Research On The Development Of Exposition And Wuhan Urban Society (1909-2010)

It has been universally acknowledged that exposition cause has so far made its contribution to and made its impact felt in such areas as the communication of human civilization, science, technology and city construction. As one of the cities which has actively participated in and taken a lead in holding expositions in modern China, Wuhan has made remarkable achievements in the development history of exposition. This dissertation deals with Wuhan's exposition cause from the late Qing dynasty to the present, focusing on the interactive development between Wuhan's exposition cause and the development of Wuhan urban society in different periods, so as to provide a comprehensive understanding of Wuhan's exposition cause and make it better serve the purpose of fostering the development of Wuhan city.Firstly, an examination is made on the general situation of the interactive development of exposition and urban society on a macro level, with focus on how exposition help to shape the urban society culture and the positive effects exposition produced on promoting the development of economy and shaping the city image.Secondly, an examination is made on the interaction between modern exposition cause and Wuhan urban society. In Modern China, Wuhan participated in the national expositions held in the early periods of 20th century. Wuhan Trade Fair in 1909 is the first formal local exhibition in China. And three large scale China-made goods exhibitions were also held in Hubei province in the period of Republic China.There has always been interactive development between expositions and urban society. In modern China, the development of Wuhan urban society drove the emergence and development of modern exposition cause,; on the other hand, the exposition cause also promoted the new development trend of Wuhan urban society. The effects can be reflected through the positive objectives and wishes of expositions favorable to the city development, as well as its impact on the development of Wuhan city.Thirdly, the interaction between the exhibition in the early 30 years following the establishment of People's Republic of China and the transformation of Wuhan urban society is studied. Since the founding of PRC, both the state power of China and its society have gone through heterogeneous evolution, it was the same case with Chinese exposition cause. China's exposition laid more emphasis on its demonstration and communication functions, taking socialist ideology education as its major task, and thus became means of the new government to strengthen its power and people's identification with the new state power and socialism. It can be seen that whatever types of exhibitions then was highly politicalized and shifted into ideology. The interaction between the exposition and Wuhan urban society during that period, to a large extent, refers to the transformation of urban society, which was made by the top-down administrative power and reflected through exhibitions. Likewise, those exhibitions further fostered the transformation of Wuhan urban society by means of strengthening socialist propaganda education and mobilization.Fourthly, study is made of the interactive development between exhibition industry since 1980s and Wuhan urban society. Since 1980s, all work in Wuhan has been centering around socialist modernization construction and economic construction was put on priority. In recent years, guided by "two-oriented society" strategy, big Wuhan city zone gained dramatic development. Under such circumstances, following the changes in Wuhan's economic society, many exhibitions in Wuhan has lost its highly politicalized color and became linked with economic activities.Before 2000, the exhibition in Wuhan was basically an economic and trade activity for sales promotion. After 2000, the exhibition in Wuhan gradually became more independent and returned to its original position. Gradually, exhibition industry and exhibition economy came into existence. The most influential famous brand exhibitions in Wuhan are introduced and their functions are discussed.Finally, discussion is made of the significance of speeding up Wuhan's exhibition industry and optimizing the development of Wuhan's exhibition cause, so as to promote the construction and development of Wuhan city.