Heritage as soft power: Japan and China in international politics

ABSTRACT

The recent development of heritage industries and national heritage promotions in non-Western countries opens a new space for international cooperation and competition in ways that directly link to the power-political relations between states. What motivates these countries to accelerate their efforts to promote their cultural heritage internationally? Are such dynamics different from how cultural heritage is constructed and used in Western countries? This study conceptualises heritage as soft power in terms of culture, values and foreign policies, and by focusing on Japan and China, it examines the ways and motives of using cultural heritage as soft power. Although Japan and China are distinctly different countries, both share a remarkably similar approach to the construction and promotion of national heritage when participating in international heritage platforms. The present study’s findings suggest that the promotion of cultural heritage is not only a feature of nation-building and nation-branding but also feeds into global and regional competitions over the attainment of cultural and moral supremacy.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural heritage
• cultural diplomacy
• historical narratives
• nation-branding
• nation-building
• soft power

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. By cultural heritage, we refer to the sites, objects and practices that were manufactured by the people in the past for present and future purposes. In this article, we focus on the cultural heritage authorised by the states and professionals.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ryoko Nakano

Ryoko Nakano is a Professor in the Faculty of Law at Kanazawa University, Japan. She was formerly Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore. Her areas of interests comprise memory of war, the politics of security and identity, and conflicts and cooperation in East Asia. She has published articles on global norm diffusion, heritage politics, and Japanese perspectives of international relations. She received her Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations from the University of Oxford.

Yujie Zhu

Yujie Zhu is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies, the Australian National University. He received his PhD in Anthropology from Heidelberg University, Germany. His research focuses on ethical and political issues that emerge through cultural heritage, memory and tourism. His recent books include Heritage Politics in China (2020, co-authored) and Heritage and Romantic Consumption in China (2018). He also co-edited Heritage and Religion in East Asia (2021) and Politics of Scale: New Directions in Critical Heritage Studies (2018). He serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Anthropological Research.