An Expo-themed painting contest initiated by Japanese artist Mudo Yuriko has drawn about 12,000 works from Chinese and Japanese children and 800 of them are on exhibit at the Expo Culture Center and Xintiandi.

At a ceremony last night, 70 children received awards for their drawings and paintings that reflect their dreams about ideal cities. The theme of the contest was "street" which echoed the Expo 2010 theme of "Better City, Better Life," said Yuriko.

Yuriko is good at arranging landscapes and making puppets. She proposed to Hong Hao, director of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination in December 2008 that there should be space for children's art at the Expo to reflect their desires.

The initiative was inspired by the 2005 Aichi Expo where 30,000 children's drawings and paintings were exhibited in different pavilions, said Yuriko.

Editor: Hu Min