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Sri Lanka Army

Defender of the Nation

02nd September 2016 17:46:23 Hours

Culture Now the Core of 'Soft Power'

The second day sessions of the ongoing ‘Colombo Defence Seminar - 2016’ got off to a start this morning (2) at the BMICH with the head table, led by Major General Greg Bilton, Deputy Commanding General, US Army Pacific, for which Dr. Derek Yuen (HKG), Professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong contributed by way of a multimedia presentation on ‘Use of Soft Power in Contemporary World: Asian Perspective’.

In his presentation, he elaborated on the soft power being applied via cultural traits in South Korea, Japan, etc which have attracted millions of people in the Asian continent as popular culture. He also added that the Chinese leadership embraces culture as the core of soft power.

He touched on following areas during his speech;

- An up-to-date theoretical framework for the cultural soft power struggle in Northeast Asia

Popular-culture centric

- Culture clashes among Japan, Korea, and China

- China’s possible adoption of the Korean model

- Asianization of Cultural Soft Power Paradigm

Limitations of Chinese soft power

- 2 strands of soft power: Confucianism (cultural) and Realism (politico-economic-diplomatic)

2 strategic cultures with internal tension and contradictions

- Confucianism: passive/reactive, idealistic, traditional, and not really actionable

Tributary System: moral value (soft power) and security

Confucius Institutes

Limitations of Chinese soft power

- Realism: proactive, adaptive but incompatible with culture

Various politico-economic-diplomatic soft powers and tools

Chinese leadership embraces culture as the core of soft power

- Intention to be an alternative to the West, hence avoiding to incorporate Western values and approaches

- The Chinese development Model-appeals to the developing world, necessarily non-Western

Japan

- Asia’s tastemaker in the 1990s

Consists of traditional and modern culture

- Its cultural influence cannot be translated into political power:

Historical animosity

Publicly used pop-culture as a diplomatic tool

Rio 2016 Olympics closing ceremony

- Super Mario Bros. (1985)

- Captain Tsubasa (1981)

- Pac-Man (1980)

- Hello Kitty (1974)

- Doraemon (1969)

Korea

- Korean drama began to gain international acclaim in 1997

Japanese cultural products became too expensive

- Hallyu (Korean cultural wave): K-Pop, Korean dramas & movies, Korean cuisine, language and style

- Public diplomacy + Nation branding + Economic effects

- Highly beneficial for Korea as an export-oriented economy

Hallyu

- Psychological - Gangnam Style (2012)

- My Love from the Star (2013-4)

- Descendants of the Sun (2016)

Nation branding: quick assessment

- Korea’s centralized strategy has the potential to be much more effective than Japan’s

- China’s nation-branding plan is much less clearly defined than Korea’s

- China’s approach seems to focus more on traditional culture than commercial brands, while Japan does the opposite

Culture clashes

- Japan vs. Korea

Territorial disputes over Dokdo(K)/Takeshima(J) (2012)

- China vs. Korea

Deployment of THAAD US missile system to South Korea (2016)

- Result: limitation of Korean entertainment activities

Check Korean cultural expansion in their countries

Prevent civilians’ disagreement over foreign policy decisions

Strengths of the Korean model

- A perfect mix of private and public participation, but still government-led

- Features both popular and traditional culture

- Combines Western style with Asian sensibilities/values—the appeal of being both East Asian and global

- Production of an increasingly homogenized popular culture and potentially a pan-regional culture

China eyes on the Korean model

- Chinese interest in Hallyu: investments and recruitment

Descendants of the Sun was made with Chinese investment

- Government-led

- Popular and traditional culture

Recent setback for the Confucius Institutes

Asian values

- The prospect of producing a pan-regional culture

Asianization of Cultural Soft Power Paradigm?

- West  Japan/Korea (Asianize) China

- An increasingly homogenized popular culture could help Asia coalesce into a more discernible bloc, giving it more international influence

- Will lead to further Asianization. May eventually become incompatible with US/Western cultural influence

Implications to the use of soft power

- Utilizes soft power as a representational power that can shape beliefs about things other than reputations by manipulating the subjectivity of target groups

Soft power-led strategy and soft power nations

- Utilizes soft power as a transformational power that helps bridge geographic and linguistic barriers by crafting cultural proximity

Transforming culture into a bridging, rather than differentiating, factor