In this context depicting china as original confers

In this
context, depicting China as original confers on it a status as fore-runner of developing countries,
conveniently forgetting the 1949 Haiti Expo (Expo 2010 Shanghai China, 2006a; Bureau
International des Expositions, 2011).4 China’s present and future direction is frequently depicted
in terms of a return to an original or always intended state. The Expo itself is typically portrayed
as the fulfilment (led by the PRC/CCP party-state) of an ancient Chinese dream .
This portrayal appears in articles
(Expo 2010 Shanghai China, 2006b), in books such as 1004 years4of4Expo4dream4( ．．．．． )4(Shanghai shibohui shiwu xietiaoju, 2009), and in the World Expo Museum that looks back at more than 150 years of
historical preparation for the Shanghai Expo. Online commentators echo such narratives, and one commentator on the Expo online “Dream Wall” comments that “
I believe in China’s
actual strength, a country that has 5000 years of civilisation must be able to produce glory once
more
” (Expo Shanghai Online, 2010c). Finally, the feature film of the Xinjiang regional pavilion demonstrates how
classification of time and space come
together into a particular, goal-oriented progress under PRC leadership
: [
Xinjiang is] the
communication land of four great civilisations of the world ... It once was the road of bonze
Xuanzang, the silk road, the road of western expedition and the road of eastern return … The

great transformation of 60 years is the evidence of our diligence and intelligence … Today, the
assistance from the motherland also lights up the passion in Xinjiang (Expo Shanghai Online,
2010g)
.104 This quote brings together the numerous elements that make possible the problematic imagination of self-other relations that is under discussion in this thesis. A separation between
civilisations is posited. Xinjiang is subsequently conceived of as a place where these separate civilisations meet. Progress is imagined as a return to a state that once was, and that is now returning through Chinese
diligence in its (re)civilising mission. One can only wonder at the irony as the motherland’s assistance “lights up the passion” in Xinjiang after the brutal ethnic clashes in the years running up to the Expo (Xinhua,
2009d). 104 Bonze Xuan Zang is a Buddhist sage from Chinese literary classic Journey to the West. Metaphors of lines, circles, spirals and pendula may be used to describe this temporality, but may be misleading as
they change significance in their combined use (cf. Gell, 1992). Analogue clock time, for instance, may be circular if used as for example a toy, but indicates linear time flow when allied with other concepts, such as
civilisational progress and development. The point of China’s progress/return (to its rightful place as world leader) is not whether we describe it using the metaphor of the circle or the line. Of
key
importance is instead the way it operates through a classification of time and space: and the re is
no doubt as to where we are /should be heading . The point is that these temporalities support