The Chinese pavilion at the 1904 fair in St Louis manifested the quasi-colonial power relations between China and the Western countries particularly the US. In the design and construction of the pavilion, Western political and cultural hegemony challenged the intention of the Chinese government to demonstrate its national pride and cultural identity to the world; among the multiple groups involved in this power interaction, the boundaries between the quasi-coloniser and the quasi-colonised often blurred. Francis A. Carl and Atkinson & Dallas, as non-nationals who served the Chinese government, were commissioned to display China's rich culture through exhibition arrangement and architectural design, yet they more or less placed Chinese culture or architecture within the framework of Orientalism. This was approved by the Chinese officials. The Chinese workers who constructed the Chinese pavilion at the fair had to suffer from discriminative regulations and even repatriation, which seriously impacted the construction of the pavilion. While the Chinese officials were welcomed as noble guests when they visited the US, their protest against the unfair treatment of Chinese workers was in vein. This reminded the Chinese government and its people that, although they were not governed by colonial rules, they were still involved in a power structure featuring implicit Western political and cultural control. The Chinese pavilion at the fair thus stood as a solid memorial to this quasi-colonialism.
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