More than media needed to boost soft power
- By Harvey Dzodin
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E-mail China Daily, February 26, 2016
One huge unfolding success story is China's collaboration with Hollywood, of which Wanda's is the most famous. China is hungry to get its message across to foreign audiences, and given its rich history it has many engaging stories to tell. Hollywood, which has for more than a century perfected the art and science of filmmaking and promotion, cherishes two things above all: box office receipts and other people's money. This seems a marriage made in heaven that is starting to reap a rich harvest for China at home and abroad.
China has also been successful in winning hearts, minds and funds by exporting its best cultural aspects through live performances such as gymnastics and the martial arts. For example, the Terracotta Warriors of Xi'an have conquered places like London in a way that even China's first emperor Qin Shihuang, who had them made, could never have foreseen. Queues around the British Museum and extended visiting hours were needed to accommodate the 850,000 who swarmed to the show. Besides, countless others were exposed to media coverage of this blockbuster.
Some other efforts seem less ambitious and haven't reached their full potential. Confucius Institutes around the globe have largely confined their efforts to language teaching. They could easily be so much more: performance venues, art and culture exhibition venues and so on. Thus far, they seem a squandered opportunity.
The best form of soft power is done on a people-to people basis. China arguably has the best social media platform in the world: Tencent's WeChat. One of its many exceptional features is a very decent language translator. What if people continents away, as young as 7 or 8, could have a WeChat friend to learn about Chinese culture? China could start to make friends for life and reverse some of the troubling ratings it has got lately in public opinion surveys.
Xi is right about better communicating China's virtues to the outside world. But just using the media, as improved as they are, for the purpose is insufficient. More can and must be done.
The author is a senior adviser to Tsinghua University and former director and vice-president of ABC Television in New York.
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