china's soft power
DESCRIPTION
The notion of soft power I wanted to address in this presentation can be quoted from Laotze; The best of man is like water,Which benefits all things, and does not contend with them, which flows in places that others disdain, where it is in harmony with the Way.TRANSCRIPT
China’s Soft Power Hanseok Ryu
Two extreme cities I’ve been living in recent two years…
Hard Powerv.s.
Soft Power
Soft PowerHard Power
Explicit / Direct Implicit / Indirect
Force Charm
Make Let
Top-down Bottom-up
Linear / Hierarchy Non-linear / Network
60th AnniversaryPeople’s Rep. of
CHINA
Crouching tiger slowly begins wielding
its influence over the world…
“We can achieve in one week what they(the U.K.) can
achieve in one month. That's the reason ourperformers give such brilliant performances.
I think other than North Korea, no other country anywhere in the world can achieve this.”
Yimou Zhang
Cultural DifferencePut into abstract icons by Liu Yang
The Boss Me
The Way of Life Party
UniformityOver
Individuality
Hard Power
Explicit / Direct
Force
Make
Top-down
Linear / Hierarchy
Communist Control + Cultural Background
The Boss
The Way of Life
IndividualityOver
Uniformity
Meanwhile in the U.S it is…
Microsoftized
We are …
Starbuckti-fizedGooglized
Soft Power
Implicit / Indirect
Charm
Let
Bottom-up
Non-linear / Network
Democratic Freedom + Cultural Background
The Boss
The Way of Life
Two extreme things I saw and heardin China last year.
Case #1
Ethnic clashes in Urmuqi last July
Case #2
Lu Guang's "Pollution in China" project
國進民退
State rises while people fall back
In Status Quo,
You’re anonymousYou’re a number
However, history says Chinese culture is…
fundamentally soft(Even softer than the U.S. gov’t)
Soft PowerHard Power
The best of man is like water,Which benefits all things, and does not contend with them,Which flows in places that others disdain,Where it is in harmony with the Way.
- Laotse
Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.
- BRUCE LEE
Thanks!