I'm not allergic to soft power, I just don't agree that China should follow genshin's way of doing it.
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- Thread starter bd popeye
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Damn Japan once again had us beaten.
I'm in favour of increasing one's footprint early on, and refining later when a dominant (or at least strong) position is held. Better to control part of the market yourself than to let someone else.
Same reason Chinese industries are still in India at this early stage in global restructuring - the ground you're standing on is ground the other guy can't.
You wrote this in response to posts about media. So yes, this is literally the only way to interpret this. Your post implies that soft power is all about media and because the us dominates the media space, only the us has soft power.
You are very confused.
Masculinity applies to men. I never applied to everything.
If your men look non masculine, it is bad for soft power in general. That was the context of my claim. Are you arguing against this?
Your comment on cosmetics is extremely confused. Soft power is not just about masculinity. I'm not saying masculinity is the sole standard for everything. Soft power is mostly about attraction and there are different standards for different things.
Men have soft power when they are attractive which generally means masculine.
Women have soft power when they are attractive which generally means feminine.
Products have soft power when they are viewed as high quality, attractive, safe, effective, etc.
Architecture has soft power when it is viewed as attractive.
etc
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I feel like this is something I don't even want my foot in. Feels to me like it just invites more Japanese culture into China than it really helps China spread any of its own. Even now a lot of people think Genshin is Japanese. I guess it also doesn't help that their upcoming anime is going to be made by a Japanese studio.
About Genshin Impact: to export your soft power to people abroad, you first need to sell it out to the people abroad. People are influenced by the US's soft power because Hollywood does(did?) make a lot of good movies. Besides, Genshin Impact does have a lot of Chinese elements in it, just so many comments here regarding modern Chinese people's lives as a totally different one from the west. Like we Chinese people should live in another way although we use the same tools like phones and computers. Many of the so-called 'real' Chinese cultures are just outdated if not dead already as many cultures in the west. Many of these cultures, which are lucky enough still exist in modern china, changed a lot.
One example here:
This Peking opera video get more than 80k views from western players after one story quest of Genshin Impact was released which is about Peking Opera. Here is the first comment I see under that video:
Mihoyo is influenced by western and Japanese culture, they do have girls(and boys) in western and Japanese styles. But they also have characters in many other styles. Like Japan, China, Egypt, Western, India, and so on. I think they are doing quite well in exporting soft power.
One example here:
Actually, the Peking opera shown by Genshin Impact is a more acceptable version of it, because it is just too costly and too long to put a whole scene into that chapter of Genshin Impact. (Btw Peking Opera is really good for people who can read and listen Mandarin Chinese, I have heard it many times.)
Mihoyo is influenced by western and Japanese culture, they do have girls(and boys) in western and Japanese styles. But they also have characters in many other styles. Like Japan, China, Egypt, Western, India, and so on. I think they are doing quite well in exporting soft power.
My comments:
1. The moral of your posts should be: "Work hard to be the best, then you will naturally be sought after. This is soft power".
2. I don't see any more to discuss other than the secondary timeframe problem, which is, Right now, a certain country is not at the apex in all key metrics in the world. However, it is on a trajectory to arriving there. Therefore, the key objective now is to "Work hard to be the best, then you will naturally be sought after"
Another thing that Japan has is beaten in, extreme number of hookers and JAV shows and Japanese hentai… fortunately we do beat them in everything else that matters, including dignity and honor which if one looks carefully enough, is the kind of thing that Japan loves to sprout about all the time with their samurai bullcrap.
So really this whole talk about soft power means little when in comparison to real results. Just look that the current state of the USA vs China and then one can see the difference. Also having Russia as an ally beats having Europe as an ally any day, especially when they have the gas and grain ready and waiting while the EU for all of their soft power and so called hard power cannot stand against the cold hard truth, that one day, reality will catch up and all the gas lighting and woke crap isn’t going to win against general winter. Heck even the USA cannot win against general winter which is why they are limiting sales of gas to Europe in the run up to winter. Which is going to do wonders for the US soft power department, either the EU shapes up and do what is necessary, lose some face and do what is necessary or suffer the winter and have the cold hard truth the the US is the worst ally one can have. Hard power or soft power isn’t going to save the EU and also won’t save the US in the long term, especial in its current state
in relation to Genshin, a couple of years ago, the world was still looking at COD and battlefield while Chinese games didn’t really exist, now people are starting to show increased interest in Chinese video games like arknight, honkai, PGR and even crystal of Atlan and Wuthering waves which all look interesting given that there is something unique there while western games have been stagnating big time, I mean I have trouble finding the next big game that isn’t Chinese, let alone Asian. I mean, they have all becoming remakes and that really shows how little creativity they have right now
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I'm not too fussed. Due to the strength disparity, any Japanese culture that entered China will be Sinicised and ultimately controlled by China (Genshin is a good example of this), same as Buddhism when it arrived from India.
Genshin is a good foot in the door as a cultural export to the rest of the world, as once you have buy in, you can subtly steer it. Facebook and other social media / MSM tools did the same thing in SEA. So having control of the medium is key.
I think my issue is that I don't even think it's helping Chinese soft power at all, maybe for the diaspora, but that's really most of those who seems to care about the game being Chinese or having Chinese elements.
I hope you're right.