Chapter VI Conclusion
6.1 Findings
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Chapter VI Conclusion
The forerunner of Chinese cultural expansion is the Confucius Institute (CI). Chinese strategists and leaders assess that the CIs, a tool of cultural diplomacy, can enhance China’s image and national cultural competitiveness. This dissertation chooses American CIs as a case study by dissecting their language programs, cultural activities, and responses from CIs’ personnel. Since the language education and cultural activities are the two most important missions that the CI implements, this study analyzes how these courses and programs contribute to China’s cultural soft power. The research conceptualizes cultural soft power and cultural diplomacy; and it then explains their relationships. Field interviews were conducted to collect the participants’ opinions. This dissertation explores China’s cultural policies, CI’s projects, and Beijing’s approaches to disseminate culture; and it also raised two questions. The findings and answers to the questions list below:
6.1 Findings
The China’s cultural policies have become more flexible since Deng Xiaoping. Deng encouraged Chinese intellectuals to have a creative way of thinking to promote Chinese culture to the world. Jiang Zemin acknowledged the importance of cultural development.
After Jiang consolidated his power, cultural reform was launched in order to win over the hearts and minds of foreign audiences after the Tiananmen crackdown. During Hu’s presidency, Chinese cultural circles released cultural development plans with an emphasis on going global. Xi Jinping has emphasized on traditional culture as China’s cultural soft power. He acknowledges that language is the best way to understand a country; and CIs serve as important platforms to help the world know China. Examining the cultural policies of these top leaders, they have committed a great amount of efforts to present
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China as a cultural power to the world.
The CIs, a Chinese cultural ambassador, have become the most important platform to promote Chinese language and culture overseas, and to enhance international affinity.
Their rationales are to consolidate China’s cohesion, to expand Chinese influence worldwide, and to diminish the fear of Chinese power. The focused developments of CIs’
project thus consist of improving teacher education, enhancing the quality of textbooks, highlighting brand projects, and expanding the China studies. Its approaches to disseminate culture include expansion of the boundaries of Chinese culture and interaction with the people of the host country. The CI acts as unofficial cultural diplomats, making contribution by seeking foreign partners, enhancing academic status, and increasing human capital.
Since the U.S.-China relations are the most important in China’s foreign policy, Beijing has invested the largest resource in American CIs, focusing on four areas of development: language courses, cultural events, academic activities, and teacher education. Among the CIs that offered language and cultural courses, 70% targeted university students, and 57% targeted the general public. Organizing and sponsoring cultural activities is another service area. 71 % CIs organized cultural events.
This study has selected twelve American CIs and categorizes them into four distinctive features of their major missions. 1) Local-oriented CIs. Most CIs in the U.S.
are local-oriented aiming to meet the needs of local citizens and students craving for knowledge about China. These CIs have close cooperation with local schools, governments, and companies to garner more supports and resources. Their objectives are to provide an educational platform for locals and to become a major center for learning Chinese language and business. 2) Cultural oriented CIs. The cultural CIs emphasize introducing Chinese art and customs to the American public. They are often invited by
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local communities and schools to present Chinese multicultural performances and to sponsor a wide array of cultural programs. The CIs’ students are also performing art skills at the campus and communities providing locals to have a better understanding of Chinese culture. 3) Research-oriented CIs. This type of CIs is mostly hosted at prestigious universities as a research center on Chinese studies. These universities have received the huge financial and resource support from the Chinese government for further developing their Chinese-related research programs. However, these universities can come under strong criticism by its faculty because funds provided by Beijing might infringe upon their academic autonomy. 4) Teacher training CIs. Their mission emphasizes assisting local schools with the development of language programs in order to provide qualified teachers. The teacher-training CIs have held many workshops, inviting famous and experienced educators to enhance Institutes teachers’ teaching skills. With sufficient support from Hanban, the teacher training CIs have made improvement in their educational program.
The writer has come up with the following discoveries of selected CIs. 1) Students at CIs equipped with Chinese language and culture capability will become more competitive in their future careers; thus, the creation of courses and activities attempts to meet the demands of students. 2) The universities in the U.S. set up CIs based on their distinctive academic expertise. With qualified teachers from China, these universities could better promote their prestige. 3) Most CIs’ attendants are college students and young children.
As these students reach their adulthood, they might have a favorable image toward China that could forge a better U.S.-China relationship. 4) The CI’s programs are varied, particularly for those earlier established institutes and those located in affluent areas because of their experience and sufficient income from stable students’ enrollment. In time, the courses and programs of the CIs can become more creative and prolific. The
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CI’s program should become more robust if there are continued support of Hanban’s resources, Chinese guest teachers, and free textbooks.
The reaction to the CIs has been mixed in the U.S. While many universities are appreciative of the CIs’ contributions, some skepticism has arisen about them. China has capitalized on the number of prestigious American universities that have CIs on their campuses. The Institutes can present their version of China and highlight the positive side of modern China. The data have shown that most students in the CIs have a positive view toward China. However, some interviewees, mainly professors, consider the CIs not a very effective platform to promote China’s cultural soft power because there is a limited visibility (There is little coverage by either national or local media) in the U.S. Moreover, if there was a negative news report about China, CIs’ image could be harshly damaged and its efforts wasted.
The CIs’ capacity for attraction is in question, given that they have encountered objections. The CIs have spread quickly in the U.S. because the learning of Chinese is riding a wave of popularity. This popularity is due mainly to its commercial interests rather than to passion for Chinese culture. If China were to lose its economic edge in the future, there would be a dramatically decline in CIs’ attendance.
The CI has done little to change China’s opinion poll ratings. Regardless of the proliferation of CIs in the U.S., the percentage of Americans who have favorable views of China has gone down. Polls can be a valid means of gauging the result. BBC polls between 2005 and 2007 found that the percentage of respondents holding positive views of China’s influence had dropped from 48% to 42%. This trend was confirmed by the results of the Pew Global Attitudes Project, which reported the deterioration in China’s global image during the same period. The Pew survey shows that 51% of Americans felt favorably towards China in 2011. By 2014, only 35% felt favorably. Most Americans
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view China as a competitor and express their low levels of trust toward the Chinese government. The American assessment of Chinese culture is much less positive than what Beijing has hoped for. Over 70% do not think Chinese popular culture is appealing.
China’s soft power, as embodied in the CI project, has not contributed much to improving China’s image. China has encountered difficulty in translating its soft power into desired outcomes in the U.S.