The Strategic Values and Communicative Actions of Chinese Students for Sociological Korean Public Diplomacy

Abstract

The impact of interpersonal interaction (people contact) on the creating or breaking of a country's soft power is a key dynamic of sociological public diplomacy in this era of globalized people flow. A critical case study of the dynamic this paper examines Chinese students in Korea who once liked their host country, attracted by the appeal of Korean popular culture abroad (Hallyu), but dislike it as they interact with Korea's people and everyday culture and customs in the flesh. It also delves into their communicative actions in response to their strained contact experiences. To chart out the whole dynamic involving the Chinese, our study approaches it in both continuity and discontinuity with the experience of student sojourners in history. The conclusion of this investigation on the Chinese is both complex and troubling to Korea. Like their precedents in the past, the Chinese still harbor a prospect for recovering their once favorable feelings about their host country; however, this prospect has less chance to be realized as time passes. This paper explores the position that the experience of Chinese students would pose graver consequences and risks for Korea's soft power and argues the presence of foreign students is just the start of a dynamic long second-round sociological process for recalibrating real soft power.