Interview: China's international image improving, more efforts needed: U.S. scholar

While China has made great progress in promoting its own cultures to the rest of the world, it still needs to exert more efforts to improve its international image, said a professor at George Mason University.

On Tuesday, Chinese-American Professor Gao Qing, the U.S. director of the Confucius Institute at George Mason University, received an interview with Xinhua, sharing his opinions on the promotion of China's cultural exchanges and the building up of China's international image and influence.

In the last few years, China has made tremendous efforts to promote Chinese culture, and cultural exchange programs have received considerable policy support and funds, Gao said.

The most important way to bolster the cultural exchanges between China and other countries is to facilitate the two-way flow of arts and cultures, he said.

However, he pointed out that while China has made much headway in building up the cultural exchanges with other countries, it remains a big challenge for China to have its own culture well received in the rest of the world.

Gao noted that the cultural products that China has introduced to other countries were either traditional folk performances, such as folk music, Peking Opera, ink painting and traditional Chinese calligraphy, or artistic pieces inspired by the Western classics, pop or contemporary art, including symphonies, ballets or performance arts.

He said that China should improve the quality of its traditional folk performances.

"Firstly, some of the traditional music and dancing were recreated by contemporary artists by combining traditional elements with Western music and dance theories. These artistic pieces may play a crucial role in passing on the traditional cultures, but they are hardly up to the world standard in terms of their artistic achievements," he said.

"Secondly," he continued, "some of our traditional folk arts, especially those artistic performances with a strong flavor of Chinese folk cultures or the unique background of Chinese history, are too unfamiliar to be appealing to the foreign audience."

"Thirdly, there is little efficient promotion means specifically targeting local audience and markets. In the absence of effective channels, platforms or proper forms, the overseas cultural activities by Chinese artists and groups often end up a show or an exhibition performed exclusively for the local Chinese community, missing the chances of being received by the mainstream Western audience," he added.

Meanwhile, other performances originating from Western art have become one of the few successful examples of Chinese overseas cultural campaigns, Gao said.

The professor explained that this is because the foreign audience are more familiar with such artistic forms, particularly when they were performed by world renowned pianists or artists such as Lang Lang, Yu Long and Xi Bing.

Their performances break the language barrier and they can often communicate with the local audience in English or their local language, a skill normally our of the reach of many Chinese traditional artists, Gao said.

"In addition, just like the case of the Chinese traditional folk cultures, the lack of professional channels of promotion and management expertise makes it difficult for Chinese cultural activities to maximize their influence overseas," Gao noted.

He suggested that the Chinese artists and groups engaged in overseas cultural exchanges present high-quality, more artistic pieces to win the heart of foreign audience.

"China needs more professionals who are familiar with the artistic operation and management of the foreign art market, so as to better promote China's own culture and art heritage," Gao said.

The professor added China has gained a better image and greater influence over the past several years, and the opening of Confucius Institutes has played a key role in exerting an effective influence on other countries.

"The anti-corruption campaign initiated by the Chinese new leadership and their efforts to cater for the needs of ordinary Chinese people has also helped China further improve its international image and influence," he said. Endi