世界博览会:从帝国角逐到和平友爱之竞争

World Expositions:From Struggle for Empire to Competition for Peace and Friendship

博览会是19世纪中产阶级所建立的一套展现其价值观与文化霸权的活动体系,旨在借由博览会传递并动员群众接受之、进而参与建构现代国家工程。博览会展现了“进步”与“竞争”两种精神。在殖民初期,从各主办国到会场内各国专属馆皆竭尽所能争奇斗艳,虽然其表面目的在于塑造国家形象,但其内里则是主权的彰显与争取认同。博览会场中的馆舍配置与物件分类体现了现代性知识分类架构的探索,博览会会场更是各国展示其工业文明与强大生产力的橱窗。第一次世界大战结束后,世界博览会具有了追求世界和平的目标,博览会与社会和谐及现代化关系日益密切。

The World Exposition was a showcase of the value system and cultural hegemony of the European middle class in the 19th century.The goal of the World Exposition was to arouse and organize the public to understand and participate in the great project of building a modern nation-state.The theme of the World Exposition exhibited the spirit of progress and competition of that time.During the early stages of World Expositions,each country that attended made great efforts to make its respective exhibit extraordinary.The arrangement and decoration of the exhibits and the classification of the items fully reflected the man's exploration of the classification system of modern knowledge.For each country,the motivation for attending a World Exposition was to show off its image and to receive recognition from the rest of the world.More importantly,the World Exposition was a window to show the great productive capability of modern industrial civilization.After World War I,the theme of the World Expositions changed into one of world peace and friendship.One of the missions of the World Exposition was to promote and develop a good relationship between social harmony and modernization.