How a new generation of online storytellers is helping to spread the word about Chinese culture

CHINA — Firdevs Sevda Daglar from Istanbul first discovered the world of Chinese online novels when she was laid up at home with a broken leg three years ago.

With time to spare and fuelled by her interest in Asian history, the now 32-year-old began digging into the reams of Chinese historical and romance fiction available in English translation online.

“At first it was just to pass some time, but now I’m quite into learning Chinese,” said Ms Daglar, who is often struck by “how similar” the Chinese and Turkish cultures are.

Her “addictive” niche interest had inspired the former copy writer to make plans to go back to school for graduate work in Chinese language, skills that may help her as she notices more Turkish businesses looking to partner with China instead of the United States.

Ms Daglar is among what China state media estimates are upwards of 7 million readers outside China who gather on online platforms to discuss and follow romantic intrigues or martial arts adventures.

These fans are tapping into China’s vast contemporary literature industry, which brings in US$2 billion (S$2.73 billion) a year from subscriptions and advertising, according to consultancy group iResearch.

But the popularity of this slice of Chinese culture is a long way from the government’s own vision of making China into a “strong cultural power”.

This officially sanctioned push involves the global spread of state media news bureaus and the use of Confucius Institutes to teach language and culture.

However, unlike big-budget television programmes or feature films that major production companies hope to export, the fiction writers face a lesser degree of pressure from the censors.

And that just may be why they are successful.

It’s a contradiction that gets at the heart of why China has struggled to leave its cultural stamp on the modern world despite a growing audience for some of its creative exports.

“The problem with soft power being supported or regulated by the Chinese government is these cultural products are regulated to a greater degree than in other countries … and they rely on Chinese traditional culture, values and ideology,” said Dr Claire S Lee, author of the book Soft Power Made in China .

“If you look at successful examples like Hollywood, the US, Korea or Japan, it’s much broader than using traditional culture or education as a medium,” said Dr Lee, an assistant professor at Korea’s Inha University, noting that success stories, whether it is rap music, K-pop or manga, as well as online Chinese novels, are based on “international outlook or common stories” that people from around the world can make their own.

The past year has seen China make some major inroads into international popular culture, like the rise of Chinese-developed app TikTok to become a global teenage phenomenon, or growing popularity of Chinese dramas, which saw The Story of Yanxi Palace – a tale of intrigue among feuding imperial concubines – topping last year’s Google search list for television programmes.

But these successes come right alongside recent setbacks.

Government-funded Confucius Institutes have been kicked off of several university campuses in the US and Australia this year amid growing concern about undue influence.

Overseas state media outlets, meanwhile, have been banned from advertising on Twitter under its new regulations about political advertising that were widely seen as aimed at state news agency Xinhua and the China Global Television Network.

Even the groundbreaking success story from China’s private sector – the short video platform TikTok – has now come under fire in the United States, where lawmakers and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg have accused the app of censorship.

But despite these setbacks in the West, Chinese pop culture may be on the cusp of “building a base throughout Asia”, according to Professor Michael Keane, a professor of Chinese media at Curtin University in Australia.

“China’s entertainment industries now have a gravitational pull in the region, drawing capital, talent, investment and know-how into China,” he said.

Prof Keane noted that this will create a significant boost for China’s domestic creative industries, upping their appeal in Asia, where shared cultural elements and large Chinese-speaking audiences make films and television dramas an easier sell than in other parts of the world.

But despite these positive factors, successfully gaining a foothold will still depend on whether the government allow creatives to depart from the government’s polished official storylines, Prof Keane said.

“The more they push a sanitised version of China, the more they will see kickback from audiences” who have no appetite for censored, inauthentic stories that “only tell half the story”, he said.

China’s economic soft power – in the form of loans, investments and foreign aid – may also ripen alternative markets for Chinese pop culture, especially in countries that have signed up to the Belt and Road Initiative, according to Prof Yik Chan Chin, a media and communications professor at Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou.

“The perception of China is also about the cultural ties and trade and whether people can benefit from collaboration from the two countries,” said Prof Chin, who highlighted the growing popularity of Chinese dramas in different parts of the world.

But China’s growing influence can also serve to make some audiences more wary of China’s cultural products.

A 2019 regional survey published by the Asean Studies Centre at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore found that while Southeast Asians believe China is the most influential country in the region, in terms of both politics and economics, there is a high level of concern across the region that China is looking to pull Southeast Asia into its “sphere of influence”.

Similar concerns helped fuel the controversy earlier this month surrounding the DreamWorks animated film Abominable, which included a map that promoted China’s contested claims in the South China Sea.

A top Philippine official called for a boycott of the film, while Vietnam and Malaysia pulled the film from cinemas altogether.

The film was a co-production between the American studio and Chinese production firm Pearl Studio.

Such political dilemmas could change along with the future of Chinese creative industries, especially as millennials and younger artists come to the fore.

According to Inha University’s Dr Lee, these younger creatives will continue to build out online spaces where they are “allowed (more) space” to develop their ideas.

The popularity of online novels or TikTok, which have drawn fans from around the world into creating new digital communities, highlights a trend the next generation of Chinese creatives will look to further, she said.

“These are good examples of what Chinese soft power may look like in the future,” said Dr Lee. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST