With Chinese president Hu Jintao's visit to Washington this week, there's been a lot of attention paid to the way China presents itself to other countries--especially the United States--in hopes of changing the way people think about it. As we discussed in class yesterday, China's rebranding began in earnest, with maniacally smiling drummers and massive scrolls, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It's continued since then with various public diplomacy techniques, including the "China Today" supplements in the Washington Post and other newspapers. The Chinese's newest effort to alter US public opinion about them comes in the form of a sixty-second ad that will air twenty hours a day on six huge screens in Times Square. It started running this week in Times Square, and will be seen both there and on CNN until Valentine's Day. A Reuters article (http://tinyurl.com/4ck8dg7) linked to via John Brown's PD blog details this new campaign and the continued skepticism that permeates many Americans' feelings toward China.
The ad features Chinese celebrities--NBA star Yao Ming, astronaut Yang Liwei, pianist Lang Lang--as well as ordinary people, all happy, smiling, and promoting China's economic prowess, natural beauty, and multifaceted talents. When I watched it, my first reaction was, unsurprisingly, that it was technologically well-done (should we expect any less after the technical engineering spectacle of Beijing's opening ceremonies in 2008?). However, other than that I wasn't overly impressed; I didn't want to go off and learn Chinese (which according to the article you'll soon be able to do at government-sponsored Confucius Institutes worldwide), nor were my existing perceptions of China as an economic powerhouse with some questionable records on human rights and minorities changed. In fact, although it may sound harsh, I saw some parallels between this and the old Soviet-style propaganda of the Cold War. China has some pretty significant issues that the world is aware of. The fact that its public diplomacy gurus continue to ignore them in these glitzy campaigns--as the Soviets did in their failed cultural diplomacy campaign showing cheerful, brightly costumed minorities--seems dishonest to me because they do not portray Chinese society truly accurately.
Obviously, every country wants to put its best foot forward in its public diplomacy strategy. But given the continued vocal controversy over China's human rights record, Tibet, and other issues, this new campaign is in my mind made less effective as a result. As one interviewee stated in the Reuters article, " [I] could not ignore 'how they treat their own people.' " I think China does realize the extent to which their controversies have affected foreign publics' perceptions; the fact that they continue to gloss over it so completely in their public diplomacy may come back to haunt them.
I was also fascinated about all the attention once again given to the topic of China and its relation with the United States. Hu Jintao’s visit to the United States was just as important to the United States as it was to China. Yet, the relationship between the two countries is not just based on the perceptions of each of their political figures but by each of their populations. Just like you mentioned, the spectacles of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, created different reactions among the American people. While some Americans approval of China increased positively from the Olympic games, others like myself had the reverse reaction and were extremely scared by their show of unity and power. I felt like the events were a way for China to distinguish themselves from the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteI had not seen this add that you are mentioning yet, however after watching it, I was not very surprised. I did not get the same reaction, where the ad felt like Soviet-style propaganda. Also, growing up in San Francisco, I have I had great influence of Chinese culture in my upbringing, which includes knowledge about many of their celebrities. You note that you were not overly impressed, but I also think that was part of the point of this specific campaign. Where the Olympic campaign I felt they were trying to distinguish themselves, this campaign, I felt like they were trying to show that Chinese people and their celebrities are just individuals like American.
Good points Liza! I think our surroundings can be so influential in how we perceive and observe the world, as is evident in our different reactions to the ad. I grew up in DC, where Chinese culture is not as prevalent (I had the culture of corrupt politicians instead...ha), so our perceptions were naturally different. It goes to show how important it is for government PD agencies to do research on the different audiences they'd like to reach and how best to target those audiences.
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