao, Mr. Dimitri Kerkentzes and Mr. Wang Jinzhen launching the “Expo Heritage: Exhibits Collections from World Expos”& BIE Official Publications

　　Opening ceremony

　　On May 11 in the morning, a ceremony was held to mark the opening of the special temporary exhibition “Expo Heritage: Exhibits Collections from World Expos”and the launch of BIE Official Publications. The opening ceremony took place at the North Hall of the museum.

　　The guests of honor included Mr. Hong Hao, Deputy Director of the 14th Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress and Chairman of the WEM Board of Directors, Mr. Dimitri Kerkentzes, Deputy Secretary General of the BIE, Mr. Wang Jinzhen, Chinese Chief Representative at the BIE, Mr. ToshioNakamura, formerExpo2005Aichi Secretary General,Prof. Joan Busquets of Harvard Graduate School of Design, Mr. Xu Wei, Director of Shanghai Municipal Government Information Office, and Mr. Fan Yufei from Shanghai Municipal Government Foreign Affairs Office.

　　A delegation of the BIE also attended the opening ceremony, including representatives of Expo 2017 Astana organizing committee and representatives of Expo 2025 candidate cities Osaka, Yekaterinburg and Baku. In addition, there are about 80 other guests from CCPIT, organizing committee of Expo 2019 Beijing, exhibit donors and media reporters.

　　Mr. Hong Hao, Chairman of WEM Board of Directors, giving a speech

　　Speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Hong Hao thanked the BIE for its long-standing support from preparation to operation of WEM. After the Board of Directors started working this year, Shanghai and the BIE have enhanced communication and deepened cooperation to build platforms and integrate resources. Through the Board, WEM can better play its role as the official museum and official documentation center of the BIE and provide better services to the World Expo community. It has become an event organizing platform of the BIE, an international platform for World Expo-related trainings, an exchange platform for academic research on World Expos, a learning platform for improving urban development and a culture demonstration platform for the World Expo family.

　　Mr. Dimitri Kerkentzes, Deputy Secretary General of the BIE, giving a speech

　　“World Expo Museum represents a long-term partnership between Shanghai and the BIE. Today's event marks a new phase of World Expo Museum, and we will witness how it becomes a global cultural landmark," Mr. Dimitri Kerkentzes, Deputy Secretary General of the BIE. For many years, the BIE has been committed to education, innovation and cooperation, which are the values of World Expos, but also the values of World Expo Museum. In order to promote these values, we have seen with our own eyes how World Expo Museum managed to become the global platform for promoting cultural exchange. It is not only the carrier of the tradition, legacies and knowledge of World Expos, but also a platform for communication. The BIE will, as always, support the development of World Expo Museum. The BIE and WEM will continue to conduct close and effective cooperation, transcend cultural barriers, promote harmony and understanding throughout the world, and jointly address challenges shared by the human race.

　　“Expo Heritage: Exhibits Collections from World Expos” is the first special-theme temporary exhibition that WEM has organized independently. As Curator Liu Xiuhua of WEM said at the ceremony, the exhibition displays serialized exhibits including 600 treasures of WEM. The number of exhibits, as well as their variety, completeness and preciousness, supports the authoritative position of WEM as the only official museum of the BIE. The exhibition also indicates that WEM has become an innovative combination of new technology and culture, while it focuses on the history and culture of World Expos.

　　The exhibition shows both physical and virtual goods, including medals, prints, chinaware, philatelic products and historical documents falling to two major categories: history and highlights of World Expos. As the exhibition uses interactive media, visitors have easy access to graphic, audio and textual information of the exhibits on their mobile phone, making their visit a very convenient, amusing and enlightening experience.

　　WEM is committed to safeguarding and promoting the heritage and preserving the spirit of World Expos. WEM has made fruitful attempts to collect Expo-related historical resources and strengthen academic research on the tradition of World Expos. Since it was first open, it has worked to prepare albums of World Expos, with the aim of publishing them as records of their splendid history and preserving the intellectual achievements of Expo organizers and participants. With beautiful illustrations and bilingual captions and textual accounts, the albums launched today, including The Expo 2010 Shanghai China Official Albums (6 volumes), Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life - EXPO 2015 Milan Italy and Expo Heritage: Precious Collection of the World Expo Museum (II), fully capture the splendor of World Expos.

　　On the same day, in order to confirm their support for the exhibition and marking the anniversary of WEM, Shanghai Association of Collectors mobilized collectors to donate their World Expo goods to WEM. The donations include a cloth painting of the first World Expo in 1851 in London and a gold-plated bronze bell from World Expo 1904 in St. Louis contributed by private collector Jiang Changmin, a whole set of tickets to World Expo1893 Chicago contributed by Shanghai Association of Collectors, and two paintings contributed by contemporary painter Xia Huiying.

　　For over six years, World Expo Museum has managed to integrate resources with the support of the BIE and the local and international expert teams. Now it has become the center for World Expo documentation research. It has also built cooperative ties with more than 30 universities, museums and academic research institutions from 11 countries.

　　Recently, World Expo Museum has also entered into an agreement with Toyota which donated the I-UNIT concept car model, a star of Expo 2005 Aizhi. Curator Liu Xiuhua of World Expo Museum believed that the engagement of the community is a big step towards the goal of making WEM a public museum. As the name WE MUSEUM suggests, World Expo Museum is a museum for all.

　　Guests viewing the “Expo Heritage: Precious Collection of the World Expo Museum”

　　Guests viewing the “Expo Heritage: Precious Collection of the World Expo Museum”

　　After the ceremony, the guests viewed the “Expo Heritage: Precious Collection of the World Expo Museum” and other regular exhibitions of WEM. They also watched the 4D movie Amazing Adventure at Expo.

　　Guests touring around the World Expo Museum

　　Mr. Hong Hao and Mr. Dimitri Kerkentzes interviewed by the media