A Study on the Current Status of China’s Cultural Soft Power

Shi Zhuanzhuan

(Rongzhi College　Chongqing Technology and Business University,Chongqing　401320)



A Study on the Current Status of China’s Cultural Soft Power

Shi Zhuanzhuan

(Rongzhi CollegeChongqing Technology and Business University,Chongqing401320)

The concept of “cultural soft power” originates from the concepts of “soft power” and “cultural power”.Based on the definition and connotation of “cultural soft power”,this essay analyzes the current status of China’s cultural soft power construction,including both its achievements and weak points and tries to give some suggestions on how to further improve China’s cultural soft power.

China;cultural soft power;achievements;weak points;suggestions

Ⅰ.The achievements China has made in building up its cultural soft power

The system of socialist core values has been built up and socialist ideology becomes more attractive and cohesive.The construction of China’s socialist core value system has stepped onto a new stage and helped improve the Chinese cultural soft power at large.The influence of Chinese language and literature worldwide is greatly expanded.

China’s cultural industry is growing dramatically.As one of the most prosperous industries in the 21st century,cultural industry has become a strategic field for each country to show its soft power because a country with strong cultural soft power must be the one with frequent trade exchanges in cultural products and service with other countries.

Besides,China has also made great progress in its protection of cultural heritage,the construction of infrastructure for cultural resources,the improvement of people’s level of education and the level of labor force.Currently,China has a complete system of laws to protect and work for the cultural heritage.The ninth census〔1〕on the scientific quality of Chinese citizens showed that in 2015 people with scientific quality account for 6.2% of the whole population,increased by 90% compared with that of 2010,which also stands for the more competitive labor force of Chinese people.

Ⅱ.The weak points in China’s construction of its cultural soft power

1.Compared with the development of hard power,the improvement of China’s soft power lags behind to some extent.Since the opening and reform policy in 1978,China has been characterized by its fast-developing economy.In 2010 China became the world’s second biggest economic entity with its GDP reaching 6040 million dollars.However,the development of China’s cultural soft power can rarely be parallel to its development in economy.The proportion of its cultural industry in GDP is obviously small,being only 3.76% in 2014,lower than the global level of 5.26%.People’s consumption of cultural products and service is always inactive.There is still large potential and space for the development of foreign trade based on cultural products.Statistics〔2〕showed that the total import and export volume of cultural products only accounted for 0.6% of China’s total trade volume in the first three quarters of 2012,with the export being only 0.2% of the total output.And the international market share of Chinese cultural products,which is less than 4%,is definitely not commensurate with China’s identity as an economic giant,with the first four being America (34%),European Union countries (34%),Japan (10%) and South Korea (5%).

2.The width and depth of Chinese cultural spreading are not enough.Due to the long-term emphasis on traditional Chinese culture in international exchanges,most foreign people seem more interested in the ancient civilization of China,which indicates that the spreading of Chinese culture in the past was always limited to the glorious history of China.“When speaking of Chinese culture,they always think of Chinese calligraphy,martial arts and Beijing opera,etc.They do not care about the achievements modern China has made and some of them even think modern Chinese civilization can never represent China.”〔3〕However,to create a positive and modern international image in the information era,China also need pay attention to spreading its most advanced values and cultural elements that represent a developing and prosperous China.On the other hand,the seemingly vigorous spreading of Chinese culture mostly remains on the surface.The western countries,especially developed capitalist countries,always integrate their beliefs,lifestyles and core values into their cultural products so that their ideas can penetrate into other cultures and affect other nations imperceptibly.The American cultural soft power (movies,music,fashions,etc.) always spreads,confirms and intensifies American regulations,values,beliefs and lifestyles,while China scarcely does so.The consequences are that people of other countries know more about Chinese arts than its core value system and beliefs.To defend ourselves from the decadent erosion of the western cultures,we must keep in mind the socialist core value system and integrate it into any spreading of Chinese culture.

3.The lack of innovation and scale effects in China’s cultural industry leads to its loss of competitiveness in the international market.Firstly,the export of labor-intensive cultural products,such as visual art works,constitutes the bulk of China’s cultural products output.The proportion of technology- or knowledge-intensive cultural products is really small.“A culture that lacks innovation and vitality could never be attractive and worth disseminating.”〔4〕Besides,the traditional Chinese musical instruments are far from getting the same recognition as the ones from the western countries.What’s more,private enterprises form the main force for China’s cultural products trade.Most of them are only engaged in the simple processing of cultural products and make profits by quantity sales.Without independent intellectual property rights and overall and strategic development plan,it is really difficult for them to create brand effects and realize sustainable development.

4.There exists great imbalance in regional cultural soft power in China.Macroscopically speaking,the comprehensive cultural soft power of a country finally lies in the cultural soft power of all of its cities and regions and it can never be simply defined as “mathematical sum” of the latter because the ultimate value of a country’s cultural soft power usually depends on the poorest region in building it instead of the one who performs best.The imbalance that exists in the cultural soft power in China’s urban and rural areas,eastern and western areas,has aroused public concern.The comprehensive cultural soft power of China is relatively low because of the unbalanced development of cultural soft power in different regions.Each region should exploit all its advantages to increase its cultural competitiveness and influence by cultivating its own cultural industry and expanding the exports of its cultural products.

Ⅲ.Some suggestions on enhancing China’s cultural soft power

1.Inherit the traditional Chinese culture as well as promote the cultural innovation.China is famous for its long history,great civilization and excellent traditional culture.Given that many young people today know little about traditional Chinese culture and are greatly affected by the western ways of living and thinking,the Chinese education should focus on the building of socialist core value system and the teaching of Chinese culture among students to raise their awareness of self-cultural identity.We firmly believe that the awakening and rise of a culture begins with the understanding of its essence and significance by its own people.However,inheriting the best sides of our traditional culture is far from enough if we really want to stand out among the prevailing values and cultures on the globe.More profound effects will be made if we are willing to promote cultural innovation.Most foreign people get to know China from magazines,movies and some translated literary works.In the past,the Chinese cultural products that won prizes or aroused international attention mostly reflected the ancient China,such as Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon (Wo Hu Cang Long) which won The Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film Award in 2001 and literary works by Mo Yan who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2012.To change the old-fashioned,ignorant image of China,new movies and literary works that could both reflect modern and civilized China and attract foreign people should be created.And the socialist core value system should be penetrated into all the new cultural creation.

2.Be aware of the necessity to increase Chinese cultural exchanges and find out effective ways to spread Chinese culture.In the modern society,the influence of one country’s culture upon others does not only depend on how affluent or excellent its culture itself is,but also on whether it could make its culture known and accepted by others.To increase cultural exchanges is one of the most important ways to raise one country’s international profile.Communications between cultures around the world make it possible for countries to learn from and converge with each other and also offer opportunities for China to spread its fine culture.One successful example of spreading the Chinese culture is the rise of Confucius Institutes in many regions and countries in the world.Although some of them suffered from misunderstandings or even contests,their contributions to Chinese cultural spreading could never be neglected.Another way to make Chinese culture globalized is to better translate Chinese literary works.To achieve the most preferable results,five essential priorities must be taken into consideration when doing translation,including employing the translators of fame and international recognition,choosing the typical Chinese originals most probably accepted by the target readers,opening up as many channels as possible to spread the translated works,such as the Internet and new media and carefully studying the recipients to cater to their tastes.Besides,the output of talents (teachers,researchers and other professionals who are good at Chinese culture) is also an effective way to introduce China to the outside world.In the meanwhile,the universities and colleges should attract more overseas students to come to China since they could be the best missionaries of the Chinese culture in the future.

3.Encourage more people to devote to cultural industry and make China’s cultural industry more competitive.As the carrier of cultural soft power,the development and modernization of cultural industry has become a major factor in assessing a nation’s ability to conduct foreign trade and face international competition.The well-developed cultural industry will offer platforms for both people who want to learn more about Chinese culture and those who desire to contribute to cultural development.Firstly,we should make full use of the modern technology and find a bonding point for traditional cultural industry and new technology.For example,the ways of spreading Chinese culture will be greatly expanded if we exploit networks and new media.Secondly,more policy support and financial aid should be given to the research and development of technology- or knowledge-intensive cultural products.Thirdly,highly professional cultural industry that can represent China’s cultural soft power should be built up and some cultural brands with Chinese characteristics should be created to make China’s cultural industry more competitive.

4.Enforce the guiding force of cultural institutions.Cultural soft power is not only related to a country’s comprehensive national strength,but also to its international image.Effective and stimulating cultural institutions can better regulate the cultural market,encourage the enterprises to expand their cultural businesses and help create a positive and healthy international image while ill-regulated cultural market will make the operation of the whole cultural system difficult and may destroy a country’s international image.Therefore,the government should put more emphasis on the making and enforcement of the policies related to cultural industry and cultural exchanges.On one hand,policies that encourage the spreading of Chinese culture and the promoting of cultural industry should be carried out and more financial aid should be given to the regions with relatively poor cultural soft power and those cultural businesses with strong competiveness in the international market.On the other hand,the government must keep an eye on the spreading of Chinese culture in case some cultural products with negative effects would,intentionally or unintentionally,distort Chinese culture and destroy China’s international image.

References:

〔1〕中国科协发布第九次中国公民科学素养调查结果，2015-09-19,http://education.news.cn/2015-09/19/c_128247007.htm.

〔2〕2014年我国文化产品贸易行业竞争格局，2014-06-19。

〔3〕吴晓萍：《中国形象的提升:来自孔子学院教学的启示—基于麻省大学波士顿分校和布莱恩大学孔子学院问卷的实证分析》，《外交评论》2011年第1期，第 89-102页。

〔4〕肖永明、张天杰：《中国文化软实力建设视阈中的对外文化传播》，《现代传播》2010年第5期，第 6-10页。

About the author：Shi Zhuanzhuan,Rongzhi College of Chongqing Technology and Business University,lecturer,master in English Language and Literature of Sichuan International Studies University,major research field:translation theories and practice & college English teaching.