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Probably not really enough meat on the bones here for Culture War thread but it also doesn't really fit anywhere else. I really wanted to talk about this year's Chinese New Year Gala put on by the Chinese government. For those that want to watch the Gala in its entirety, here's a playlist of the Gala in 4 parts.
I'm an ethnically Chinese person born in Mainland China and moved to America in my youth. This means that I'm celebrating Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year or Spring Festival if you want to be more politically correct). For those that don't know, since the year 1988, the Chinese Media Group (state run broadcast company) have put on a Gala that starts on New Year's Eve and runs into New Year's day. Generally, this is one of the biggest broadcasting events of the year in China. Every year the shows include traditional performances mixed in with skits, modern songs, and other segments. I myself have very fond memories of watching past Galas with my family, including cousins and grandparents. While the Gala is always popular, the general consensus is that they have not been as good as the years have gone on. In my memory, the 2000s had the best Galas by far. (The Gala really misses Zhao Benshan since his ousting.)
That's all background information about the Gala, and as you might be able to tell, by this point, the Gala is completely engrained into Mainland culture. If you refer to "春晚," most mainlanders know exactly what you're talking about. What makes this year's especially interesting to me, however, is that it seemed to act as a coming out party of sorts. In the same way that the 2008 Olympics acted as a way for China to display its thorough modernization, it's clear to me that the Chinese government wanted this gala to do the same. From the kung fu robots to Lionel Richie and Jackie Chan duetting We Are the World, the entire show seemed to radiate something akin to menace and arrogance (also funny to me because two of the five singers in the video are coming from countries that are actively committing ethnic cleansings). Online, there's been a lot of talk regarding the comparisons between the Chinese backflipping robot and the Tesla backflipping robot, and it seems that those in the Party were specifically trying to rebut some of the criticisms of the Chinese robot. The feeling was especially clear with the duet. To me, it was saying "We are so rich and powerful now that we can incorporate a core part of American culture into our own Gala as a part of our propaganda efforts." China always tried to incorporate western performers in their acts as a way to boost their own prestige (one obvious example is The Great Wall featuring Matt Damon, Willem Dafoe, and Pedro Pascal). And westerners used to look at these attempts with bemusement when China was still seen as a second-rate power, but I think the mood very much changes now that China is quickly gaining legitimacy as a viable alternative to American hegemony.
All of this is obviously coming on the heels of the multitudes of criticisms that have been levied at America, Americans, and the American government. Much ink has already been spilt regarding the obvious decline of America as a power and the rise of China as America's rival. This attempt at display of cultural power is especially stark when contrasted with the recent speeches at the WEF. Everyone seems to be in a very Chinese part of their lives as the Chinese government has seemingly succeeded in their online marketing (propaganda) campaign to convince the wider world that China is an advanced Eastern country, on par and perhaps surpassing South Korea and Japan. A (long) while ago, I made a review of Ne Zha 2 and at the end, I wondered whether eastern cultural dominance would continue. It seems that the answer is firmly "Yes." Not only will eastern cultural dominance continue, but Chinese culture, which had notably lagged behind in the past, is taking up more of the cultural space. And whereas South Korea and Japan are explicitly friendly nations, what happens to America and Americans if Chinese culture becomes dominant? Unfortunately, from my perspective, the future is not bright. It's by no means hopeless, but the collapse of American cultural hegemony is just another crack in the dam.
Side note: I'll talk about a childhood Gala memory. When I was a kid, my favorite parts of the Galas growing up were always the 小品s. These are ~15 minute humorous stage sketches that generally convey some form of wisdom at the end. When I was a kid, Zhao Benshan was a mainstay at almost every single Gala. He's from the North East region of China (formerly known as Manchuria, though Chinese people don't like that name nowadays) which is the same region of China that I'm from. He spoke with an exaggerated accent North Eastern accent that I also speak Chinese with, including the colloquialisms and slang. He honestly put North Eastern Chinese culture on the map. I'm not exaggerating when I say that he built a small media empire during the aughts and early 10s, with nationally syndicated TV shows, live shows, and even international tours. For about 20 years, he was present at almost every New Year's Gala, and he'd always perform a sketch, which would be one of the highlights of the entire show. Recently (when Xi JinPing ascended as Chairman) he was ousted due to supporting the wrong political faction. Now he's relegated to the North Eastern part of China as a local celebrity. The Gala dearly misses his presence, as the quality of the sketches after his ousting has taken a downturn. I'll share some of his greatest hits at the Gala, but unfortunately, many of the sketches don't have subtitles and are incredibly hard to translate. These sketches rely on wordplay, cultural references, and specific knowledge to be funny so as to be nearly incomprehensible to someone who doesn't understand Chinese, and especially the North Eastern dialect of Chinese. For myself, it really is impossible to overstate how important he was to the New Year's Gala.
My impression of such galas, and I'm going off this third-hand, is that they are more attempts to demonstrate "We have McDonalds at home". That China now has enough native talent and ability to put on glamorous entertainment spectacles that they don't need to import Western (or Korean, or Japanese) culture, they can copy or generate that themselves now. They have robots! They have tech and glitz and glamour!
It's self-sufficiency, it's boasting their own culture and history, it's "we don't need the Olympics, we have the Asian Games" and so on. Making their own versions of Top Gun movies and Second World War movies (the evil Japanese invaders seem to be popular right now) and movies about the roots of the Glorious Revolution.
The American equivalent seems to be the Superbowl Half-Time Show which generated all the online comment. Probably not as overtly nationalistic an exhibition, but seems to be running along the same lines of "is this Americanness?"/"is this Chineseness?"
The Super Bowl halftime show is not a big deal, particularly- the commercials are actually a bigger deal in mainstream culture- thé halftime show is intended as a sop to get a demographic which doesn’t normally watch a whole football game to pay attention(in the past this was often women but bad bunny was definitely aimed at an ethnic group that likes a different sport).
The Super Bowl halftime show peaked in the early 2000s, since 2016 or so there just aren't acts universally big enough to fit the bill.
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The excitement over "ooh, who is going to do the Big Ad? What will it be about? Woke or traditional?" is, I submit, the essence of Americanness.
Again, thé superbowl commercials are a much bigger deal for all that.
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