American Soft Power Analysis

Soft power is essentially the power of attraction. It is the ability of a state to attract desirable behaviors in other states - rather than force them through coercion or payments (Nye 2004). Soft power neither grows out of military power nor economic influence – which are considered assets of hard power - but ‘cashes-in’ on the attractiveness of a country’s culture and political ideals as well as domestic and foreign policies. Put differently, a country can use soft power to obtain the outcomes it wants in world politics because other countries , admiring its values, emulating its example, and aspiring to its level of prosperity, want to follow it (Mukherjee, 2014). American soft power, for example, stems largely from the appeal of American

For example, sources of China’s soft power include sports, music, art, film, literature, rapid economic growth , foreign policy, humanitarian aid, exchange programs, diplomacy, and participation in multilateral institutions - to name a few (Cho & Jeong, 2008; Zheng, 2009; Kurlantzick, 2007; Kurlantzick, 2006). Taken in the Chinese context, however, the discussion of soft power sometimes assumes different meanings from the one originally proposed by Nye. Over the years, Chinese experts and politicians have debated and redefined the term so much that some commentators even argue it is possible to talk about a “Chinese soft power” (Mingjiang, 2008). Even though Chinese soft power has different interpretations and theories, “the cultural school” - also known as the “Shanghai school”, has gained particular prominence in China’s foreign policies. As implied by its name, “the cultural school” emphasizes culture and its central creed can be summarized in the words of director emeritus of the Shanghai Institute of International Studies, Yu

As mentioned in the introduction, for individuals without a first-hand knowledge of a country, filmic portrayal of a country and its culture can play a key role in how they perceive it and is indispensable in nation branding (Dinnie, 2015, p. 38). China’s neighbors like South Korea, Taiwan and Japan have long recognized this and have incorporated national film industries into various policies and soft power strategies (Hong, 2014; Higbee & Hwee Lim, 2010; McGray, 2002). By contrast, China’s film industry is rarely included into foreign policies and does not have prominent place in international soft power strategies. Commercially most popular films focus on Chinese audiences and rarely reveal much about modern China. As shown in Table 1, domestically popular films tend to deal with Chinese mythology, martial arts or historical epics rather than cover contemporary