Denmark’s little mermaid visits Shanghai

Denmark's famed Little Mermaid statue made her debut on Sunday at the World Expo in Shanghai where the cultural treasure is certain to be one of the most popular attractions.
Denmark chose to have the 96-year-old statue make her first trip abroad to provide a centrepiece for its Expo pavilion, where visitors can ride borrowed bicycles, much as they do in Copenhagen.
The 5-foot (1.5-metre) statue, sitting at the centre of a pool of water from Copenhagen, was unveiled to a small crowd of invited dignitaries as a band played tunes from the 1989 Disney film based on the "Little Mermaid" fairy tale, by Danish writer Hans Christian Anderson.
The Expo, with an urban sustainability theme of "Better City, Better Life," opens May 1 and is expected to draw 70 (m) million visitors to view dozens of pavilions from virtually every country and many companies and international groups.
The Danish pavilion will only open to regular visitors on May 1, though a crowd stood outside Sunday trying to get a glimpse of the statue.
Some in Denmark considered the decision to move the statue to Shanghai as a PR exercise disrespectful but the ARCHITECT OF THE DANISH PAVILION, Bjarke INGELS said that The Little Mermaid was "a piece of Danish culture that has been integrated into Chinese culture."
A video installation by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is replacing the Little Mermaid atop the boulders she usually rests on in Copenhagen's harbour until the statue returns in November. The multimedia artwork includes a live broadcast of the statue in Shanghai.
Created by Danish sculptor Edvard Eriksen, the fishtailed bronze is Denmark's most popular tourist attraction. She was first unveiled in August 1913 and has not been moved from her perch above the harbour since, except to undergo repairs after a series of attacks by vandals.
Her international fame grew after she was beheaded in 1964. No arrests were ever made. However, a Danish artist claimed he cut off the head and threw it into a Copenhagen lake. It was never found and a new one was cast from the original mould.
Twenty years later her right arm was cut off and she was decapitated again in 1998. She's been doused in paint on numerous occasions and in 2003 she was blown off her stone base by vandals who used explosives. The following year she was draped in a burqa, apparently by critics of Turkey's bid to join the European Union.
In Andersen's tale, the mermaid is a sea king's daughter who falls in love with a prince and must wait 300 years to become human.