Chinese Media Icon Meets Grimm’s Fairy Tale in Bremen

Since the official opening of Shanghai Expo2010, the World Expo Park has attracted a number of celebrities and politicians from all over the world to witness this global event.

Yang Lan, born 1968 in Beijing and a former moderator of the “Zhengda Program” of CCTV China Central Television, is probably one of the most memorable female moderators of the past two decades in Chinese screen media. Yang is a successful entrepreneur and founded China Sun TV with her current husband in 2000, which was twice nominated Best Global Small Enterprise by the world-renowned finance magazine Forbes. Already a mother of two and currently moderating the talk show program Her Village targeting modern urban female audiences, Yang Lan showed up at the Shanghai Expo2010 Bremen Booth with 28 selected kids.

Yang has received almost the similar treatment as the German Federal President. The visit was organized under the big charity framework “Celebrities Take You to Expo” - 明星带你看世博, with the aim to raise funds to help disaster area kids and poor kids to visit Expo. Yang Lan, the Expo’s official ambassador, is the first celebrity to pay such a visit with a group of children from farmers’ and workers’ families in a Shanghai suburban area, before the Children’s Day.

After her showing-up around 11:30 in the Joint Case Pavilion, Yang’s arrival has caused an immediate chaos and frenzy in the exhibition hall. Journalists and cameramen started gathering around her in an almost-aggressive manner, that a German security man had to drag some of them away from the children and pushing he crowd to a safe distance from her. Dressed in a hot-pink top and black pant, Yang has inherited her simple and elegant style as in her previous TV appearance and other public occasions, which is familiar to her Chinese fans and audience.

The responsible person from Bremen Liaison Office in Shanghai conducted the whole guided reception. The guests also watched the acrobatic show of Bremen’s City Musicians and went through the Bremen booth in its sequential order. As a highlight to conclude the visit, a roll of score sheet music was laid down in front of the electric auto. Yang Lan and the children were invited to make paint handprints on the paper-roll, with their hands already covered with colorful pigments.

Yang as a public figure often engaged in numerous national and international charity activities, her visit has obviously made a highlighted conclusion to the Expo’s exhibition in May. Especially for the UBPA area, to bring in celebrities means to have more attention and visitors. On the other hand, it shows that the Expo event has gone beyond the category as an urban planning exhibition but with a broader sense to make social ethical impact to involve more disadvantaged people to participate.

Related blogs:

• Bremen Booth greets the German Federal President on May 20th
• Expo pavilions give birth to green
• Expo Shanghai – The beginning or the end of change?
• A small business calculation beneath the Expo

Channels: 

• Expo 2010 – Shanghai