Table Of ContentTHE DILEMMAS OF ONLINE AND OFFLINE
MEDIA AND TRANSNATIONAL AUDIENCES
Claire Seungeun Lee
Soft Power Made in China
Claire Seungeun Lee
Soft Power Made
in China
The Dilemmas of Online and Offline Media
and Transnational Audiences
Claire Seungeun Lee
Inha University
Incheon, South Korea
ISBN 978-3-319-93114-2 ISBN 978-3-319-93115-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93115-9
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To my family and those who live with globalizing China
P
reface
The rise of China is inevitably significant to China’s neighbors—South
Korea and Japan—as well as for Asia, and the world at large. Along this con-
nection, this geopolitically and globally informed project began with a rather
simple set of empirical questions: “As a neighboring country of China, how
can we understand and navigate the rise of global China?” and “How can we
understand China’s soft power, sociologically and empirically?”
This study examines the ways in which China has evolved from a sleep-
ing lion into an awakened rising power along the idea of soft power, and
evaluates China’s attempts to wield soft power regionally, internationally,
and globally.
In the course of working on this project I have been asked, “Does
China even have soft power?” As I developed this project from a PhD dis-
sertation into a scholarly book, I found myself steering in increasingly
different directions. I gradually realized that this book is about why and
how China’s soft power works (or not) in one of the seemingly best places
to work with a powerful medium—TV series. The cases of Korean,
Japanese, and American media, as well as that of the telenovela, have been
well-documented. Yet, a research gap existed on the topic of Chinese tele-
visual media. Thus, this book aims to tackle this simple but relatively
unanswered question in the emerging field of Soft Power Studies, as well
as China/Chinese Studies, and Sociology.
It was not clear to me what inspired this research interest, and that it
was “destined,” until I studied Chinese soft power planning and its global
projections for rising China. As an undergraduate student in 2005, I won
a Chinese Language Contest in Seoul, South Korea, sponsored by the
vii
viii PREFACE
Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. Subsequently, I
was awarded a month-long exchange program at Beijing’s Language and
Culture University. I later realized that this contest had been sponsored by
the very first Confucius Institute in Seoul, and the name of the competi-
tion has since changed to “The Confucius Institute’s Chinese Contest.”
The establishment of the Confucius Institutes, and spread of Chinese
education through these Institutes, is the most renowned example of
China’s soft power effort to date. Subconsciously influenced by this phe-
nomenon, I came to study China’s soft power through other mediums
along my academic journey. All of which culminated in my first academic
project.
As a sociologist, I am a big believer that research should be empirically
grounded and relevant, not only to me as a researcher, but also to people
in society at large. Discovering interesting topics for academic investiga-
tion in my everyday life and interactions, connections, and relationships
with people across societies is always a blessing to me.
China, as the focus of my research, is located west of where I originally
come from. Coincidentally then, The Journey to the West, was composed by
the renowned Chinese novelist Cheng’en Wu, who shares a meaningful
connection with me through our names’ Chinese characters. Through
these signifiers, I have come to believe that engaging in this research area
is my destiny. I am very pleased that my first book is a step in the direction
of communicating the inspirations behind my academic career and life to
the world.
In the near future, I hope to see development in the changing contours
of China’s soft power in both my original field sites and other parts of the
world.
Incheon, South Korea Claire Seungeun Lee
a
cknowledgments
A book is both a journey and a snapshot of life that is filled with joy, inspi-
ration, and opportunities—and of course, pain and suffering as well. This
book’s conclusion has been a concerted effort and made possible only
through the continuous support of my teachers, informants, family, and
friends.
This book could not exist without the contributions of many people.
First and foremost, I am very grateful to those whom I met at the start of
this project, as well as those who have supported me in finishing this
book—some of whom I am not able to name here. In particular, I would
like to thank my supervisor Chua Beng Huat, who has guided me and read
multiple versions of this book from its most nascent forms. I also thank my
professors Catelijne Coopmans, Qiushi Feng, Kurtulus Gemici, Kong
Chong Ho, Ivan Kwek, and Eric Thompson at the National University of
Singapore, and Sangmee Bak, Lifang Cheng, Jinseok Kang, Jun Young
Kang, and Dageun Lim at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. The Asia
Research Institute and Tembusu College at the National University of
Singapore has provided me with generous research funding and a vibrant
research environment that greatly aided in the completion of this project.
My colleagues at Inha University deserve special recognition for their
generous support and enormous interest in my teaching and research. I
am very fortunate to find myself in my current academic “home” where
I can comfortably discuss teaching, research, and life, in general. As an
incoming faculty member, the collegiality and casual meetings I have
enjoyed with my cohort at Inha University are gratefully acknowledged.
Our Twenty “Seventeen” members who joined the University together
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x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
in 2017 deserve special mention for their warm hearts and continuous
support for encouraging each other’s work and life. I also thank my students
who inspire me and Lei Jin and Ran Shao for their research assistance in
finalizing this book. I also thank my university’s research support. This
work was supported by Inha University Research Grant.
Some parts of this book and its earlier versions have been presented at
conferences and workshops in Australia, China, South Korea, Japan,
Germany, and the United States, at the Communication University of
China, Hong Kong Baptist University, the National University of
Singapore, Texas Christian University, Tübingen University, the University
of Massachusetts Boston, the University of Melbourne, as well as at meet-
ings of the American Sociological Association, the Eastern Sociological
Society, the International Sociological Association, and the Korean
Sociological Association. I am grateful for those who were among my
audiences, providing valuable feedback to further develop this project.
The engaging feedback and continuous support of scholars in the field,
including Michael Curtin, Gao Jia, Michael Keane, Huei-Ying Kuo, Liew
Kai Khun, Seio Nakajima, Soon Keong Ong, Philippe Peycam, Colin
Sparks, Hayes Tang, and Xin Xin, were enormously helpful in the process
of revisiting my PhD dissertation to create this book.
Many thanks to all the people in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou,
Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo and Yokohama, and
Singapore who were willing to share their thoughts and experiences to
support my research. Without their enthusiasm and generous help, this
work could not exist. Although many who helped along the way shall
remain anonymous for the sake of protecting their identities, I would like
to express my gratitude by name to Shuwei Duan, Ranran (Yiqin Duan),
Toth Gabor, Chris Han, Yun Long, Deqiang Ji, Iwabuchi Koichi, Xuehua
Yan, and Wenqian Yu, who shared their insights and helped connect me
with respondents and others who were interested in this project. I also
thank Jeong-Hwa Ho, Sun Jung, In Kim, Sung Kyung Kim, Yuntae Kim,
Sujung Nam, whom I met during my graduate studies, for their faith in
me and my research and their emotional support.
In the United States, I would like to thank Professors Michale Ahn,
Xiaogang Deng, Alexander Des Forges, Terry Kawashima, Paul Kowert,
Lakshmi Srinivas, and Zong-guo Xia at the University of Massachusetts
Boston, as well as Kiril Kochkov at Texas Christian University. I am thank-
ful to all of the members of the newly established academic community
Cybercrime Investigation & Cybersecurity Lab (CIC) at Boston
University—Sinchul Back, Kyung-Shick Choi, Kevin Earl, Hannarae Lee, Jin
ACKNOWLEDGMENT S xi
Ree Lee, Hyeyoung Lim, Marlon Mike Toro-Alvarez—who have come in
contact with me through my newly invested research interests. In particu-
lar, I am grateful to Professor Kyung-Shick Choi for his guidance and
encouragement. I also benefited greatly from discussions with and encour-
agement from Professor Pyong Gap Min at Queens College, City University
of New York, who believed in my potential from early on.
My friends who were, and still are, in Singapore—Ambika Aiyadurai,
Bubbles Asor, Thomas Barker, Minhye Kim, Chih Horng Lee, Eugene Liow,
Stefani Nugroho, Fiona Seiger, Sunyoung Seo, Ping Shum—accompanied
me throughout this entire project. I also thank my friends Minji Choi, Sung-a
Jin, Hyejeong Kim, Jihye Kim, Sohee Kim, Yoonjeong Lee, Soryung Lim,
Hyunju Park, Bora Sim, Hyeji Yun, and Seongmin Yun for their support and
help with my research. In addition, I appreciate the unconditional help of
Jaclyn Sakura Knitter and Alex Gordon, who strongly supported and
encouraged me over the years, and who read and helped polish multiple
versions of my manuscript.
Thank you to editor Ngeow Chow Bing for the generous permission to
include parts of my article entitled, “Developing Social Science-based
Chinese Studies in East Asia: Geopolitics, Discipline, Knowledge” from
the International Journal of China Studies.
To my editor Shaun Vigil and assistant editor Glenn Ramirez at Palgrave
Macmillan New York, thank you sincerely for your enthusiastic support
and assistance from the moment I contacted you to suggest this potential
book project. You have helped me from the very beginning, all the way
into this publication’s final stages.
Last but not least, I wish to thank my family in Seoul and Budapest for
everything. I thank my beloved friend and husband, Benjamin, for his
critical mind and unfailing support for my career, work, and life. This book
is dedicated to my family.
Incheon, South Korea
August 2018
