The Herald (Zimbabwe)
06 December 2016
- RSIS
- Media Mentions
- Interrogating Chinese Literature in Africa
Interrogating Chinese Literature in Africa
Sino-African relations have garnered a great deal of public interest in recent decades. Commentary tends to focus on trade, economic investment and aid and is often negative in tone.Cultural exchange is a crucial domain of interaction, and one in which China is investing heavily.
China has a growing ambition to become a major world cultural power and to compete with Western cultural influence. If China aims to counter the cultural hegemony of the West, the translation and exporting of its literature plays a vital role.
The export of its cultural products is key if China is to gain visibility on the global stage. In 2006 the Chinese government announced a strategic five-year plan for cultural development. Numerous projects were launched to promote China’s publication exports. The most well-known of these is the China Book International programme. This is sponsored by the government to sell its printed media abroad.
As Chinese scholar Li Mingjiang has observed, the distribution of Chinese literature abroad is a tool for cultivating a better image of China” and correcting foreign misperceptions”.
IDSS / GPO / Online
