Building Soft Power? China in the Global Markets of Culture

Abstract

This paper analyzes the People’s Republic of China as an actor in global cultural markets. The first section reviews the existing conceptualization of culture as a component of international relations in its two dimensions: as a constitutive element of social subjects and as an instrument incorporated in a diplomatic strategy. The first deal swith the links at the level of civil society, the second understood as state´s soft power. The second section reveals China as a consumer and producer of cultural goods globally, its magnitude, growth, global economic impacts and the formation of a global cultural canon. The conclusions present public policy implications and avenues for future research.