Jin: Market Forces to Save Chinese Culture Abroad

In what has been a tough, somewhat awkward realization, China is just now beginning to recognize that its attempts to export its culture abroad and become a serious soft power player have fallen well below expectations. In 2011, the Chinese government announced a series of nationwide policies to promote the development of Chinese culture, in particular emphasizing the promotion of soft power products overseas, yet despite the recent abundance of Chinese cultural works exported throughout the world, the overall influence and impact of these cultural exports has been questionable at best. Chinese director Jin Tiemu is an artist that has had his work praised both at home and abroad, and he feels that the cultural differences between China and Western countries is one of the greatest barriers that exported Chinese culture needs to overcome. Jin believes that the issue is unavoidable but easy to address. “It is pretty obvious that Western people have their own preferences for cultural works. In order to reach a different audience, changes in form and delivery are understandable as long as the core idea of the work remains in place,” Jin said. Jin feels that such a compromise of operability is likely the only way for China’s cultural works to be exported successfully, and that the lack of compromise is the reason why most previous […]