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Visitors admiring the 6.5-meter giant baby, Miguelin, in the Spain Pavilion may be surprised to realize that it was not the concept of a famous designer or a group of groundbreaking engineers. It came from one filmmaker's interpretation of the meaning of "Better City, Better Life."

Spanish director Isabel Coixet developed the idea after being asked to contribute to Expo 2010 Shanghai.

"They asked me to do something to tell the Chinese audience about Spain in the future, and the first thing that jumped to my mind was a baby," she said. "If we really fight to have better cars, better cities and better lives, it's for them - for our children."

The huge baby represents the idea that our children are our future.

Despite her Spanish heritage, Coixet doesn't focus on making Spanish films or using Spain as the setting. Fans of her various award-winning films, including My Life Without Me, The Secret Life of Words and Elegy, may not even be aware of Coixet's Spanish background.

"The borders between countries are just illusion," she said. "Some directors feel really comfortable telling stories that belong to their territory."

But Coixet feels the opposite: "I'm more comfortable outside my country. It gives me a strange freedom."

Coixet's curiosity took her latest exploration and movie work to Japan. In the movie Map of the Sound of Tokyo, the Catalan actor Sergi Lopez is the owner of a wine shop in Tokyo, and Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi is a young woman who works both as a fishmonger and as a hired killer.

The clash of the two characters’ very different worlds and the tango-like relationship they develop is just one representation of what Coixet is able to produce by mixing cultures.

While she doesn't know if she will shoot a film in Shanghai, two things have caught her attention: Shanghainese women and crickets.

After just arriving in the city, she was surprised by the mix of old Chinese culture in the booming metropolis. "Behind the skyscrapers, there is a flower and bird market with heaps of crickets and birdcages," she said. "I'm totally amazed with the city."

去听写专区一展身手

（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）

About the broadcaster:

Nelly Min is an editor at China Daily with more than 10 years of experience as a newspaper editor and photographer. She has worked at major newspapers in the U.S., including the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press. She is fluent in Korean and has a 2-year-old son.