How China's soft power is rewriting Asian culture

Japan Times

23-05-2025

Soft power is increasingly central to China's global dominance, no longer limited to economic prowess or military ambitions. This subtle yet key asset is reshaping Asian culture through the likes of food, film and online content.
China's cultural exports are changing its image abroad, wielding a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they have the potential to foster unity and commonality across the vast Asian continent. On the other, they threaten regional uniqueness and act as a vehicle for Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda.
For nations like Japan and India, China's growing influence poses a serious conundrum: Will they be engulfed in its cultural whirlpool or be able to resist the current?
China's cultural products captivate because they feel exotic yet universally appealing, often wrapped in the charm of gritty aesthetics. They have achieved broad global appeal by blending folklore with modernity, creating content that resonates across diverse audiences.
Take cuisine: Dim sum, kung pao chicken and the fortune cookie (invented in Japan and popularized in the United States but broadly thought of as Chinese) have been staples at Asian restaurants around the world for decades. But in the last few years, Mixue, a Chinese bubble tea and beverage chain has shocked the world with its stellar ascent.
Mixue has grown into the world's largest food and beverage chain, with more than 45,000 stores across China and 11 other Asia-Pacific countries — more than McDonald's 43,000 or so global locations and Starbucks' 40,000 outlets.
With its pastel-colored storefronts and affordable drinks popular with young consumers, Mixue's brand is more than about bubble tea: It spreads a vision of China as modern, youthful and accessible.
This narrative is amplified in cinema and on TV. Movies such as 'Ne Zha 2,' the record-breaking Chinese animation blockbuster, have achieved global resonance by fusing universal storylines — of rebellion, identity, redemption — with distinctly Chinese aesthetics and mythology. The 'Three-Body Problem' novels and their Netflix adaptation and the sci-fi epic 'The Wandering Earth' demonstrate the ability of Chinese productions to craft narratives that rival even Hollywood's.
Palace dramas like "Story of Yanxi Palace" captivate with their lavish depictions of court intrigue and are now streaming on platforms that compete with Bollywood as India's primary entertainment source. These stories do more than just entertain — they infuse Chinese values and narratives into global perspectives.
The CCP often influences exports to enforce control or censorship, imposing narratives that frequently sanitize China's past or further the regime's talking points. Historical plays avoid touchy subjects like the Cultural Revolution and productions such as 'The Wandering Earth,' for instance, honor ideas like that of group sacrifice — a tribute to Party principles.
This propaganda also raises the prospect of cultural hegemony, where China's perspectives increasingly dominate others and undermine regional distinctiveness. For example, local stories in countries like Vietnam and Indonesia compete for airtime as Chinese streaming services take over.
Outside of the realm of traditional media, the digital and gaming spheres are just as captivated.
Vlogger Li Ziqi's viral videos portraying the beauty and allure of rural Chinese cooking and crafts have millions of followers and subscribers — 26.5 million on YouTube alone. Video games such as Black Myth: Wukong, which has reached No. 1 on digital distribution platform Steam's top selling list, and Genshin Impact, a global phenomenon that plunges players into Chinese-inspired worlds, convey ideas around Chinese culture by immersing users in dynamic and imaginative dimensions.
Cultural exports don't just play a role in shaping outsiders' views of China, they affect other countries' output too. For example, the South Korean entertainment industry is increasingly catering to Chinese audiences.
TikTok, the international version of China's Douyin, has transformed the way millions of people across Asia and beyond create and consume online content. From Bangkok to Bengaluru, youth around the world mimic Chinese music, fashion and aesthetics seen on TikTok often without realizing the significance hiding behind these tropes. This is not just cultural exchange but rather a redirection of Asia's artistic compass toward Beijing.
TikTok's influence is such that several countries have started regulating or even banning it — not only for fears of the Chinese government accessing the social media's data but because of concerns about the spread of narratives that are partial to Beijing.
Whether other countries can withstand the influence of Chinese cultural assets is yet to be seen. India's Bollywood remains a global behemoth, with its films and music echoing from Dubai to Durban. Japan's soft power is immense thanks to anime, manga and gaming giants like Nintendo, but its cultural exports can at times seem niche compared to the wider appeal of Chinese ones.
Despite having diverse and unique cultures, neither India nor Japan have the state-driven coordination that makes China's initiatives so effective. Given the global obsession with K-pop and K-drama, South Korea outperforms its Asian peers, but because of these industries' reliance on the vast Chinese market, they too are susceptible to Beijing's influence.
It takes a strategy, not just cultural pride, to rival China's soft power. For example, India might want to invest in international streaming services and take advantage of its large diaspora. Japan might extend its anime and game exports to target younger viewers, emphasizing universal themes without sacrificing uniqueness. Smaller countries might pool resources and form alliances to amplify their voices collectively.
China is reshaping the Asian cultural landscape through attraction rather than coercion, writing a new story in which Beijing is a cultural lighthouse and not a dark force. Other nations should wield the power of their imagination to ensure that Asia's cultural future remains as diverse as its past.
Brabim Karki is a Kathmandu-based author and commentator whose writing has appeared in The Independent, Nikkei Asia and South China Morning Post, among others.