By the time the Commonwealth Games 2010 ended in Delhi, the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai had received 60 million visitors and was still counting. It runs till October 31. But no, I am not making a comparison of numbers, because an 11-day event can’t be compared with one that lasts six months. I am making a point. If spectators are considered the soul of any public event, then the Delhi Games were a lifeless formality, like a wedding without guests, while the Shanghai Expo is an outright winner.
Forget the opening and closing ceremonies. These were meant to entertain and impress, and did. But on the intervening 11 days of hard-fought competition — days that really mattered — all we saw, in all but a couple of events, were rows upon rows of empty seats, against which the Games looked like a training exercise in which the athletes performed for themselves. The emptiness in the stadiums was even more pathetic when our own boys and girls weren’t competing. Not a soul was around, other than volunteers and team managers, to cheer when the cyclists were racing down the deathly streets of Delhi.
Was it a lack of popular interest or the failure of the Games organisers to mount a sustained campaign to whip up public enthusiasm? Was it the security overkill that scared people? Or the transport chaos that Delhi was thrown into because of the Games? Or a scam involving tickets? We’d like to know, because the lack of spectators was an even bigger embarrassment than the collapse of the parking lot footbridge or the filthy conditions in the Games Village. But self-examination isn’t an Indian trait and accountability isn’t in our culture.
At the Expo in Shanghai, the organisers are smiling. Even if they don’t hit their target of 70 million visitors by October 31, 60 million is still a huge number. There were times when the number of daily visitors averaged 400,000. The organisers’ goal was to expose as many Chinese as possible to the new global urban reality, to internationalise, so to say, their mindset, and prepare them for change. In this they have eminently succeeded.
But this success wasn’t the result of any last-minute magic, but of tenacious, innovative and dynamic campaigning to build up a sustained hype. The promotional plan was finalised as early as 2007 and launched in full swing in 2008 during the Beijing Olympics, when China made its first epochal discovery of the outside world, perhaps as important as the dismantling of its bamboo curtain.
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A new internationalism was in the air and to cash in on this new spirit, road shows and entertainment events were held all over the country during the entire countdown period, and a massive advertising campaign was mounted at airports, ports and railway stations, along highways, and on buses, taxis and public buildings, promoting the Expo as China’s image in the 21st century.
A similar strategy marks the preparations for another mega event that’s going to hit China in three weeks’ time — the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, from November 12 to 27. With 11,500 athletes from 45 countries to compete in 42 sports (including Twenty-Twenty cricket for the first time) at 70 venues, it will be the biggest and most digitised Asiad ever, and the organisers are determined to make it as flawless and well-attended as the Olympics and the Expo.
At $18.37 billion, this Asiad is also the costliest so far, and an overwhelming chunk of the expense ($16.33 billion) has gone into giving Guangzhou an impressive makeover, including brand-new subway lines, railway stations, new and repaved roads, manicured landscaping, new housing complexes, and better water treatment and environmental protection facilities. The Games Village, covering 622,000 square metres, looks like a garden city, big enough to accommodate 40,000 athletes, officials, media personnel and volunteers.
At least 40 promotional events, 15 press conferences and an equal number of test sporting events have been organised so far to work up a nationwide Asian Games craze. A special campaign called “Hand-in-Hand: University Students Greet Asian Games” has toured various campuses across South China. CCTV, the Chinese television, continues to present special Games road shows and give extensive coverage of every stage of the Games preparations. At the Shanghai Expo, promotional films were regularly projected on large LED screens, while Games volunteers distributed Games-themed giveaways among Expo visitors. Early this month, over 2 million Games tickets went on sale, and the Guangzhou authorities have offered free bus rides to the Games venues.
Image aside, there’s one overwhelming reason the organisers of the Guangzhou Asiad haven’t left anything for the last minute or to chance. With a desire to bid for a second Olympic Games in China (perhaps 2020?), they want to prove they are no less capable than Beijing.