In its April 17 feature, Xinhua News Agency unveiled what it framed as a monumental stride: the solidification of “Cultural China”—a term now woven tightly into the fabric of contemporary Chinese statecraft. The article, brimming with celebratory metrics and proclamations of global recognition, extolled China’s cultural industries, public services, and international outreach. On the surface, this is a success story: tradition revived, innovation unleashed, soft power projected.
But beneath the triumphant cadence lies a more complex narrative—one not of unambiguous renaissance, but of recalibration and control. For while the state’s investment in culture appears to elevate it, it also redefines it: not merely as a mirror of society, but as an instrument of sovereignty. What is emerging is not just a cultural revival—but a cultural regime.
1. Cultural Confidence: The Alchemy of Identity and Ideology
“Cultural confidence” is not a mere slogan; it is a strategic epistemology. Coined in the Xi era, it posits that national rejuvenation is not just economic or military—it must be civilizational. This reframing elevates traditional culture from nostalgic ornament to ideological necessity.
And yet, when confidence becomes policy, it invites curation. The canon of “Chinese tradition” is not chosen democratically—it is selected, purified, and weaponized. Confucianism is exalted, while other legacies—Daoist subversion, vernacular irreverence, heterodox philosophies—are quieted or co-opted. The result is a cultural identity that is less organic than orchestrated, a cultivated garden where weeds of dissent are pulled before they bloom.
This is not uniquely Chinese. All nations mythologize themselves. But what makes China’s version distinct is its scale, speed, and centralization. Culture is not simply encouraged—it is engineered. Museums, textbooks, apps, television shows—they do not merely reflect culture; they are programmed to shape it. And in this programming, “confidence” begins to blur with conformity.
2. Cultural Industry: A Market with Mandates
The figures are striking: over 5.6 trillion yuan in cultural industry output, accounting for a growing slice of GDP. Film, gaming, publishing, AI-powered heritage restoration—every domain is expanding. Superficially, this resembles the dynamics of any maturing capitalist economy.
But in China, cultural industry growth does not follow the invisible hand; it follows the guiding hand of policy. The state is not a referee; it is a co-creator, financier, and gatekeeper. Subsidies flow to “main theme” productions. Algorithms are trained to promote “healthy” narratives. Even box office champions must first pass through the ideological sieve of censorship.
This duality—market logic entwined with political mandate—creates a curious creature: a commercial culture that must also serve as moral pedagogy. Can creativity thrive in such an environment? Certainly. But it becomes a kind of state-sanctioned creativity: spirited, perhaps, but never truly subversive.
3. Public Culture: The People’s Stage—or Their Script?
Public cultural services are flourishing, and that is no minor achievement. From village reading rooms to mobile libraries, from community theaters to digital museums—millions now have access to resources once confined to cities and elites. This democratization of cultural access is laudable.
But access is not autonomy. While public culture expands in reach, its content is increasingly pre-scripted. Cultural centers are not just spaces of artistic exploration—they are nodes of ideological transmission. The performances held, the books displayed, the festivals organized—they speak less to the diversity of local cultures and more to a national narrative calibrated in Beijing.
What is lost in this model is not visibility, but variance. True public culture is messy, plural, sometimes uncomfortable. It includes the absurd, the profane, the experimental. But in a system where “positive energy” is a prerequisite and “low taste” a moral offense, the avant-garde is often amputated before it stirs.
4. International Exchange: Soft Power or Semiotic Sovereignty?
Cultural diplomacy is a pillar of China’s global strategy. The expansion of Confucius Institutes, cultural pavilions at Belt and Road summits, multilingual broadcasts of Chinese opera and cinema—all aim to project a softer, humanized image of China to the world.
But this projection, too, is tightly controlled. The version of China being exported is curated: ancient, harmonious, disciplined. Missing from this export package is the multiplicity that exists within. The punk bands in Chengdu, the feminist artists in Guangzhou, the experimental writers of online fiction—these are rarely sent abroad under official sponsorship.
And there is a deeper irony: while China champions dialogue abroad, it remains cautious, even resistant, to cultural imports at home. Foreign films face quotas. Online platforms are filtered. International collaborations are encouraged—until they stray into politically sensitive terrain. Cultural diplomacy, then, becomes less about exchange and more about symbolic sovereignty—a way of drawing borders in the realm of ideas.
Conclusion: Cultural China or Cultural Choreography?
To be clear: China’s investment in culture is not inherently sinister. It has revived traditions, empowered creators, and offered alternatives to Western cultural hegemony. But when culture becomes a tool of governance, it must be scrutinized.
What we see today is not the death of Chinese culture, but its domestication. Its wild edges are trimmed, its contradictions resolved, its spontaneity replaced with strategy. It is curated not for its own sake, but for the stability and legitimacy of the state.
The risk is that in pursuing “cultural confidence,” China may silence the very voices that give culture its soul. A confident culture should not fear dissent. A strong civilization should welcome contradiction. Because real culture is not always patriotic. It is not always beautiful. But it is always human.
And that, more than GDP or global rankings, is the true measure of cultural greatness.
