Chinese Culture Products in International Culture Mobility

Zhu Ningjia＊

When mobility becomes the new normal for behavior and cognition,it is time to rethink concepts of international culture mobility and culture products. International culture mobility is composed of five variables with overlapping global space or dimensions. Chinese culture products are generated in the international culture production field.

1. Rethinking international culture mobility

Culture trade first occurs to people when mentioning international culture flow. Culture trade not only realizes exchange of culture products, but also providesmeasurable data for mobility. With the Internet development and expansion of modern global mobility in recent years, international culture flow has become richer and more frequent, and now incorporates cross-space mobility through population, signs, symbols and information.

Indian anthropologist Arjun Appadurai divides cross-border culture mobility into five global spaces; biological, technology, economic, cultural and political. Specifically they correspond to five landscapes; race, technology, finance, media and ideology, in which consistent race-based landscapes are created by immigrants, refuges, exiles, tourists and other migrant populations efficiently running global technology configurations that extend beyond national borders and establish technological landscapes, contribute to global currency speculation and funds transfer activity centers, create electronic media productions and capacity allocations of information transmissions including large scale narration program content and the visual images generated there from which constitute a media landscape, while governmental, non-governmental and even hegemonic forces produce ideology landscapes.

In Culture Mobility by Harvard University literature historian Stephen Greenblatt, culture mobility is viewed from five dimensions: (1)Mobility must be taken in a highly literal sense,and it means movement or mobility of liquid or gas.(2) Mobility studies should shed light on hidden as well as conspicuous movements. (3) Mobility studies should identify and analyze the “contact zones” where cultural goods are exchanged. (4)Mobility studies should account for tension between individual agency and structural constraint. (5)Mobility studies should analyze the sensation of rootedness.

Studies on international culture mobility conducted by both of these scholars were not restricted to culture trade only on the economic level.Instead, they care more about the core of culture creation—people and their position in the global culture production network. International culture mobility represents more extensive horizontal interactions in biological, technological, economic,cultural and political regards. In the meantime, it represents in-depth correlations between people, and people’s cultural recognition and diverse cultural contacts and interactions among the production fields of specific cultures, which include both the conspicuous and hidden impacts of culture,individual agency and structural constraint, and the sensation of rootedness.

2. Rethinking culture products

Rethinking culture products within culture mobility is to examine culture products through more extensive horizontal interactions in biological,technological, economic, cultural and political regards. Among all cultural products, the most creative and fundamental is humanity, as a species.Human socialization is a process in which a culture under certain time-space conditions shapes the people involved. Through such a process, humanity,originally only with biological significance, enriches itself and creates a particular time and spacebased cultural product—humanity itself. In other words, the creation and development of humanity as a cultural product is its creator’s, i.e. human’s imaginative creation of rules while accepting the regulations of a given time. It is precisely the reshaped human that is the most successful cultural product created by mankind. And it is precisely the exchange between people with different cultural backgrounds in a particular era that initiates the most active cultural communications in the international arena.

Such a change in perception of cultural products originates from aesthetics of acceptance, which is the first to propose the concept of imaginary readers engaged in creation. According to traditional artistic theories, authors and their readers are at the opposite ends, with the former responsible for creation and the latter for reading. Aesthetics of acceptance relates authors to their readers and uncovers readers’indirect participation in artistic creation through a feedback mechanism. According to the theory of artistic production, imaginary readers come into real existence, i.e. participating in actual artistic creation.Literary work is no longer just something to be read by readers, but also a product jointly created by an author and readers based on “text” communication.

In the international culture mobility field,cultural products are being constantly generated.The meaning of generation, value transmission and display of culture influence is far from being explained by trade. It relies on the interaction of the five forces; race, technology, finance, media and ideology, and it is constantly generated through time,scenario and place. It does not exist in a “certain place.” Instead, it is the product of interaction and collaboration, and its generation is influenced by such factors as politics, economics, society and technology. In the Internet era, the generation characteristics of a cultural product become more and more prominent, “because network is mainly about changeable mobility narration on events, ideas and knowledge” (Ascott, 2012, p.34). It is situated in the relationship network formed by ideas and images in constant mobility. People involved in production are shaped by mobile ideas and images network when creating meaning and value. People create a culture product, and are meanwhile shaped by culture creation.

Whether it is traditional spatial and temporal art or online co-creation art, culture product, “a selfsufficient entity” in people’s mindset, has emerged as a variable and floating culture production practice during the transformation and “rewriting”of people’s thinking. Among international culture mobility, mobility populations carrying historical culture are the most important culture production practitioners, as well as the biggest result of culture production practices.

3. Chinese culture products among international culture mobility

After redefining contemporary variations in international culture mobility and cultural products,interaction mechanisms and generation possibilities and the vitality of the Chinese culture products will be discussed in the context of the horizontal interactions and longitudinal interconnections of international culture mobility.

Horizontal interaction represents display of function of the five forces of race, technology,finance, media and ideology put forward by Appadura, and it is determined by their roles in the social structural forces. Under different spaces, their structural relations and positions will vary, which thus leads to variation of their status and roles in the culture generation. Interconnection represents indepth correlations of people’s culture recognition and diverse culture contacts and interactions when Greenblatt conducts human-oriented surveys of random culture creation subjects regarding the influence and actions by conspicuous and hidden cultures, individual agency and structural constraint.

3.1 Generation possibility and vitality of migrant populations

The most important cultural product among international culture exchange is migrant populations, who not only take cultural products from a region to other places of the world but also act as creators of culture. Migrant populations not only create cultural products, but also serve as cultural output spokesmen, and emerge themselves in the constantly growing product.

Migrant populations may be composed of immigrants, refugees, exiles, tourists and other types. Culture carried by migrant populations of different types in different periods, roles displayed,possibility and mode of exchange and collision conducted with residents in the destination are different and unique.

Large-scale population migrations were first accompanied by capital colonization, characterized by human trafficking. “Since the 1960s, new types of regional and intercontinental mobility of laborers emerged, production of refugees transferred from Europe to Latin America, Africa and Asia, and capability-based access systems encouraged highquality talents mobility” (Hoerder, 2013). As of the end of 2015, according to the Culture Time: First Global Map of Culture Creativity Industry released by the United Nations: Among culture talents mobility in the four corners of the world, there is talent mobility clogging between the southern and northern hemispheres, and developed and developing countries in the northern hemisphere.Population mobility of different types highlights the same principle, namely developed countries take the leading role in the global innovation strategy.Through culture accumulation and talent siphon effects, developed countries can provide guarantees of national development in terms of political legitimateness, economic superiority, leading technologies and talent resources suitability.

People flocked to developed countries, and countries with more development opportunities.Approximately 820,000 overseas students attend more than 4,000 American universities and colleges,among whom, more than 230,000 come from Mainland China. According to another set of data,in 2010, overseas Chinese were already more than 45 million. In 2012, there were 152,000 Chinese who had permanent residence in America, Canada,Australia and New Zealand. In the meantime,Chinese ready for emigration remain on the rise.According to the International Talents Blueprint:Chinese International Immigration Report (2014)published by CCG, as of 2013, Chinese overseas emigrants have reached 9,343,000, growing by 128.6% in 23 years; China is ranked No.4 at present,up from the world’s No.7 output of immigrants in 1990.

Such data shall not be reasons for withdrawing into isolationism. To the contrary, we shall be further opening-up, and encourage global mobility of talents. Overseas high-level talents shall be attracted to make due contributions to national development.These high-level talents may play an important role with respect to expanding industry innovation modes, promoting Chinese companies to expand internationally, guiding multi-national companies to make investment in Chinese development, and introducing advanced technology management.

The Belt and Road Initiative aims to promote the development of economic, social and cultural interactions in all the areas along the road based on equality and reciprocity. One of the important achievements of strategic development is lowering the threshold of entering and leaving of the personnel who live in the countries and cities along the Belt and Road. Based on the theory of sociology, population flow factors and efficiency are determined by the degree of difficulty to attract people to an area and the ability to access that area.The former is mainly the system threshold (including the culture, the customs and the language etc.) The latter is mainly the level of the developed (or the development opportunities). The Belt and Road Initiative will promote the flow of personnel and cultural communications in countries and cities all the way along the “Road.” What is more important is to realize equality and reciprocity in both the flow of personnel and the cultural intercourse. In other words, China will take on the responsibility and mission in the future development of the global economy and culture.

3.2 Generation possibility and vitality of technology innovation

Technology landscape of international culture mobility is presented as efficient global technology configuration that extends beyond the original border. “Global space thus formed has surpassed such metropolis as New York, London and Tokyo”(Beck, 2012, p.279). “Internet+” has not only sped up the global mobility of culture product and service,but also will emerge as the important force for industrial innovation, involvement in international labor divisions, promoting trade convenience and optimizing global resources allocations.

Culture Time: First Global Map of Culture Creativity Industry provides the first-time digital economy data: It was discovered in 2013 that among 11 sectors of the whole culture creativity industry,television still ranked No.1; however, change silently went on. Television stations cared more about viewer interaction, and more people were attracted to get involved in works of creation via social networks.According to the statistics on the U.K. culture industry in 2014, sales revenue of games surpassed music, and that of online games far exceeded online music and video. The Internet has caused and is causing international change of culture production and service.

On one hand, the Internet is born to be“irrelevant with distance.” By virtue of uniform access conditions, transaction rules, credit systems,IT services, finance and logistics systems, etc., it can help break the shackle of regional markets and form a substantial global uniform market; on the other hand, during Chinese enterprises’ engagement in global value chain specialization, they are confronted with double challenges. One is the tight blockade imposed by multinational corporations from developed countries on Chinese enterprises seeking technological innovation; the other is the fact that Chinese enterprises, lured by their enormous domestic market, lack the motivation for fundamental innovation and are therefore trapped at the low end of the global value chain.

For the past one hundred years, due to the inertia arising out of catching up with the global modernization, Chinese people are more content with the economy-driven cultural production as well as the statistical results that China is the biggest exporter of cultural products in the world. With the increasing globalization, it becomes very easy for horizontal utilization of foreign technology.Besides, technology imitation and utilization can help maximize market gains. Due to the dual action by innovation difficulty and market temptation,enterprises used to give up technological innovation when they chose to pursue gains and avoid losses,which might finally lead to the possibility of content innovation. Under such circumstances,more efforts should be made to creatively utilize the advantages of space and time to connect human beings with terminals and cultures both in the past and future and develop a number of unique industry integration approaches to expand the value chain.Many Chinese enterprises, scared by possible risks of innovation and driven by current profits, are reluctant to innovate and therefore remain at the low end of global value chain.

Keys to make technology innovations shall be no fear of innovation difficulty, and resistance to temptations posed by the world’s largest overseas and domestic markets. We shall be proactive to lead the global tide in certain fields and brave to make innovations. Moreover, the reality of the network evolution provides the conditions that will not only establish for the subject consciousness, but also implement for the innovation.

Network evolves with the change of time. It is not only the evolution of the computer world in cyberspace, but also includes the evolution of the online world which is parallel to cyberspace. The result of evolution is not only expanding/developing the geographical and physical space of the world, but also is the increase of the number of network nodes and channels, namely the increase of the intensity of the network. The enhancement of network density should be attributed to strengthened connections among things and a larger group of participating creators. The expansion of cyberspace enables more entities to participate in the innovations of the global value chain.

The expansion of the cultural space and communications space, increased access to communication objects means there are more and more channels though which to get the resources. It not only provides a possibility for the establishment of the differential, the realization of equality of many network nodes as the main body, but also provides the communication subject and increases the channel for the spread of the cultural tolerance and influence, and provides a variety of choices for the innovation, the risk and the opportunities. Also, the enhancement of network density and the expansion of innovation space give rise to sharing, cooperation and joint development and at the same time gradually and imperceptibly eliminates multinational corporations’ monopoly of technological innovation,thus raising new requirements and possibilities of cooperation in innovation among countries and promoting the formation of a global network of cooperative innovation.

3.3 Possibility and vitality of culture generation in global trade

It’s normal to conduct cultural trade among international culture exchange. “Global trade can enable individuals to shed ‘location restriction’ to a large extent” (Cowen, 2007, p.16). “The period from 1800 to the first World War was an unprecedented international leap-forward. Westerners began to use ships, railways and motor vehicles for the replacement of chariots and slow boats. International trade, investment and immigrants’ quantity rapidly increased. Above all, the 19th century was an era of extraordinary innovation. Exchange of cultural ideas between Europe and America promoted culture type and quality development instead of turning all matters into homogeneous waste” (Cowen,2007, p.16). We should not neglect the American standing taken by the narrator. On one hand, they released cultural exchange and diversity, a positive role exerted on European and American cultural development in that era. On the other hand, they neglected multiple inequalities contained in the seemingly liberal and equal cultural trade.

According to the Creative Economy Report 2008 edited by UNCTAD, China has emerged as the biggest global exporter of creative products, and reached 61.3 billion USD. China remained as the global No.1, and the exports reached 84.8 billion USD. According to the Assessment Report to Protect and Promote Diversity of Culture Representation Types released last December, in 2013, among cultural product exports totaling 212.8 billion USD,the export of Chinese culture products was 60.1 billion USD, accounting for 28.2%, namely for the most recent ten years, China has always been the biggest cultural product exporter. However,such shining data does not match with the global influence of Chinese cultural product at all. Besides,numbers for the developing countries with respect to cultural service exports was indeed poor, which only accounted for 1.6% of cultural service exports worthy of 128.5 billion USD in 2012.

Enhance the vitality and possibilities of Chinese cultural products among global trade creation. Aside from breaking from the low-end lockout among the global industry chain, we shall strengthen our inner strength, enhance cultural product quality and forcefully develop cultural services so that the charm of Chinese cultural products can be displayed.

In theory, cultural diversity is the basis of biological diversity. The protection of cultural diversity is based on the equality of diverse cultural exchanges and trade. The equality of diverse cultural exchanges and trade is of great significance for the flow of culture. The lack of equality in the field of cultural exchanges and trade means the strong in the field of communication and trade will eat or remove the weak. In the end, diversity will be replaced by a few monopolies. Cultural flows in the field of cultural trade need to balance free trade and cultural diversity, and to enhance the overall competitiveness of China’s cultural products and services.

In fact, it puts forward a new request on our country’s cultural innovation. The solution is to invite the public to participate in the cultural creation process. Namely, to engaged the wisdom of the group in creativity and creation. This will strengthen the construction of the network of cultural space,including the real and the virtual. The culture and trade itself will become a dense innovation network.

Under the background of global culture, many dense networks, by using the respective advantages of all sides and the various complementary kinds of professional knowledge, will promote the spread of different cultures and the exchange of diverse cultures. A wide range of network connections can give a variety of advantages to the parties to the organization which is composed of network nodes. Culture and trade will implement flow diffusion, equal treatment in the many nodes that are interlinked yet are different from each other.

3.4 Possibility and vitality of culture ideology generation

When the political patterns of nations don’t present fundamental change, the nation clustering as the political and cultural entity presents scattered clustering distribution, namely global culture-based clustering based on discrete space. Such discrete clustering, on one hand urges cultural tolerance,and people are ready to accept multiple identities for themselves and others; on the other hand, the strengthening of nationalism helps to cross all cultural boundaries, and emerge as a strong cohesive social power.

Taking the national position, we are happier to see immigrants’ recognition of their own national cultures, historical and traditional imagination. Many nations have built their own cultural transmission institutions in other countries: China’s Confucius Institute, U.K. Culture Association, American Fulbright Overseas Education & Exchange Program,etc. They serve, in essence, as the new normal for building global patterns of national cultures, and attempt to present a political, ideological and cultural strategic layout with respect to clustering alliances featuring spiritual unions among scattered space. In the meantime, they also assume the role of amassing national and cultural soft strength beyond national political organization.

Means to realize ideological influence are diverse. All nations shall reciprocally hold culture years, book exhibitions, bi-yearly exhibitions and other cultural exchanges. Besides, such activities as foreign aid, international diplomacy, news media,sports, entertainment, museum exhibitions and academic exchanges, etc. shall be held.

We shall learn from peers in Europe, America,and South Korea, in particular. We shall learn from them in terms of production levels, managerial experience, especially how to perfectly combine western production techniques and traditional oriental culture. Besides, we shall expand global markets and widen cultural influence via local strategy expansion. Based on the corresponding positions and roles, individuals will be able to easily cope with relations between cultural convention and innovation.

We shall not gain global market share by selfrenunciation. To shape a wrong oriental image will deprive us of our due global influence.

We shall learn to dissolve contradiction and conflicts based on respecting reciprocal cultures and realities and refuse segregation by the exercise of a national flag. We shall be confident enough to speak highly of our own culture and affirm our own cultural edges and special values. We shall realize a cultural landscape featuring harmony based on different cultural resources and cultural identities.Of course, expansion of migrant cultural product influence is ultimately related to national strength and economic development.

(Editor: Yan Yuting)

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