Is Shaolin Kung Fu inferior to Tae-kwon-do?
Is Shaolin Kung Fu inferior to Tae-kwon-do?来自：http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200607/31/eng20060731_288400.html
Throughout the history, Shaolin Temple has always been the \"Mount Tai and the North Star\" of Chinese martial arts. However, a type of Korean sport named Taekwondo has quietly spread among many countries across the world in recent years, and seems to be stealing the popularity of Shaolin Kung Fu.
People can easily find from a simple comparison between Shaolin Kung Fu and Taekwondo from the fact that the Korean sport has been an Olympic event for years, but the Chinese martial arts still lingers outside the door of the games.
Back to 1960 when movie star Bruce Lee brought Chinese Kung Fu to the western stage and caught the attention of the world, Taekwondo has already become the common exercise of many westerners. We must acknowledge that such comparison cannot be comprehensive if it comes from certain opinions only. However, if from the angle of public diplomacy or soft power, the influence between the two does exist.
Countries who posses rich soft strength resources are not born as large nations with soft resources
Shaolin Temple is only a part of the splendid Chinese culture. Chinese culture can arouse the world's interest because of its inherent attraction and the distant aesthetic that has long been far away from western world. Apart from these, the international community has also paid close attention to China's possible development of soft power due to the growth of hard power in the country. For instance, the Wall Street Journal has published a report of 'The Rising Soft Power' in China.
However, a country rich in soft power resources is not necessarily an inborn nation of soft power. Modern and contemporary history have demonstrated that the two have no certain direct cause and effect relations during the development of soft power. In the history of international history, there has been no such soft power center that could swing the international political jargon system in several key regions of traditional culture such as East Asia, Aegean Sea region and the Two Rivers Valleys. There are mainly two reasons that could account for it: one is that these regions centralized many developing countries and the backwardness have hampered their images; the other is that culture is not a soft power, and whether it produces power depends on the publicity and application it.
In East Asia, the forerunner of soft power is Japan. Back to 1980s when Japan witnessed economic boom, the eastern Asian island country has become one of the few countries that is in line with western modern standard but meanwhile retains its own distinctive culture. It has the world's most patents, and its sales volume of books and music products have ranked second worldwide. Three Japanese companies were among the global top 25 transnational corporations. So far the fact that many youths have blind faith in products from Japan and South Korea shows that Japanese and Korean culture is in great demand in many countries.
China's soft power still remains at the primary stage of cultural attraction
According to the models of Joseph Nye, the originator of soft power, soft power can be divided into levels of cultural attraction, ideology or influence of political value, molding of international rules as well as capability of deciding a political subject.
From the focal attraction to manufacturing identity then to subject determination, soft power plays an increasingly important role. The leaders of soft power in East Asia regions including Japan and South Korea and will enter a phase that tries to find the values' influence after going beyond the level of cultural attraction. Such phase would make it possible to decide who would lead the Asian culture and the rights to political jargon in Asia. Comparatively speaking, China's soft power still rests in the primary stage of cultural attraction, and cannot even secure a winning post in the contest between Shaolin fist and Taekwondo.
It is an undeniable fact that the development of China's soft power is based on the solution of mutual dependence among packaging, promotion as well as functioning. First, a kind of cultural product needs good packaging from its initial stage to the final phase of becoming a key instrument of a national soft power. The reason why it is called soft power is that its content can produce a sense of identity and its form can be more easily accepted.
Secondly, whether the cultural products of certain country can serve as an effective measure for soft power depends on the internationalization of its products. Taekwondo is a typical example of this kind. The demonstration of cultural products and the export of cultural measures are believed to be soft power. Today China has shown off its rich cultural resources to the world, but still not set up an extensive export channel, which has resulted in the fact that Chinese Kung Fu is not so widely accepted overseas.
Lastly, soft power needs integration in terms of resources. It is a long process for soft powers to develop fully. No soft power can assume the responsibility for certain sectors. During the promotion of Taekwondo, Korean government, commercial institutions as well as non-governmental organizations employed a lot of mass media methods such as movie and TV, audiovisual products as well as websites, commercial means such as promotion sales and interpersonal promotion method such as Taekwondo clubs. The conformity of such channels helps to turn Taekwondo into a comprehensive cultural carrier, as well as a three-dimensional symbol of Korean cultural resources. This is one cause for soft power to become a type of strength, and China can draw experiences from such integration for promoting Chinese culture overseas.
Public diplomacy must be given top priority
More importantly, strategic planning has become the prerequisite for the development of soft power and even some western countries put forward the concept of \"strategic communication\" in the late 1990s. As a pattern of soft power, public diplomacy has become an international popular term.
Public diplomacy can exert national image, explain policy as well as change political agenda. However its true aim lies in the promotion of national interests and strengthening of national security through dialogue and communication. Public diplomacy reveals the true nature of soft power in various countries.
Until now, western countries still hold the large part of political jargon rights, which have effectively packed the western major values, ideology as well as cultural trend. The development of soft power has even exceeded the estimation of western scholars.
Joseph Nye said that it is easy for Serbs when wearing NBA T-shirts and drinking Coca-Cola to launch a military offensive against NATO troops, to have mixed feelings of the great penetration of the American soft power whilst marveling at the fact that the soft power has formed a system by themselves, while her law is still yet to be studied and developed.
Of course, the competition of soft power is not like a life-and-death struggle of hard power. Besides, today's international system is also creating a hard power formula of peaceful coexistence. The development of soft power in China requires patience and confidence.
On the battleground between Shao Lin Temple and Taekwondo, we cannot only witness the Shaolin Kung Fu that has just gone global, but also sense the huge challenge lying ahead for the soft power in China. Along with the growth of China's hard power, whether or not setting up soft power that matches with hard strength has become a modern task for Shaolin masters and a substantial threshold that China must cross.
By People's Daily Online
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