Chinese Soft Power and Media Discussion and Updates

GiantPanda

Junior Member
Registered Member
Is K-pop music better than African-American music? Is it better than Latin music? No. Do African and Latino Americans have power beyond music? No. So what does "soft power" get you? Korean K-Pop stars don't even write their own music. It's written mostly by Americans.

KPOP is nothing more than a teenage marketing ploy with no actual music or cultural value.

Also very cringy and gay.
 

FairAndUnbiased

Brigadier
Registered Member
For your final post: The things that actually promote a countries image is solely from economic development, a so called hard power. When you are rich, you can do no wrong. Anything you do is automatically correct and cool. Pretending otherwise is naiive.
Correct. Does Germany have pop culture? I can't name a single German musician that wasn't from Prussian days or earlier, a single German movie more recent than the mustache man days or a single German video game. Germans themselves have a reputation for being sour and difficult. Yet Germany has a positive impression in most of the world.

Same with alot of European countries. They watch 99% Hollywood, listen to English music, don't have their own video games, etc and yet are said to have strong soft power. Why? Simply because they have money. Broken infrastructure that dates to barely after WW2? Historical charm.
 

Maikeru

Major
Registered Member
Correct. Does Germany have pop culture? I can't name a single German musician that wasn't from Prussian days or earlier, a single German movie more recent than the mustache man days or a single German video game. Germans themselves have a reputation for being sour and difficult. Yet Germany has a positive impression in most of the world.

Same with alot of European countries. They watch 99% Hollywood, listen to English music, don't have their own video games, etc and yet are said to have strong soft power. Why? Simply because they have money. Broken infrastructure that dates to barely after WW2? Historical charm.
Singers - Nina (99 Luftballoons), Skorpion, Rammstein, Kraftwerk.

Movies: Das Boot, Downfall, Run Lola Run.

Just off the top of my head. Dunno about video games.
 

BlackWindMnt

Major
Registered Member
Wolfenstein wasn’t German?
Nope wolfenstein was made by Id software.
Bro just leaves out the world famous german artist Scooter.

But big pop artist from europe kind of stopped around mid 2010s, I can't really name a big European or UK pop artist from the 2020s, its all American artists. Probably why my playlists is still mostly 2000s rock and 2010s edm.
 

siegecrossbow

General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Nope wolfenstein was made by Id software.
Bro just leaves out the world famous german artist Scooter.

But big pop artist from europe kind of stopped around mid 2010s, I can't really name a big European or UK pop artist from the 2020s, it’s all American artists. Probably why my playlists is still mostly 2000s rock and 2010s edm.

I was being sarcastic. Obviously post WWII Germany wasn’t gonna make a game filled with swastikas and nazis.
 

FriedButter

Brigadier
Registered Member
More details about the Tiktok deal, from the Chinese perspective. Tracks with previous explanation, that Americans are getting corporate control while Chinese keep operational control.

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Wouldn’t it be the opposite? China has corporate control while the US has operational control. The USDS TikTok runs the day to day operations but Bytedance runs the commercial/corporate activities.

The TikTok US Data Security Company joint venture will be entrusted and authorized to manage U.S. user data storage and security, content safety assurance, software review and approval for release, as well as related local operations in the United States. External investors will be introduced, and they will hold the majority of shares and board seats, while ByteDance will retain its position as the single largest shareholder
Byte TikTok US Company,” to operate business and other related activities (such as e-commerce, advertising for brands, and cross-border commercial activities). It is important to stress that “Byte TikTok US Company” remains 100% owned by ByteDance through its global TikTok subsidiary—this arrangement has not changed.
 

Wrought

Senior Member
Registered Member
Wouldn’t it be the opposite? China has corporate control while the US has operational control. The USDS TikTok runs the day to day operations but Bytedance runs the commercial/corporate activities.

No, USDS Tiktok is literally just Bytedance engineers under a different label. The board is being restructured with a US majority, but it's not like they are firing everyone and restaffing from zero. So US investors get shares and profits and so on, but the actual people running the boring everyday details remain Chinese.
 
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