My thesis paper mainly focuses on the China cultural diplomacy and its soft power policy. China¡¦s economic reforms have transformed the international status. China is raising power recently. However China suffered the question about the political validity and the doubt of China threat, in order to keep maintaining a peaceful international environment, China has learned to use soft issues to serve its national interests. Cultural soft power is the best choice for China in such situation. According to Joseph Nye¡¦s idea, soft power is attracting force derived mainly from intangible resources such as national culture, political values, and its foreign policies. This thesis discovered that Beijing although wants to remold the civilized great nation image, it has to deal with the domestic belief crisis. Even, China on the one hand must construct the opening national image; on the other hand still continue to suppress the domestic Internet opinion. The Chinese Communist Party which cultivates the soft power is the destroyer. China ignores that the cultural diplomacy intrinsic essence is to sell the truth. China packs the national image with the cultural soft power without thinking of the national prestige. Although China repeatedly emphasizes the harmonious peace, the international society is still filled with anxiety about the China's power.

This thesis examines the operations of the Confucius Institute in contemporary Thailand. By the end of 2012, there were already 400 Confucius Institutes around the world, 13 of which are in Thailand. It took the Confucius Institute less than a decade to rapidly expand around the globe. Despite its putative neutral objective of promoting Chinese culture and language globally, this thesis argues that the Institute is closely affiliated with the Chinese government, and is in fact part of the Chinese government’s broader hegemonic project. I define hegemony as dominance that rests on generally based consent and is established by social forces occupying a dominant role within a state that are projected outward on a world scale. I look at three aspects of hegemony: the negotiation of norms, the conferring of common interests and mutual benefits to members, and the lived social experience through selective and dominant cultural symbols. This thesis presents empirical data that was collected during three months of field research in Thailand in 2012. It shows that the Confucius Institute attempts to create a norm of international harmony which has its roots in the Chinese government’s domestic policy to construct a harmonious society by 2020. Furthermore, this thesis illustrates that students and people who are involved with the Confucius Institute perceive their participation as resulting in mutual benefits that are “real.” Their perceptions are related to international policies that show Thailand as benefiting by subordinating to China’s political and economic dominance. Lastly, cultural public events organized by the Confucius Institute demonstrate how hegemony is a lived social experience for participants. / Graduate / 2019-12-30 / 0615 / 0616

The Confucius Institute has recently become more prevalent in political discussions and news headlines. Questions regarding its operations, influence from the Chinese government, and programing are common topics in news reports about the institution. The rise of China in the global economy has caused demand for language and culture education and the Confucius Institute has attempted to fill this demand. The purpose of this nonexperimental quantitative study was to investigate the perceptions of K-12 school and higher education employees that work closely with a Confucius Institute program in the state of Tennessee by exploring issues that have been presented in current research and reports, and to identify alignment and misalignment of these perceptions between higher education and K-12 settings in Tennessee. The study surveyed 42 higher education personnel and 58 K-12 personnel from Tennessee educational institutions that work with Confucius Institute programing. The survey consisted of 18 items that centered around 10 research questions. Quantitative data for six of the research questions were analyzed using a one sample t-test. A 5 point Likert-type scale was used to measure responses with a 3 point neutrality rating. Two research questions data were analyzed utilizing an independent samples t-test and two research questions were ranking questions that were coded in a point system to understand current perceptions. The results indicated that personnel interacting with Confucius Institute programing in the state of Tennessee generally found it to be positive regarding adhering to academic freedom principles, local control principles, media perception, and meeting the needs of the local institution or school. Higher education personnel listed political environment, alignment with institutional or school needs, educational benefit to students, and national media coverage as challenges facing the Confucius Institute. K-12 participants listed Chinese teacher turnover, Chinese teacher training, and alignment with institutional or school needs as challenges. Higher education personnel listed educational benefit to students, programing quality, Chinese teacher training, and resources as benefits connected to Confucius Institute programing. K-12 participants listed educational benefit to students, alignment with institutional or school needs, curriculum, and programing quality as benefits.

As the People’s Republic of China begins to accumulate influence on the international stage through strategic usage of soft power, the history and application of soft power throughout the history of China will be important to future scholars of the politics of Beijing. This study will examine Beijing and its government official’s perceptions of its soft power and how there have been historical parallels between the modern People’s Republic of China and the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in regard to soft power politics and China’s search for its legitimacy as a rising global power. This study will use two examples that have similar parallels: The eunuch admiral Zheng He (1371-1433) and his journey’s through the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Middle East and the Confucius Institute, a teaching and cultural exchange program under the auspices of the Office of Chinese Language International, known colloquially as Hanban, an organization under the direct control of the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership. What connects these two topics is the subject of soft power, a term coined by Joseph S. Nye, relating to the kind of power wielded by countries that does not involve military force and uses a “Charm Strategy” to support favorable treatment amongst its trading partners. Zheng He sailed the oceans to neighboring countries, in an attempt to give legitimacy to Ming China through the imperial tribute trade system. The Confucius Institute continues that legacy today, teaching a view of China that is shaped in Beijing. I will show the parallels between this historical figure and that of the Confucius Institute, showing that the pursuit of soft power is not a recent phenomenon in Chinese politics but a theory and a motivation that has existed in China since medieval times in China’s endless search for legitimacy in the eyes of its neighbors. I will be researching the life and journeys of Zheng He, along with the controversies surrounding the Confucius Institute and how all of these factors relate to China attempting to re-instate a legacy that the nation has was lost over since the nineteenth century’s “Century of Humiliation”. This loss of prestige was a result of European colonial power’s ambitions in the area. I will also use evidence to prove the importance of Confucianism in regard to the development of soft power in China. As China seeks to find its legitimacy, we will see that this has been some centuries in the making and plays a crucial part of Chinese politics today. The re-assertion of China’s place in the world as a rising world power will have geopolitical implications for decades to come.

Harvard University professor Joseph Nye divided a country¡¦s comprehensive national power into hard power and soft power. A country¡¦s national interest ovelap each country and the interaction with countries become more frequent and close under the globalization. A country not only pursueds its own hard power, but develops its soft power. With soft power has become the core value in the international society, the effect of soft power has become the key stratergy to a country¡¦s foreign relations. Moreover, soft power has been China¡¦s foreign relations strategy. This paper analyzes how China uses foreign aid policy and Confucius Institute to achieve the efficacy of soft power. To analyze China¡¦s foreign aid policy and Confucius Institute¡¦s overall arrangement stratergy, and compare the different efficacy of soft power of the role of foreign aid policy and Confucius Institute. China¡¦s economic grows fast since 1978, but how to avoid the other countries fear and misgiving is a big challeange for Chinese government. Chinese government emphasizes peaceful development and develops a country¡¦s soft power to build more advantageous international environment.

There are currently over 300 Confucius Institutes in nearly 100 countries around the world. The fast rise of the Confucius Institute since its inception in 2004 has attracted attention from both political and academic arenas. Recent research on the Confucius Institute has focused on China's goal to increase its soft power through this establishment. The objective of this Master's thesis is to explore the nature of the partnership between Chinese and Canadian universities through the Confucius Institute. Specifically, three Canadian Confucius Institutes are selected for the case studies. This interdisciplinary research uses Constructivism from International Relations and Internationalization of Higher Education as the theoretical framework for analysis. Data collection involves interviewing key administrative staff from each site along with a review of secondary resources such as online and print literature. Significance of key findings and suggestions for future research are provided in the conclusion of this thesis.

There are currently over 300 Confucius Institutes in nearly 100 countries around the world. The fast rise of the Confucius Institute since its inception in 2004 has attracted attention from both political and academic arenas. Recent research on the Confucius Institute has focused on China's goal to increase its soft power through this establishment. The objective of this Master's thesis is to explore the nature of the partnership between Chinese and Canadian universities through the Confucius Institute. Specifically, three Canadian Confucius Institutes are selected for the case studies. This interdisciplinary research uses Constructivism from International Relations and Internationalization of Higher Education as the theoretical framework for analysis. Data collection involves interviewing key administrative staff from each site along with a review of secondary resources such as online and print literature. Significance of key findings and suggestions for future research are provided in the conclusion of this thesis.

abstract: Universities have been increasingly engaged in international collaborations with peer institutions overseas. In recent years, Confucius Institutes have emerged as a new model of collaboration between American universities and Chinese universities. In an attempt to identify factors contributing to successful international university collaborations, this study used the case study method and focused on one Confucius Institute between MMU, an American University, and ZZU, a Chinese university, and intended to identify factors leading to the success of the MMU-ZZU Confucius Institute collaboration. The study investigated the MMU-ZZU Confucius Institute collaboration within the framework of the MMU-ZZU institutional partnership. Based on data collected from the institutional documents, interviews, site visits and news reports, this study examined the experiences and perceptions of the university's stakeholders involved in creating and sustaining this particular Confucius Institute, including stakeholders at the program level, at the college level, and at the institutional level both at MMU and ZZU. Using the glonacal agency heuristics framework, the MMU-ZZU Confucius Institute collaboration was a result of joint forces of stakeholders at the program level, at the college level, and at the institutional level from ZZU and MMU. Stakeholders, no matter what level they are and which institution they are affiliated with, had to navigate through the significant differences between them to develop synergy to be successful. Synergy, including vertical synergy developed among stakeholders within each institution and horizontal synergy developed among stakeholders between institutions, turned out to be critical to the success of the MMU-ZZU CI. The study concluded that synergy in leadership, organizational contexts, stakeholders' resources, and the synergy in the MMU-ZZU Confucius Institute collaboration and the MMU-ZZU institutional partnership, led to the success of the MMU-ZZU Confucius Institute collaboration. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2012

This thesis examines the role of the cultural discourse on the indigenous religious traditions of China and their place within an officially sanctioned construction of Chinese culture. It starts by examining the concept of culture as it developed in the modern era, its place within the construction of national identities, and the marginalizing effects this has on certain members of national populations. Next it turns to the development of the cultural discourse within China from the mid-1800s to the Cultural Revolution, highlighting the social and legal transformations as they restricted and reframed the practice and articulation of religious traditions in mainland China. Following these early articulations of a cultural discourse in China and the subjugation of religious traditions to secular standards of legitimation, it examines the official presentations and governmentally sanctioned forms of the Daoist tradition in post-Mao China during a “cultural revival,” through an analysis of official publications and online presentations. Finally, it examines the way teachers and administrators package Chinese culture for a foreign audience through the Confucius Institute. This thesis argues that, despite greater freedom to explore indigenous traditions previously written off as “superstitious” within the cultural revival of contemporary China, the official cultural discourse in China continues to operate within the parameters of a modern cultural identity that marginalizes ritualistic forms of religion, allowing these religious forms to survive in an official space only as exotic images, sanitized and secularized activities, or ethical ideals.

本文從中國所處「外環境」與「內環境」去了解中國建構軟權力政策動機與中國當前文化外交的運作模式與施行狀況並發現，中國在1978年走向經濟改革開放後，對內政權合法性遭質疑，對外則有中國威脅論當道；以馬列主義為思想主體的意識型態開始動搖，歐美挾著豐沛經濟實力，向中國大舉輸出資本文化產品，推動文化軟權力的確是中國不得不然，也是必走的道路。 本文同時發現，北京雖然想重塑文明古國和文化大國的形象，但中國國內普遍存在的信仰危機問題，執政當局卻仍無法克服。甚至，中國一方面要構築正面、開放的國家形象，一方面卻仍持續緊縮國內網際網路言論、打壓禁書，可以說，中共是「軟權力建設的主導者，同時也是破壞者」。 中國在推展文化外交忽略最重要的一點：文化外交的內在本質是「推銷真相」(sell the truth)，，中國用文化軟權力來包裝國家形象，但卻忽略了中國品牌背後的「國家信譽」，雖然中國頻頻強調和諧和平，國際社會猶有疑慮，無法百分之百認同中國，中國對內對外的作為出現嚴重落差。中國愈強調要施行文化軟權力，愈凸顯出中國文化軟權力的侷限，中國走向看似光明的大國崛起道路，卻隱隱浮現陰影。