Even cheaper wines mark their year. No one has any illusion that giving the vintage makes the wine better. Rather, no self-respecting consumer would buy a wine without a vintage on it. “What, Yellow-Tail, you expect us to believe that every year is a vintage year?” The point is cheap wines have to pretend they belong in elite company for people to even consider them.
Therein lies the problem with China’s branding. China isn't globally pretentious enough. As Wang notes, “[t]he Chinese are too humble to promote China in international society.” (262) China is too defensive in nature, it is concerned especially about correcting misconceptions (Li, 6). Certainly, it has adopted a more proactive posture, setting up Confucius Institutes. However, although they teach Chinese values, they don’t make a claim of universality.
True, not all countries have to claim to have the best value system. Rather, they might pick a characteristic and promote that as their brand. However, these are mostly small and middle-tier powers. China wants to be a superpower, and so its branding must aspire to similar standards. That means China must proclaim it has superior culture and values, major powers such as France and America do.
Look the part, be the part.
-Jake
I originally read the title of this post quickly as "What WHINE and Branding Have in Common," which, now that I think of it, could also be applied to Chinese Public Diplomacy -- at least the part that criticizes foreign representations of its policies as unfair or inaccurate.
ReplyDeleteI'm not entirely sure I understand the point you're making here though. What is it that China needs to do in terms of promoting its superior culture and values? Do you see that as a monologic activity or an extension of cultural diplomacy? How should they go about it?