From the strange PR files comes this article in today's Shanghai Daily about the Guizhou provincial pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. The theme is apparently liquor and girls. This seems like a winner on many levels (after all, it worked for the NFL), but the implementation is a bit weird:

The province will make the liquor the centerpiece of its pavilion because it's world famous, Yang said. The liquor won the gold prize at the Panama World Expo in 1915 and became renowned across the world.

A highlight of the pavilion will be a giant upturned bottle of Moutai that pours water on a model of the earth. The water then starts a brook.

The organizer will add a little liquor to the water so the smell spreads across the pavilion.

Under the theme "Charm of the Summer Resort," the 600-square-meter pavilion in China's giant provincial hall that surrounds the China Pavilion has been called a "well-dressed Miao girl" by organizers. It will incorporate elements such as a wind-rain bridge, waterfalls, minority masks and the province's silver accessories.

Seriously? A river of moutai-scented water dousing the world? And dancing girls? If you've not tried moutai, this may not strike you the same way it does me. For those of you who haven't had the privilege, imagine a mixture of Southern Comfort and potato vodka brewed in the crank case of a Soviet-era Ursus tractor. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying it's different. And don't miss the artist's rendition of the pavilion on the second photo in the article. You'll never view traditional Miao head wear the same way again.

I shouldn't be surprised by this marketing approach. Having recently spent a tedious three hours watching every single provincial float go by in the big National Day parade (more on this soon if I can make the time), it seems to me that provincial promotion is verging dangerously into self-satire territory. As a friend pointed out, the Xinjiang float was an oil derrick suspended on a rainbow on a flying carpet, with a side order of colorfully-dressed ethnic minorities standing on a giant fruit basket (image here if you think I'm making it up). Considering the whole procession, I had never seen such an agglomeration of spiky, retro-future design, colorful ethnic outerwear, and industrial cliches.

It seems that we can expect a similar approach at Expo. Get your shot glasses ready.

Hat tip: The excellent Adam Minter.

Note: Yes, I'm still on hiatus, technically. But how could I resist?


Smells like...victory. And sorghum.