Shanghai’s alternative futures: The World Expo, citizen intellectuals, and China’s new civil society

Civil society seems to be a dead issue in China because its formal aspects of mobilization and institutionalization are so tightly regulated by the party-state. This article looks to activities in and around the Shanghai World Expo (2010) to rethink the meaning of civil society and political action in China. Through an analysis of the Expo’s national, theme, and corporate pavilions, it shows how Beijing is planning a harmonious future for China and the world. Yet alongside this unified future, it examines how Shanghai’s citizen intellectuals – filmmaker Jia Zhangke, artist Cai Guoqiang, and blogger Han Han – are creating alternative futures. This multiple decentralized view of the future is an integral part of building alternative notions of civil society in China. The article thus has two goals: (1) to contrast official constructions of a unified harmonious future with citizen intellectuals’ multilayered views of Shanghai’s past-present-future; and (2) to explore how citizen intellectuals are creating a new civil society that can build alternative futures.