The "15th Five-Year Plan" outline calls for enhancing the influence and appeal of Chinese civilization, accelerating the development of a Chinese discourse and narrative system, improving the effectiveness of international communication, strengthening cultural exchanges and cooperation with other countries, and presenting a credible, endearing, and respectable image of China. It emphasizes the need to "promote the global, regional, and audience-specific expression of Chinese stories and voices."
In recent years, Chinese culture has achieved remarkable success in its global outreach, with Chinese cultural products becoming a new window for the world to better understand China.
As reported in an interview published in the April 2nd edition of “Social Sciences Weekly” (Issue 1995), the global expansion of Chinese culture — represented by the "new trio" of online literature, online games, and micro-dramas — has been accelerating in recent years, demonstrating diverse characteristics and trends.
First, international recognition of Chinese culture has significantly increased. In this regard, Sun Jingxin, Vice President of the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies under the China International Communications Group (CICG), noted in the interview that a growing number of young people overseas are seeking deeply immersive experiences of Chinese culture. The explosive growth of terms like "Chinamaxxing" on US social media serves as a vivid illustration of this trend.
Second, artificial intelligence and digital technologies are playing an increasingly profound role in cultural production and dissemination.
Third, the landscape of international communication actors has become much more diverse — shifting from a single entity to multiple actors, from media organizations to "super platforms," and from human-to-human interaction to human-machine collaboration. Wu Yun, Dean of the School of Foreign Languages at Tongji University, believes that this multi-actor landscape has not only expanded the space for communication but has also, to some extent, transformed the traditional media-led communication structure, giving rise to a new ecosystem for cultural dissemination.
The "15th Five-Year Plan" period is a critical stage in China's comprehensive effort to build itself into a great modern socialist country. It is also an important window of opportunity for Chinese culture to reach the global stage and for advancing the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind. Xu Jian, Associate Dean of the School of Media and Communication at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, argues for the need to strengthen precise analysis of individual countries, civilizations, and cultural forms. Only by starting from the target countries and understanding their specific national conditions can we achieve the precision and audience-specific targeting necessary for effective international communication.