For years, China was known simply as the ‘world’s factory.’ Today, its pop toy brands are creating innovative and exciting products that are reshaping perceptions of ‘Made in China’ and showcasing the strength of the country’s original intellectual property.??
ChinAfrica Culture Economy Nov 28, 2025
Beijing is gradually but steadily succeeding in the vital soft power competition.
BEIJING REVIEW China & The World Culture Aug 13, 2025
A country’s reputation is forged not overnight, but through decades of steady, deliberate choices. For China, the task is simple: stay the course, and keep doing what it believes to be right.
BEIJING REVIEW China & The World Culture Jul 8, 2025
The future of global entertainment is being rewritten—and this time, China holds the pen.
columnists China & The World Culture Economy Feb 19, 2025
The Chinese New Year – the most important holiday in the country – offers a window into China’s past and present.
CHINA TODAY China & The World Culture Economy Feb 6, 2024
People-to-people diplomacy, embodied in a Chinese Peace Corps, is a win-win for all stakeholders.
columnists China & The World Culture May 24, 2023
What worries me is that when you talk about the strategic adversaries, you’re thinking only about the negative side and what I think is we have to get people to think also at the same time about the positive side.
Politics Jan 11, 2019
ROBERT Kuhn is a successful entrepreneur, bestselling writer, and TV anchor, but he is probably best known as an “old China hand.” In the past decade or more, Kuhn has taken on the responsibility of introducing modern-day China to the world.
China & The World Politics Economy Oct 17, 2017
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 […]
China & The World Oct 10, 2015
Slated to open in the first half of 2016, Shanghai’s Disneyland will bring one of America’s most obvious soft power totems to China, with Mickey and crew undoubtedly gearing up to entertain the masses. But how will Disneyland be received upon its arrival? The park’s impending arrival seems to run a somewhat contradictory course to the supposed Chinese stance against Western ideology that has become something of a media meme in recent years, and some have gone as far as to call the park’s arrival “cultural invasion.” Mickey Mouse, Captain America, and an Enchanted Storybook Castle? These would certainly seem on the surface as hallmarks of American (for better or worse, the de facto standard-bearer of Western ideology) soft power and culture, so why now? Why let Disney come to China and bring all the swagger of recently-acquired Han Solo at a time when Western ideology is being demonized in some Chinese circles? As part of President Xi Jinping’s China Dream national rejuvenation plan, certain aspects of China will be needing an upgrade, and this extends to culture and services, two things that Disney does incredibly well…for a price. China seems hell-bent on trotting out the old standbys when it comes to Chinese soft power/culture: Confucius, Peking opera, pandas, and yet another Journey to the West vehicle. These are not […]
ECONOMY WATCH Sep 15, 2015