מר אונור סאדק

קצת על עצמי: עליתי לארץ בשנת 2006. אני בוגר תואר ראשון מאוניברסיטת בר אילן במדעי המדינה ולימודי מזרח התיכון (דו-ראשי). כיום עובד בחברת היי-טק בינלאומית כיועץ אסטרטגי וגם כמורה לעברית במרכז ללימודי שפות מזרח התיכון בתורכיה.

שם המרצה: ד"ר סלנה אורלי

שם הקורס: קולנוע, ספרות ותרבות פופולרית בסין המודרנית

שם העבודה: “China’s Soft Power”

תקציר העבודה:

American political scientist, Joseph Nye, coined the term “soft power” in the late 1980s. His 1990 Foreign Policy piece “Soft Power for Politics” defined its connotation as follows: “A country may obtain the outcomes it wants in world politics because other countries – admiring its values, emulating its example, aspiring to its level of prosperity and openness – want to follow it.”

My presentation examines China’s appropriation and application of this concept.

A significant economic rise provides an opportunity for China to expand its influence globally. To do so, Beijing has been developing an international media network and establishing cultural study centers around the world. And while the PRC intellectuals and politicians debate whether promoting China’s traditions, values, language, and culture can win it more friends, its government persistently allocates vast funds to back programs that enhance the country’s international image.

In this presentation I document the most significant of these programs. I start by pointing out the importance of Confucius Institutes. China opened its first Confucius Institute in 2004 in Seoul, South Korea and by January 2018 boasted more than five hundred branches around the world. I then note that China has become a top destination for international students and that, according to the Institute of International Education, in 2017 it ranked third among the world’s most popular study destinations. Finally, I discuss China’s use of cinema and other art forms in the context of ‘soft power’. China’s leadership group under Hu Jintao recognized that Western culture and values have gone global in a way that Chinese culture and values have not, and invested billions in the effort to export China's value system, building the world's most modern soundstages, production facilities, post-production houses, animation houses etc. The Hu Jintao leadership elevated China’s ‘soft power' offensive and its cultural means to the highest level of strategic importance. The 2008 hosting of the summer Olympics in the Chinese capital exemplified this policy and also represented a significant milestone in China’s exploration of its ‘soft power’ arsenal.