{"id":56737,"date":"2023-09-20T12:18:35","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T04:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinamediaproject.org\/?p=56737"},"modified":"2023-09-21T11:09:42","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T03:09:42","slug":"a-new-prize-for-chinese-influence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinamediaproject.org\/2023\/09\/20\/a-new-prize-for-chinese-influence\/","title":{"rendered":"Gilding the Panda"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When it comes to major international film awards, Rotterdam has its Tiger, Berlin has its Golden Bear, and for decades running the most iconic film award in the Chinese-speaking film world has been Taiwan\u2019s Golden Horse<\/a>. Today, in a bid to expand its global cultural influence, China will award its own animal-themed film prize in the western city of Chengdu. Say hello to the Golden Panda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winners of the biennial prize, awarded in four categories (film, television, documentary, and animation), will take home gleaming trophies, each \u201ca cute panda engraved on the top of bamboo joints, which represents the concept of steadily rising quality,\u201d according<\/a> to the state-run Global Times.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike its namesake, a creature that reproduces with notorious difficulty, the Golden Panda seems to have been born precipitously. With no signaling of plans on the global festival circuit in 2022, the host of the event, the People\u2019s Government of Sichuan Province, announced the prize only on March 25<\/a>. The narrow application window closed just one month later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/div>
The Golden Panda Awards trophy poses between a pair of festival mascots this month<\/a> in Chengdu. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In May and June, China tried to generate excitement internationally by coordinating launch events<\/a> in Hong Kong, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro<\/a>. The buzz, however, barely reached a murmur. None of the world\u2019s major film industry publications seem to have taken notice, and as the festivities kick off this week, mentions of \u201cGolden Panda\u201d or \u201cPanda d\u2019Or\u201d are to be found only in a spate of enthusiastic reports from Chinese state media \u2014 discounting ubiquitous online listings for Chinese restaurants from French Polynesia to Simi Valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why are you hearing about the Golden Panda Awards from the China Media Project, and not from Empire<\/em> or The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials at Center Stage<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Haste and lack of professionalism in the planning is likely one important reason for the lack of industry buzz. According to domain registration data<\/a>, the official website of Golden Panda Awards was created on February 7 this year, which suggests plans were hurried through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike its namesake, a creature that reproduces with notorious difficulty, the Golden Panda seems to have been born precipitously. <\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Look more closely at the promotional events in Hong Kong, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro, and you also spot a gaping issue of perception. No filmmakers were seemingly involved, deepening the sense that this was about neither audiences nor auteurs, but rather about the Chinese state. According to People’s Daily Online, the event in Brazil was addressed by Tian Min (\u7530\u654f), China\u2019s consul general, as well as Fu Siquan (\u5085\u601d\u6cc9), vice minister of Sichuan\u2019s propaganda department. There was a lot of talk<\/a> about \u201cpromoting cultural exchange in film and television.\u201d But how many Brazilian filmmakers were present? Zero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its June report on the promotion events in Hong Kong and Paris, the official Sichuan Dail<\/em>y newspaper noted only that the Hong Kong event had included Lu Xinning (\u5362\u65b0\u5b81), the number-two official in the central government\u2019s Liaison Office, along with Hong Kong\u2019s culture and tourism chief, Kevin Yeung (\u6768\u6da6\u96c4), who has been one of the most vocal proponents<\/a> in the SAR of Xi Jinping\u2019s external propaganda catchphrase, \u201ctelling China\u2019s story well.\u201d In Paris, one of the world\u2019s great cities of cinema, the planners managed to score attendance from UNESCO’s assistant director-general for culture, Ernesto Ottone Ramirez \u2014 who, incidentally, is Chilean \u2014 but not from a single filmmaker, apparently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps more damningly on the planning side, the June report mentioned that \u201cprize selections will take place from September 23-24.\u201d Only on August 26, three weeks ago, was it publicly reported<\/a> in Chinese state media that \u201cthe prize selections for the Golden Panda Awards will take place from September 19-20.\u201d Come again, festival organizers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the professional film circuit, such a four-day shift in the schedule announced less than a month before the event would be humiliating news. In this case, it shows us that the organizers never seriously cared for international publicity, not in the professional sense. The publicity needed internally<\/em> \u2014 to score points with higher-ups for advancing China\u2019s \u201cinternational communication\u201d \u2014 was something officials in Sichuan were always at liberty to manufacture on their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starring Sichuan\u2019s Propaganda Department<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Sichuanese official coverage of the event swings another illuminating beam of light onto the nature of the Golden Panda Awards. Aside from a smattering of output in English from CGTN, the international broadcasting arm of the state-run China Central Television, most all the videos<\/a> available across social media platforms come from \u201cSharing Sichuan,\u201d a YouTube account whose motto is “experiencing China via Sichuan eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSharing Sichuan\u201d is one of several official accounts on overseas social media operated by something referred to as the Sichuan International Communication Center (SICC). As it happens, this is a new office under the provincial propaganda department and the CCP\u2019s official Sichuan Daily <\/em>that is meant to consolidate<\/a> media resources to more effectively \u201cbuild an international communication matrix, and continuously improve patterns of large-scale foreign propaganda.\u201d The mandate, laid out in late 2020 as part of the province\u2019s response<\/a> to China\u2019s 14th<\/sup> Five-Year Plan, includes using “major economic and cultural exchange events to assist in enlarging propaganda and promotion, vividly telling the Sichuan chapter of China\u2019s story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/div>
An English-language video<\/a> from the SICC interviews foreign exchange students after a pre-arranged screening at the Golden Panda Awards.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This language puts the Golden Panda Awards in their proper context, as an event intended primarily to advance Sichuan\u2019s external propaganda objectives. Speaking to the Huaxi Metropolis Daily<\/em>, a major tabloid under Sichuan Daily<\/em>, China Film Critics Association President Rao Shuguang (\u9976\u66d9\u5149) indicated as much when he said the Golden Pandas were \u201can important way to expand the international influence of Chinese films,\u201d and \u201cachieve better international dissemination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the language also clues us into an important overarching trend in CCP propaganda, namely the mobilization of provincial media groups to serve the broader external propaganda goals of the party-state. Sichuan\u2019s SICC is one of at least 11 such \u201cinternational communication centers\u201d (\u56fd\u9645\u4f20\u64ad\u4e2d\u5fc3) formed since 2020. Six of these have been formed only since May of this year, responding to instructions<\/a> on \u201cadvancing propaganda and ideology work\u201d laid out by Xi Jinping in 2016<\/a> (and most recently in May 2021<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the summer<\/a>, these ICCs \u2014 as you will hear us call them here on out at CMP \u2014 created a mutual association to better coordinate work nationwide. The process of integrating the ICCs both horizontally and vertically (with central state media) is clearly a strategy in the CCP\u2019s remaking of its overall propaganda matrix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As is often the case with China\u2019s efforts at international communication, the results are mixed, largely because of shortcomings in planning and professionalism coded politically into the DNA of such efforts \u2014 their \u201cred genes,\u201d to appropriate a CCP catchphrase. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Golden Panda Awards . . . . [are] intended primarily to advance Sichuan\u2019s external propaganda objectives. <\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One clear example of the sub-par is the SICC\u2019s recruitment of foreign exchange students<\/a> in Sichuan to comment on the Golden Panda Awards in an effort to demonstrate the event\u2019s international nature. This ethically problematic tactic<\/a> is not only common in China, but in some cases has been formalized through cooperation agreements such as that struck earlier this year<\/a> between the CCP-run China Media Group and Jiangxi\u2019s Nanchang Aviation University, which defined foreign students as \u201cresources\u201d for external communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that ICCs are getting off the ground, tasked in some cases with regional work, such as in Southeast Asia (see my recent piece<\/a> in Commonwealth<\/em>), we can expect to see more creative approaches to the CCP\u2019s external propaganda, through social media accounts outside China that are branded non-transparently (\u201cCenter<\/a>\u201d and \u201cC-Video\u201d are two more SICC labels).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Civilized You Are!<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One final elucidating note on the Golden Panda Awards deals with their framing as an event of civilizational proportions, in keeping with China\u2019s focus since last year\u2019s 20th National Congress on \u201ccivilization\u201d as a source of leadership legitimacy at home and soft power appeal abroad [See “China’s ‘Xivilizing’ Mission<\/a>“].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Golden Pandas, we are told by the Global Times<\/em>, \u201care committed to promoting exchanges and mutual learning among global civilizations.” They are, says the original announcement<\/a> for the prize, about \u201cbuilding a community of shared destiny for mankind\u201d and promoting \u201ccivilizational exchange.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/div>
Fun Fact: <\/strong>Since 2019, the government of Sichuan has also given out Golden Panda Awards separately both for online literature<\/a> (left) and “international communication” through television<\/a> (right). Are we reaching golden panda saturation? <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This language places the festivities happening today in Chengdu solidly within the context of legitimacy formation for Xi\u2019s unprecedented third leadership term. It is no coincidence that the Golden Pandas were initiated just five days after Xi Jinping\u2019s keynote speech<\/a> at the CCP\u2019s Dialogue with World Political Parties in Beijing, during which he unveiled his Global Civilization Initiative (GCI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The focus on \u201ccivilization\u201d might seem just to put a grandiose patina on that simpler word, \u201cculture.\u201d But for the CCP in the present political moment, it is so much more, wrapped up in the recent claim that Xi Jinping\u2019s \u201cNew Era\u201d marks an historic culmination, the creation of a \u201cnew form of human civilization<\/a>.\u201d The Party\u2019s general secretary stands with his feet planted on two great summits \u2014 the first the apex of China\u2019s \u201cexcellent traditional culture,\u201d the second the acme of Marxism for the 21st<\/sup> century<\/a>. This, at present, is the CCP\u2019s recipe for legitimacy, its latest confection: a civilization<\/strong> to make all Chinese proud and encourage the world to look on in awe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As CGTN declares in its corny promotional video<\/a> for the Golden Panda Awards, narrated in the distinctive baritone of Chinese state television, and cut in with shots of Times Square and the Eiffel Tower: “This is a bridge for mutual learning among civilizations. Communicate with other civilizations and embrace the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a collective study session<\/a> of the Politburo on propaganda and ideology in May 2021, Xi Jinping reminded<\/a> Party leaders that \u201ctelling China\u2019s story well\u201d meant that the country\u2019s image should be \u201ctrustworthy\u201d (\u53ef\u4fe1) and \u201chonorable\u201d (\u53ef\u656c), but also \u201clovable\u201d (\u53ef\u7231).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question is how to make lovable happen. And the answer is always: gild the panda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attending the Cannes Film Festival and taking home the coveted Palme d’Or is every filmmaker\u2019s dream.
\nWill they someday yearn for the Panda d\u2019Or? 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