The Globalization of Chinese Soft Power - Falk Hartig

Cultural diplomacy is often conceived of as part of a country’s foreign relations, in that cultural dialogue can sometimes achieve what political dialogue cannot. It is an example of “soft power”― the possibility of communicating through culture and ideas to achieve national interests.

In an increasingly distributed global system, emerging-economy countries are now paying greater attention to culture and communication as part of the symbolic domain of their national power in global affairs. But their efforts remain little understood or even noted.

On February 28, the USC Center on Public Diplomacy hosted a major conference on cultural diplomacy in emerging markets at USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.

This conference explored the cultural diplomacy efforts pursued by a number of countries with emerging economies. Panelists aimed to enrich our understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing institutions of cultural diplomacy in contemporary times. It was our goal to shed light on the bigger, broader issues of the role and potential of culture and public diplomacy in a multipolar world.

Falk Hartig is a post-doctoral researcher at the Frankfurt Inter-Centre-Programme on new African-Asian Interactions AFRASO at Frankfurt University, Germany. His research focuses on public and cultural diplomacy, political communication and issues of external perception. He received his PhD in from Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.

He holds a MA in Sinology and Journalism from the University of Leipzig, Germany. From 2007 to 2009 he was deputy chief editor of “Cultural Exchange”, Germany’s leading magazine for international relations and cultural exchange. Before coming to QUT he was a visiting fellow at Xinhua News Agency in Beijing and a research assistant at the GIGA Institute of Asian Studies in Hamburg. He writes for German journals and magazines and is the author of a book about the Communist Party of China.

As a CPD Contributing Scholar in Reshaping Cultural Diplomacy in a New Era, Dr. Hartig is focusing his research on how China is presenting itself in Africa by means of cultural diplomacy with a focus on Confucius Institutes on the continent. 

This video is also available on the USCI YouTube Channel.

Click here to watch the other presentations.