The Limits of Outsourced Soft Power

Lee, Claire Seungeun

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-93115-9_6

Claire Seungeun Lee²

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Abstract

This chapter highlights another dilemma of China’s soft power generation in quasi-Sinophone East Asia. This chapter argues that the unexpectedly significant roles of Hong Kong and Taiwan to this process have led China to possess nodes of “outsourced soft power.” This logic infuses at two levels: at the media industry (meso) level, South Koreans and Japanese media practitioners intentionally import these TV series into their marketplaces, and at the audience level, South Koreans and Japanese encounter television series from Hong Kong and Taiwan. These two, interrelated outsourced soft power sources of Hong Kong and Taiwan play a surprisingly important role as facilitators, but also inhibitors, of China’s soft power projection. As an unintended consequence, PRC products from Hong Kong and Taiwan, or those co-produced with them, have reached South Korean and Japanese audiences. The resulting tensions in the transnational soft power field shed light on the limits of outsourced soft power and the complicated currents of global soft power generation in quasi-Sinophone contexts.

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Notes

1.
In order to avoid creating biased implications or confusion among the informants, and to be faithful to the aim of this study, I consciously use “China” instead of “Taiwan” or “Hong Kong,” unless the respondents’ answers contained certain elements of the other two Chinese societies. It is important to note that when it comes to culture and cultural/media products, these three Chinese societies—China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan—have different developmental stages and histories. Hence, my usage of these terms or boundaries reflect their development , rather than deliver my political stance on how to draw boundaries between them. On a different note, in Korean “China/Chinese,” “Hong Kong(ese)” and “Taiwan(ese)” are different words, unlike when they are contextualized in English; “Chinese” often then does not convey “China” per se, but what is “Chinese” in the adjectival sense.
2.
In fact, this is a mutual sentiment. This is not only the case in how Japanese people feel about Taiwan, it is also the case in how Taiwanese people feel about Japan. The 2008 Taiwanese film Cape No. 7 (Haijiao qihao) by Taiwanese film director Te-sheng Wei captures a love story which also touches upon Taiwanese notions of nostalgia toward Japan.
3.
JV18, interview with a Japanese respondent, April 13, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
4.
JV58, interview with a Japanese respondent, May 24, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
5.
JV23, interview with a Japanese respondent, April 17, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
6.
Ibid.
7.
JV58, interview with a Japanese respondent, May 24, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
8.
There is only limited documentation of this. Yet, there are records of news media discussions on the Chinese Wave in the South Korean Integrated Newspaper Database System (KINDS). The discussions, which concentrate on the rise of Taiwanese and PRC Chinese media products, go back as early as 2006. See E. Kim (2006). This discourse indicates fears about the decline of the Korean Wave as the prevailing force not only in South Korea but in countries such as Japan and China. Discussions from 2007 to 2008 are focused on PRC Chinese media products, as well as traditional culture by acknowledging China’s strategy of going global. It is interesting that such discussions have not been visible in South Korean newspapers since 2008, after which China has pushed such strategy forward even further.
9.
JV39, interview with a Japanese respondent, April 24, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
10.
JV33, interview with a Japanese respondent, April 22, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
11.
See Kim, Eunjin. 2006. “Hwaryue jjogineun ‘Hallyu Drama’ … ilbon TV bangyeong jeolban ‘dduk’” [“‘Hallyu Drama’, Now Only ‘Half’ of the Usual Broadcast, is Run After the Chinese Wave.”] SekyeIlbo, March 8. Retrieved May 20, 2013.
12.
In English writing, “kung fu” is almost always separated into two words as a function of Anglicization. However, I will consistently use “kungfu” for this book (see Appendix A). Kungfu has been discussed in the context of films, for more details see Hunt (2003), Li (2001).
13.
JV48, interview with a Japanese respondent, May 7, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
14.
JV42, interview with a Japanese respondent, April 25, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
15.
Ibid.
16.
JV23, interview with a Japanese respondent, April 17, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
17.
There is a Taiwanese version as well as a mainland version.
18.
JV9, Interview with a Japanese respondent, February 14, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
19.
JV39, interview with a Japanese respondent, April 24, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
20.
JV23, interview with a Japanese respondent, April 17, 2012, Tokyo, Japan. JV23 is a Ph.D. candidate in Chinese Studies at Tokyo University.
21.
JV39, interview with a Japanese respondent, April 24, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
22.
JV48, interview with a Japanese respondent, May 7, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
23.
JV23, interview with a Japanese respondent, April 17, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
24.
JV40, interview with a Japanese respondent, April 24, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
25.
JV48, interview with a Japanese respondent, May 7, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
26.
JV45, interview with a Japanese respondent, April 27, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
27.
JV23, interview with a Japanese respondent, April 17, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
28.
JV51, interview with a Japanese respondent, May 13, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
29.
JV35, interview with a Japanese respondent, April 23, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
30.
JV33, interview with a Japanese respondent, April 22, 2012, Tokyo, Japan.
31.
The Japanese word translates to “easily sentimental/stirred.”
32.
The title is also translated as The Return of the Pearl Princess. They are two most famous, well-received and popular Chinese TV series in South Korea.
33.
For this cohort, they might have had a chance to watch The Return of the Pearl Princess when they were in college.
34.
KV4, interview with a South Korean respondent, November 28, 2011, Seoul, South Korea.
35.
Such views were also found interviews with KV2, KV3, KV4, KV5, KV7, KV9, K39, K41, K43, and K45.
36.
KV41, interview with a South Korean respondent, December 21, 2011, Seoul, South Korea.
37.
KV46, interview with a South Korean respondent, January 10, 2012, Seoul, South Korea.
38.
KV40, interview with a South Korean respondent, December 21, 2011, Seoul, South Korea.
39.
KV41, interview with a South Korean respondent, December 21, 2011, Seoul, South Korea.
40.
KV43, interview with a South Korean respondent, December 24, 2011, Seoul, South Korea.
41.
KV45, interview with a South Korean respondent, January 2, 2012, Seoul, South Korea.
42.
KV38, interview with a South Korean respondent, December 21, 2011, Seoul, South Korea.
43.
These are Taiwanese dramas that are based on Japanese manga or novels. Both have also been reproduced by South Korean production companies into Korean-language versions.
44.
Such views were also found interviews with KV2, KV3, KV4, KV5, KV7, KV9, K39, K41, K43, and K45.
45.
KV41, interview with a South Korean respondent, December 21, 2011, Seoul, South Korea.
46.
KV51, interview with a South Korean respondent, February 4, 2012, Seoul, South Korea.
47.
It is important to note that South Korean novels also have a muhyeop genre, which is largely influenced by Chinese muhyeop novels, including those by Jin Yong.
48.
KV4, interview with a South Korean respondent, November 28, 2011, Seoul, South Korea.
49.
This is included in a book title by Yoo (1995). The author is a South Korean poet and film director.
50.
KV5, interview with a South Korean respondent, November 29, 2011, Seoul, South Korea.
51.
KV37, interview with a South Korean respondent, December 20, 2011, Seoul, South Korea.
52.
This is in line with a comment I received in my presentation on South Koreans in Singapore, which was held in Beijing on August 2, 2013. A Chinese audience member shared his opinion on what the Chinese think of Singapore, stating that, “We, Chinese people, think that Singapore is part of China (Xinjiapo shi Zhongguode).”
53.
KV33, interview with a South Korean respondent, December 17, 2011, Seoul, South Korea.
54.
KV37, interview with a South Korean respondent, December 20, 2011, Seoul, South Korea.
55.
KM5, interview with a South Korean media professional, January 25, 2012, llsan, South Korea.
56.
KV73, interview with a South Korean respondent, June 29, 2012, Seoul, South Korea.
57.
KV1, interview with a South Korean respondent, November 19, 2011, Seoul, South Korea.
58.
Jungd(rama) pein describes Chinese drama mania in Korean.
59.
KV8, interview with a South Korean respondent, November 29, 2011, Seoul, South Korea.
60.
The Korean title of this movie is Chwigwon.
61.
KV7, interview with a South Korean respondent, November 29, 2011, Seoul, South Korea.
62.
KV6, interview with a South Korean respondent, November 29, 2011, Seoul, South Korea.
63.
KV9, interview with a South Korean respondent, November 30, 2011, Seoul, South Korea.
64.
KV6, interview with a South Korean respondent, November 29, 2011, Seoul, South Korea.

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Inha University, Incheon, South Korea
Claire Seungeun Lee

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Lee, C.S. (2018). The Limits of Outsourced Soft Power. In: Soft Power Made in China. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93115-9_6

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93115-9_6
Published: 26 September 2018
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-93114-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-93115-9
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