The 1st “Let’s Fun” Social Science Fair featuring social science popularization in Shanghai successfully held

On May 27th, the 22nd Shanghai Social Science Popularization week featuring “Excellent Shanghai, Wonderful Social Science”, opened at Shanghai Social Science Museum. “Let’s Fun” Social Science Fair, as the highlight of this popularization week and the city’s first social science popularization-themed fair opened on the same day. Fifteen social science interactive activities with their distinct characteristics including “The Undying Radio Waves and the Eternal Faith -- Wooden Telegraph Transmitter DIY”, “Bilibili Knowledge Planet”, and “Language Norms Pass Game” were offered free to visitors.

Compared with natural sciences, which can be demonstrated in tangible ways such as experiments and simulations, social sciences tend to be more abstract and rely mostly on lectures, forums, exhibitions and publications, which are not so interaction, engaging, and exciting. For this very reason, for the first time, the Science Popularization Week launched the “Social Science Fair”, which was designed to make social sciences less bookish, less sedentary, no less intellectual, and more tangible, more engaging and more fun.

At the scene, it is evident that the market caters to audiences of different ages, offering diversified activities including handcrafting, riddles, painting, experimental theater, and so on. Their themes range over three cultural brands of Shanghai: “Shanghai’s red culture”, “Shanghai style culture” and “Jiangnan culture” and span across various disciplines of social sciences, including law, history, and economics. The event attracted a large number of participants, many bringing their children along.

“The exhibition makes social science visible, tangible and interesting, entertaining and enlightening kids.” “This kind of fair is creative, but intellectually stimulating, which is very Shanghai!” “I love the 2-D subculture, and I have seen a lot of animation elements in the fair. I hope there are more ways like this to make the ‘tough’ academic knowledge interesting and fashionable!”…

During the Popularization Week, in addition to a series of theme activities specially planned by the organizers, there were more than 120 social science popularization activities opened to the public throughout the city undertaken by nearly 200 institutions, including social science academic societies, public cultural venues, public service units, district governments and neighborhood administrations. Through competitions, readings, exhibitions, and performances etc. conducted both online and offline, the activities have guided the public to the wonderful world of social sciences, partly in response to the “Excellent Shanghai” initiative.

Behind the success of this thriving campaign is a social science popularization and cooperative network that has developed over many years. Over the past 20 years, Shanghai Federation of Social Science Associations has leveraged such brand projects as “Shanghai Social Science Popularization Week,” “Oriental Forum,” as the starting point, to bring together high-quality social science popularization and cultural resources all around Shanghai. This convergence has led to the formation of a collaborative network that spans over various locations and organizations, rallying diverse stakeholders including public cultural venues, cultural and tourism brands, prominent cultural enterprises, and well-known IPs for knowledge popularization.