China's Cultural Push Gains Global Traction

“Beijing is telling domestic audiences: ‘Our culture is strong, our creators can compete with Disney and Marvel, and the party is the guardian of this rise.’ The external influence matters, but the internal message about legitimacy is always central.”

“The party has understood that it cannot design soft power in a meeting room. The current strategy looks more like this: Let creativity grow inside the system, as long as it does not cross clear political red lines, and then support the winners.”

“Beijing benefits when the U.S. damages its own standing or retreats from global leadership, but China’s own efforts to project state-sponsored soft power have produced mixed results. Cultural creation in the private sector, she said, is where China has been far more effective.”

“These cultural products succeed because they feel spontaneous, playful, sometimes a bit subversive. The party wants to harness the soft-power upside without giving up control over the narrative.”

“Since powerful foreign countries are so open about using culture as a weapon against other nations, we have no choice but to respond in kind and strive to enhance our country’s ‘soft power.’”

“The more we face containment and suppression, the more we must promote open cooperation in the cultural field, and showcase a credible, lovely and respectable image of China.”

“Wukong and Ne Zha are global hits. Classic Chinese culture has become the finest form of aesthetic expression in the eyes of young people.”

“I felt as though I were a little more connected to a culture, a country, and its history.”