A look at China and it's soft power

Korea has Kpop, Japan has anime, but what does China have? Why is it hard for us to think of anything 'cool' about China, and why is that the case?

Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:45 The definition of soft power
3:58 The problem: China's soft power deficiency
9:23 China's historically attractive soft power + modern influences (Douyin makeup, Genshin)
14:28 Discussion on personal experiences, China's censorship and geopolitics
20:51 Shambaugh's conclusion / Outro

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my gear!
below links may contain affiliate links that help me out but come at no extra cost to you :)
- camera: iphone 11
- editing software: imovie

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Sources/useful explanations, timestamps and (some more) of my thoughts!
- 0:52 Soft power being the ability to influence others
- 1:52, 2:39 From the transcript of a super in depth interview by the CSIS (Centre for Strategic & International Studies) with some insaaaaaaaanely smart panellists (including Joseph Nye himself) as they deep dive into Korea's soft power, and its impacts on Korea's economy and the US-ROK alliance.
3:48 HOW GOOD IS THIS QUOTE, of course I didn't come up with it myself, it's from a cracking piece I read - I think it was from this AFR article by Geoff Raby but I have since hit my free article viewing limit and I'm now paywalled lmao
- 4:00 An exploration into China's influence being based on coercion and payment, and its recent damaging policies and approaches in influencing foreign governments
- 4:36 Lucas Niewenhuis really came thru with the receipts compiling a list of international brands that have apologised to China
- 6:25 China's response and economic action to Morey's tweet showing solidarity for HK
- 6:46 China's annual spending of $10b on soft power
- 7:55 "This is China" rap
- 13:30 China's creative industries being much more limited in terms of how much freedom they are given vs Korea and Japan
- 13:47 Western values resonating with China's youth and President Xi Jinping's response in ordering Chinese' universities to "adhere to the correct political orientation"
- 14:28 link to my tiktok lol
- 20:51 David Shambaugh's journal article which I referenced at the end of the video summarising China's soft power deficiency, the various actions and strategies they adopted in a bid to increase it and reflections on what China should do in the future

Video clips used
- 20:51 Background clip from The China Guide on YouTube:

Thanks for watching and thanks 2 my mates for listening to me ramble about this long enough that I could make a whole video out of it :-)

tags: video essay, cultural commentary, social commentary, internet analysis, analysis video, soft power, cultural attractiveness, east asia, korea, china, japan, east asian, kpop, bts, blackpink, koreaboo, weaboo, anime, parasite, korean cinema, korean idols, korean entertainment, anime movies, animation, manhua, donghua, your name, genshin impact, genshin, chinese animation, chinese street fashion, mxtx, tgcf, hob, danmei, mdzs, chinese, chinese novels, douyin makeup, chinese makeup, korean culture, chinese tiktok, hallyu wave, korean wave, kdrama, squid game, censorship, mina le, madisyn brown, olisunvia, aini

[nicksardelli]

china has tiktok and genshin impact but most people don't associate them with china

[grandsome]

China has a huge cultural potential, if only their government let it shine, I just read the Three Body Problem trilogy and I'm still baffled that this book series made it out of China intact and had success in its home turf too. It's one of the best book sci-fi book series of this generation.

[yaelthesnail]

What I find fascinating is how the Chinese government decided to "strongly discourage" the airing of danmei-adapted dramas and donghuas just as The Untamed had become an international phenomenon. Instead of embracing that momentum and fostering it, they intentionally slammed the breaks. This would be like the government of Korea banning K-pop in 2012, just as it was really starting to be noticed in the West.

Basically, they want soft power, but they also want to dictate the terms of that soft power (largely for reasons of domestic policy). But it just doesn't work like that. They smothered the spark in its infancy, and there's no telling when or if it will ever catch again.

[barubary]

It's also hard to connect socially via the internet with people in China. They can't legally access a lot of the sites we use, including YouTube, so maybe they're also just not sharing a lot of their stuff with us either. It's really hard to do cultural exchange this way.

[sylviazhang]

As a Chinese, I genually wish this video to go viral on Chinese platforms, so that they can see it, understand and realize the problem

[sailorraine]

Growing up, I always loved Kpop, and I remember getting really into c-pop and c-dramas. Looking back now, I realize how many were actually just Taiwan and Hong Kong, rather than mainland China

[joshuahillerup]

Hong Kong had a fair amount of soft power in the 90s, and it's amazing how much China squandered that despite them seeming to really want to adopt it

[Anubisdream]

I spent a month in Hong Kong and posted a lot about my positive experiences there. What I remember was friends in the United States (where I'm from) being quite surprised and saying they had not really ever wanted to go there and my posts were changing their mind. I have definitely noticed what you are saying from talking to people about China.

[tzuioo]

As a massive Wuxia and Xianxia novels fan, i'm glad you mentioned the novels space. Chinese novels are probably the biggest powerhouse when it comes to internet novels. And as someone who has red a unhealthy amount of them i can tell you that it serves as soft power rather well. And surprisingly can get away with certain amounts of speech freedom, although not too much. (It could be translators just leaving it out). And in general i think that the mythical stories and tales of China have so much potential which unfortunately is not shown to the west in the capacity it should be shown in my opinion.

[dafu]

I've been complaining about this for a while now, and you make very good points.

Growing up as a Chinese-American, being able to speak Mandarin was never "cool". People flocked to learning Korean and Japanese, because it enables them to watch their favorite Kpop videos or Kdramas without subtitles, or watch anime and import Japanese video games without needing to wait for them to be translated. The Chinese language never commanded such cultural respect among younger generations. When people wanted to learn Chinese, it was mostly for business-related reasons. Everyone knows Chinese food and kung-fu, but these things never really drove people to learn the language or visit the country with the same passion as they do for Korean or Japanese. I remember that whenever I visit Taiwan, all the music that you hear playing in restaurants, coffee shops, and stores would either be Japanese or Korean music. Never heard Chinese music. Japan has weeaboos and Korea has koreaboos, these are well-known. But why doesn't China have any equivalents? To be honest, I was a bit salty about this growing up. Why are Japanese and Korean the cool languages to know, and nobody pursues learning Chinese? I was jealous because being able to speak Korean or Japanese was seen as "cool", while Chinese to them was "just another language".

Genshin Impact was a HUGE cultural export out of China from recent years, but even it can't be completely attributed to Chinese soft power. They lean heavily into the Japanese anime aesthetics, and they even feature Japanese voice acting. A lot of gamers still don't even realize that Genshin Impact is Chinese, since they promoted the Japanese voice tracks heavily and got some A-list Japanese voice actors. A lot of players still use the Japanese voice tracks, despite the Mandarin voice track being the original artists' intention. So while yes, it is a Chinese game, it still had to ultimately rely a LOT on the soft power of Japan to achieve its success. In a way, you could say that it's not even spreading Chinese cultural power, it's spreading Japanese cultural power.

[oliviaw]

Li Ziqi is an interesting case to me -she was kind of the bastion of Chinese soft power on YouTube, and succeeded because her content was so divorced from modern Chinese life, a traditional fantasy...she managed to walk that line by simultaneously promoting traditional/traditional ways of life while still being creative and visually appealing. She was selling that fantasy equally to Western and Chinese audiences.

[dawidlijewski]

Soft power is culture and it can't be artificialy created by political party

[SR-khyq]

I’m a long-time cdrama watcher but I think in recent years the quality of dramas coming from Mainland China has steadily declined due to excessive censorship and forced patriotic and “positive” motifs shoehorned in the plot. The whole industry is also so corrupted and manipulated by capitals that it feels like there’s no room anymore for real talent and interesting stories.
Dramas and all that comes with them (fandom, music, sponsorships) could be one of China’s main soft power weapons but their volatility and precariousness prevents that. When actors get “canceled” and dramas get pulled off the platforms every day, often for no reason, foreign viewers will turn to more stable sources of entertainment (like I’ve turned to kdramas instead).

[rueluxprince]

An added point, Chinese danmei and period costume dramas are holding the down the fort in the popular cultural exports arena. The associated Western fandom may not be as big as kpop or anime, but it's still sizeable and has a large space to grow. Except that China just recently banned their live action BL dramas, and heavily curtailed period dramas to focus more on propaganda shows. So like, on one hand they're whining about the lack of their cultural influence, on the other, they are literally shutting down the areas that foreigners like.

[cheintze]

I remember the Chinese mall I went to in Saudi Arabia. It had Chinese propaganda everywhere, a Confucian Institute, and a bunch of stores selling knock-off brands. The place was always empty, and the workers just stood at attention and grinned behind the counters waiting for customers that would never come. China's PR/soft power attempts always come off as so creepy and bizarre, like someone produced them with a gun to their head.

[rwkdl]

😊:)As a Chinese high school student, I watched this video completely then I started to reflect on our soft-power that I have to say I’m totally agree ur perspective, I mean probably the older generation didn’t aware of the significance of culture spreading but the youth in China literally impressed by Korean and Japanese impact on the soft power.However, the main problem is the internet banned in China that despite the innovation in soft power in youth couldn’t get rid of the policy that’s literally bad

[Rosie_macaroni]

i like how with no introduction this is your first video, gets straight to the point and you got this massive influx of viewers immediately lol

[LoliPolice-bfmw]

Kpop and Anime are super influential here in the US. I work at a fast food chain right now and every 10th drive thru guest has an anime shirt on and hearing Kpop music on the radio isn't too uncommon anymore.

[NB-iqrg]

It's interesting, this topic isn't very mainstream despite many east Asians noticing the clear soft power discrepancy between China, Japan, and South Korea. I'm Japanese, and it's definitely extremely noticeable how differently I was treated and perceived by westerners, compared to my Chinese American schoolmates and friends. Genshin was a good example of skewed perception; despite being Chinese made, developed and distributed, it is perceived from a Japanese viewpoint by many in the west, perhaps due to the art style, and with a lot of players using Japanese voice over. It's truly a shame, I think Chinese culture itself is so rich and historically deep, yet China is generally perceived as "anti western" due to the CCP.

[havefuntazarasu]

I think you speak the truth, but what i hate most is not that they lacking soft power, but the fact that they don't really try to be better at it and they usually dislike constructive criticism