MaiVang- Week 6 Blog 5

    In the article written by Sheng Ding, “Branding a Rising China: An analysis of Beijing’s National Image Management in the Age of China’s Rise,” the author focused on the central idea of China and national image management. After WWII and the Cold War, China has been seen as part of a dark world. Their image of total dominance and great power has lessen and has become unfavorable to the world. In China’s attempt to rebrand themselves in a positive light, they became successful at manipulating the world of the capabilities and the good connotation of what China is. They used various communication sources to project what China has to offer and the goods that can come out of China. China has become one of the top tourist countries and has involved itself in student exchange programs that allows the world to know of China. What China gain by doing this is value in its educational field. As Ding mentioned, China is successful in economic management globally as 100 countries has offered Chinese courses in their education system. In promoting their national image, omitting the negative areas of China was of great importance because it would be an obstacle for China to be more involved in the political world. Advancing into a more favorable China has helped its economy, however, the area of politics has not shown to increase in favor. Many countries are hesitant to work with China because of the government corruption.

    Through the idea of dominance through soft power, China was able to capture the favors of countries in the south such as African and Latin American countries because they share a common past; they were once dominated by western power.

    Manipulation through national image has, in turn, made China’s advancement in this time period rise to one of the top countries of globalization and economic trades. The shift of an unfavorable China to a favorable one was an improvement, but as Ding concluded, China still has a long way until it reaches a point where they will be seen as equals to the western countries.

Questions: China has been seen as an inferior nation in this article, but is China inferior to western power or is it an idea to make the people think that China really is inferior?



 

Sheng Ding. "Branding a Rising China: An Analysis of Beijing's National Image Management in the Age of China's Rise." 2011.