Week 6 - Alaina Cagalingan

In the article “Branding a Rising China,” author Sheng Ding describes in detail how China rebranded itself as a nation and maintained its national image through globalization and internationalization, which includes their commitment to international broadcasting, cultural diplomacy, and strong connections to the diasporic community. These methods not only successfully publicized China’s favorable national image, but also increased foreign awareness of the language and culture globally. In China’s strategy to rebrand itself, it took them three decades at least to see any results from distant and neighboring countries worldwide.  This goes to show the difficulty, dedication and commitment to sustaining and sharing its national image across the world. 

            Though not as powerful economically as China, the Philippines can follow similar measures that China has taken to publicize a more favorable national image by increasing the sharing of cultural information globally. In fact, the recent and scandalous winning of the Philippines as Miss Universe 2016 could be used as a gateway to cultural broadcasting. The thousand island nation can increase its reputation in tourism, agricultural products including rice and coconut wine, or creative hand-made crafts by the Filipino people.  Even though the title only lasts for a year, 2016 Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach can deliberately increase Philippine’s national image, and more importantly, diverging the national image away from being a country of labor export to a country of beauty, arts, and craftsmanship. In order for this divergence to be successful, it will take more years and also the complete participation of the government, people and the industry so that the national image would be known worldwide.

            The image below consists of Filipino handicrafts handmade by different tribes and locals. The fine detail in each wooden craft represents the diversity in culture and perspective of locals--each contributing to a unique design and art.  

Question: Even though China was a rising superpower, why is there a need for favorable national image if their motives were not threatening to begin with?

Image url: http://megacities-go-services.com/var/ezdemo_site/storage/images/media/manila/images-manila/unnamed-and-untagged/handicrafts/26534-1-eng-GB/Handicrafts_articleimage_hoch.jpg

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