Culture News
'Chinamaxxing', an Everest film and Saudi drama: culture as soft power, three ways
Three reports this week looked at how countries use culture to shape their image abroad.
The South China Morning Post asked whether Donald Trump's “Chinamaxxing” is boosting Beijing's soft power. It recalls Trump touring Beijing's Temple of Heaven in May as traditional Chinese music played, and a Gen Z social media trend that celebrates features of Chinese life such as high-speed trains.
“Trump, strange as it is to say, is Chinamaxxing.” — Julian Gewirtz, former Biden NSC official, via South China Morning Post
A second SCMP piece covered Everest: The Other Side, a US–China film that opened in 515 US cinemas on Friday and is due in 700 IMAX theatres in China on November 6, presented as a project its makers hope can nudge relations upward.
In Riyadh, Arab News reported that Abdulatif bin Mohammed Al-Abdulatif, head of Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Media Regulation, told the Saudi Film Confex that international experience shows the dramatic image conveyed of a country has “great positive effects”, including on tourism, trade and investment.
How each outlet framed it
- South China Morning Post — China's image in the US: a viral trend, a presidential visit to a heritage site, and a co-produced mountain film.
- Arab News — an official strategy: film and drama as tools to promote Saudi identity and draw visitors.
The difference is who drives it. In the SCMP's telling, China's image is being shaped partly by outsiders and social media; in Arab News, a regulator lays out a deliberate plan.
What we don't know yet: none of the reports measures whether these efforts change how many people visit either country.