Auto-communication and Micro-orientalism at the Shanghai Expo 2010: Performing and regulating ‘Danishness’

Abstract: Using the concepts of auto-communication and micro-orientalism, this article argues that nation branding at World Expos produces and propagates notions of difference and otherness. By use of the Danish ‘Welfairytales’ pavilion at the 2010 Expo in Shanghai, we show how national Self is performed in two versions. One attempts to communicate ‘the good Danish life’ to the Danes
themselves, while the other claims Occidental superiority. The case shows how the Danish exhibition is performed and regulated as sustainable and authentic and how in spite of its seemingly dialogical and interactive layout, a number of auto-communicative and micro-orientalist practices are enacted.