US pop culture a diplomatic tool

The US treats official diplomacy as a form of public diplomacy conducted through cultural diplomacy; it's a new strategy of Washington. The roots of American pop culture and the way it has flourished provides some illuminating insight into the seemingly vague relations between the charm of pop culture and officiousness of its cultural diplomacy.

There is no doubt that pop culture has played a key role in cleansing the US' negative image in a good part of the world. Many non-Americans dislike the US as a nation but like its pop culture, which proves the magnetic pull American pop culture has on people across the world. Pop culture has advanced the American way of life and American values in an intangible and rather inexpensive way, which is the ultimate objective of public diplomacy. And since the US uses pop culture products and channels to conduct cultural diplomacy, there is little doubt that its public diplomacy will succeed in fulfilling the goals of its foreign policy.

The intention of this analysis, however, is not to paint a positive picture of American pop culture per se, nor is it to laud the effectiveness of American cultural diplomacy in helping its public diplomacy achieve the goals of its foreign policy. Instead, the attempt is to present an objective analysis of the intricate and interesting relationship among American pop culture and US cultural and public diplomacy and how they combine to ultimately serve the US' national interests.

US political scientist Joseph Nye has said that the best means to achieve hard goals is soft power which can be best conveyed in cultural diplomacy and that if America still wishes to restore or maintain its positive global image, public diplomacy through cultural diplomacy should occupy a high place on its foreign policy agenda.

There is a lesson here for China. In conducting and promoting public diplomacy to fulfill its diplomatic goal of maintaining a peaceful international environment, China should use its rich cultural heritage to enhance its global image as a more open and diverse society. In fact, China has an advantage over America in this respect because its cultural wealth has a much longer history and is richer than that of the US.

The case study of the US provides some enlightening examples for China to emulate to enhance its global image in the age of globalization.

The world is bound to become more diverse and colorful with heterogeneous cultural ethos and traditions of different countries coming together to co-exist through cohesive exchanges and interactions. But such cultural exchanges must be conducted on an equal footing to ensure that they make continuous contribution to the building of a harmonious world by following the principle of mutual respect, tolerance and understanding.

The author is a professor on US culture studies at China Foreign Affairs University.

(China Daily 09/17/2013 page9)