Today, the United States is deemed to be the loser while China is the winner. The rivalry between the two is near legendary. The way of American life has been promoted since the end of World War II. We all have taken something from American culture, ranging from politics and economics to daily practices. In daily life, music, films, talking styles, clothing styles and hairstyles can be listed as several examples. That's why American culture has more or less affected us all in some way.
Cultural and linguistic diffusion is an ingredient of being considered an influential power – if not a superpower. The spread of English over the world and Russian in Central Asia are the greatest examples of cultural and linguistic propagation in which non-native English and Russian speakers get firsthand information while providing the upper hand for native platforms to reach out to the world in their own languages and control the emotional transitions of individuals and groups of people.
Primarily, the Chinese outshining developments in all sectors have fascinated people across the planet. The achievements in trade, innovations and technology turn out to be the magnetizing fields that lead people to develop more curiosity about China. It will be noteworthy to analyze briefly how the Chinese culture competes with the American culture on the world stage.
American culture has gone global with its ideological and political stance, which has been acknowledged by the majority of people on a global scale, along with its technological superiority. The global political sympathy toward American values paved the way for deeper cultural exchanges between the Americans and others.
We still enjoy watching many artificial heroes from Hollywood. In American films, we used to see actors holding a radio on their shoulders while walking on the street in half-worn jeans. And large segments of the world population still follow these kinds of trends in everyday life. American food chains have expanded remarkably around the globe. There are thousands of American fast food stores in China as well. The American hamburger, for example, is one of the most popular foods in the world and is now a global dish. Besides, English is the primary world language.
On the other side, Chinese culture goes global through its technological progress, which is an overriding factor in contrast to ideological and political positions. Taking the number of Chinese language learners as a primary focus. Almost 100 universities teach Chinese language courses worldwide, while approximately 600 Chinese Confucius Institutes around the world promote Chinese civilization to millions of people universally. The demand for learning the Chinese language is overwhelmingly increasing. In addition to this, restaurants serving Chinese dishes are also on the rise. When talking about Chinese food, the first dish that comes to mind is usually noodles. It is common nowadays to come across people who like to use chopsticks while eating Chinese food. However, it seems that a greater amount of people still do not follow the ways of Chinese life as they do American culture.
Two questions arise in my mind regarding Chinese culture, which is truly a unique civilization. Does China not follow the American style to promote Chinese culture to others as the Americans did directly or indirectly? Or are people not fond of Chinese culture in general?
Yes, lately, they do frequently, such as promoting Chinese abroad, changing film content in the Chinese film industry, actor preferences and transferring well-known Chinese-origin figures. We should not be surprised if we start seeing Chinese artificial heroes saving the world in movies because using perception management is an indispensable skill in today’s world – debuting external, internal allegations, and instilling ideas and so on. And China is aware of it and mastering the skill.
In a film, one of China's actors fights with one of the greatest American boxers, and there is no winner. In a psychological way, the message to the audience is equivalency in strength.
From my point of view, people are cognizant of the change, wonder about Chinese culture and welcome technological Chinese innovations. But, in some eyes, the Chinese system looks too strict, unsocial and gloomy. This is actually an indication of how ideological and political perception works.
Will China outpace America culturally where the American dream turns into the Chinese dream someday?
It seems that the Chinese global cultural impact is not as swift as America's, except for linguistic expansion. Nevertheless, we can claim that it is just the preliminary balance shift in the cultural axis as well. We may not see people who do not wear, think or enjoy the Chinese way but observe more people preferring to use Chinese technological gadgets and to learn the Mandarin language rather than other languages.
If the high rate of learning the Chinese language remains the same, the cultural interaction between China and others will be glamorized too. The outcomes of this interaction may bring a new phrase and slogan in globalization where the Chinese language may outpace English. For instance, using short Chinese characters in texting each other like we do now using “OK or Oki” in the Turkish language. Thus, language is a paramount key for cultural exchanges, penetration and influence.
China has realized the significance of language in the international arena in an exceptional way. Promoting Chinese culture abroad has been in the leadership’s orbit and turned into an extraordinary component of strategic and vital purpose, which Beijing anticipates the world accepts, approves and adopts China and its way of living.
