Wang Yiwen: Dear Professor Huang, dear experts, teachers, and students, the “Into the World: The Subjectivity of Chinese Culture” International Forum has now come to the much-awaited Third Pole Culture Dialogue. Professor ** of China’s national culture, and also relates to the topic of national cultural security. From a technical point of view, many of the cloud storage technologies we are using now, including the bottom layer technology of Tik Tok, are from other countries. From a technical perspective, this also involves the topics of national cultural security and national culture dissemination.

Horizontally speaking, Third Pole Culture is a part of the entire human civilization. In my understanding, there is no such thing as a high or low civilization. Civilizations are only different in terms of languages and fields. Over the years, thanks to the job at the Communication University of China, and also thanks to the tutoring of Professor Zeng and the trust of the University, I have been able to travel to many places and countries, and have lived briefly in South Korea, the United States, South America, Europe, Russia, and the Middle East. When you get to know a culture, you will find that there is actually a great degree of integration between civilization and culture. When culture expands to a certain extent and has formed fixed values, judgments and rules, it actually constructs a new form of civilization. So, in my opinion, the Third Pole Culture proposed by Professor Huang is a theory for cultural diplomacy and cultural exchanges from the perspectives of globalization and the development of human civilization. The theory is pioneering. In the past 10 years, the world changed from disapproving of Chinese culture, to being vigilant about China and to accepting and recognizing Chinese culture. This has been an arduous process. This year, especially during the pandemic, Chinese culture has been once again presented to the world. From the perspective of popular culture, we have collected some data. In fact, compared to the post-80 s, post-70 s, post-60 s and even post-50 s generations of Chinese people, the post-95 generation showed much more passion toward the country. These young people post various types of video content on social media platforms such as Tik Tok, Kwai, and Youtube. These videos could be about the narration of events, a performance, humor and fun, or role playing. Some videos achieved 4.4 billion views in China. Key opinion leaders such as Li Ziqi, a famous Chinese food and rural-life vlogger, and Laofangu, a two-person team introducing Chinese food, have attracted a huge number of followers from across the world. The oriental artistic mood-oriented aesthetics we are talking about today has spread to East Asia, including South Korea and Japan, forming a pattern of culture dissemination in the process of urbanization and in the development of culture. Chinese aesthetic values and elements are already represented in some Chinese films and television dramas, such as Nirvana in Fire, The Story of Minglan, and some Chinese aesthetic films. In fact, we have borrowed a lot of things from the ancients. Those things then become vibrant through the innovation and creativity of young people. So, I think we are discussing a very important academic concept at a point in time where history is making a turn.

Wang Yiwen: Thank you, Professor Zhao for sharing your views on Third Pole Culture and the contemporary short video culture and its influence. Third Pole Culture also involves the dialectical relationships between China and the United States, China and Europe, China and other countries and civilizations. Dear experts, how do you understand the relationship between the subjectivity and diversity of different civilizations? Does the emphasis on cultural subjectivity inhibit diversity? I raise this question because in a world torn apart by the pandemic, uncertainty is rising, and the risk of civilization clash seems to be surging, as mentioned by several speakers in their keynote speeches in the morning. In such a background, it will be of special value and significance to discuss the subjectivity of civilization. The theme of this year’s forum is also “Into the World: The Subjectivity of Chinese Culture,” which contains an important implication that China has always been in the world, rather than “introducing China to the world” as we emphasized before. We and the world have always been a community with a shared future. We are a part of the world, but we must also have our own subjectivity.

David Bartosch: Subjectivity itself, as a key word, is very interesting in the current context. If we are talking about the subjectivity of civilizations, we must emphasize that this subjectivity itself never means an independent subjectivity that has no connection with any other civilizations. At the same time, subjectivity itself must have a background to become meaningful, so there is the implication of inter-subjectivity in this. I’m not saying there is no original or roots civilization. The so-called original civilization includes roots civilization, and the Chinese civilization is a very typical one. In the Chinese civilization, there are the Yellow River and Yangtze River civilizations, the Huaxia civilization, etc. But in fact, civilizations did not develop independently of each other. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of a German philosopher Martin Heidegger. He talked about civilization in a plural form. He believes the previous cultures or civilizations are like bubbles, and this conclusion is now considered wrong. If we really understand the history of the world, we will know that civilizations have had dialogues at a very early time. Therefore, the subjectivity of civilization can only flourish and develop through exchanges and dialogues. The word interpenetration is a term from biology, which means we must give a part of our own culture to others, and then absorb a part of other cultures to form our own culture and civilization. This process has started thousands of years ago. The subjectivity of civilization is not in a closed loop. A highly closed civilization will soon disappear. The same is true in biology. An individual independent of others will soon come to death. If you are highly closed from the beginning, you will die very quickly. This is the case in the United States right now, which is very dangerous.

As soon as the Trump administration came into power, the United States began to break away from various international organizations, which shows that the political system of the country is falling apart. So, when we talk about subjectivity, we must consider inter-subjectivity. For example, we have many foreign words in our own language, and we also have many original words. The “tee” in German comes from the Hokkien dialect. Some letters, such as “OK” used in Chinese, must be derived from the Latin alphabet and in fact, from Greek. The Phoenicians learned from the Egyptians that the letters of OK are like a hand. Every time the Chinese type the letters OK on the computer to express that something is fine by them, they are in fact also activating part of the ancient Egyptian language, which has a history of 3000 years. This is how we are connected. While having their subjectivity, civilizations are also connected. The word subjectivity seems a bit odd to me, because it’s not often used on civilization. In the German language, the subjectivity mentioned by Hegel relates to individual family. No matter in which civilization, not everyone represents his culture in the same way, but they are part of this civilization. Some people just have different backgrounds. For example, my son is both Chinese and German. He represents the integration of two cultures and has a cross-cultural family background.

At the same time, the so-called subjectivity of civilization is also very interesting, because it takes into consideration cultural exchanges between people. During the interaction with other civilizations, we may meet foreigners in our own country and in other places, and we will learn from each other as people who share the same planet. This is the foundation, or a direction, of a community with a shared future for mankind. In fact, this is a very ideal state, very Utopian. Now that this planet has become a global village, peace must be maintained, and we must further strengthen communication and exchanges with each other.

Wang Yiwen: As someone who is engaged in the communication of Chinese culture for a long time, Mr. Guo might have some firsthand experiences. Have you encountered the issue of subjectivity and diversity in the process of communicating Chinese culture to the world?

Guo Guang: Cultural diversity is very important, as proved by our practice of spreading Chinese culture in the West and in the international market. We have many international readers. At book fairs or in daily exchanges, they said that sometimes the United States believes its own culture to be the most powerful and influential, and that they think the culture will lose its vitality if the country continues to focus only on its own culture. We are now encouraging people to get to know other cultures, especially Chinese culture. Some scholars and many readers also share the same idea. In our work, we found that Europe and the United States have very limited understanding of Chinese culture, which has constrained their imagination and creativity. Now, they are focusing on including Chinese and oriental elements in the production of films, fashion designs and many other projects. Our books on Chinese culture and Chinese art are also welcomed by them. Some of them are willing to spend one or two hundred pounds on a picture book, which is beyond our expectation. This shows that Western readers also long for cultural diversity and want to learn more.

Zeng Qingrui: In trans-culture communication, we must find out the best way to effectively express the excellent Chinese civilization. I remember in the 1990s, two major TV dramas made by the China TV Drama Production Center of the China Central Television Station were sold to the United States. One of them, the 84-episode Romance of the Three Kingdoms, directed by Wang Fulin, was adapted into 28 episodes. The other is The Tai** Heavenly Kingdom, which opened with the discovery of a treasure in Nan**g like the Titanic. Why these adaptations? Because they are better accepted by Americans. I once saw an animation version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in the United States, and I also saw the Three Kingdoms directed by Chinese director Gao **xi. My two little grandsons like to watch the animation version. This has something to do with this art form, which is more accepted by young people. The animation Mulan made by the United States became popular all over the world. I myself watched it three times with my children in the United States. This proves that we must pay attention to the styles and media for the communication of Chinese culture.

Let’s also look at Dunhuang. Composer Tan Dun sees Dunhuang as a movie with sounds and believes singing is like watching a movie. He created a symphony about Dunhuang. When you listen to this symphony, you can imagine the splendor of the Mogao Caves. This is an elaborate creation. It communicates culture through the best way and the best expression in the exchanges of civilizations.

Zhao Hui: A culture without subjectivity is like a person without personality, and neither will be respected. The behavior of neglecting the derivation and modern inheritance and development of one’s own culture to kiss up to a certain first pole or second pole culture in a diverse context of discourse is an equivalent to the loss of personality in a modern discourse system. For example, Li Ziqi’s short videos have more than 100 million followers on Youtube. She has established a model for the derivation, development and even export of cultural content in videos. While Chinese films and film and television programs have failed in exporting Chinese culture, a folk art has received widespread praise and is even imitated by key opinion leaders from the United Kingdom and the United States. Online influencers in Vietnam and South Korea are also imitating the ideal Chinese rural life. Behind this kind of rural life are the ideas of man-Nature unity, law of Nature and gradual creation of all living beings in the Nature. This shows that under high social pressure, people across the world share the same fundamental emotional needs and desires, such as love, hate, hope, fear, family, and equality. In the face of a disaster, whether it comes from the Nature, the society or international relations, people actually just have one simple wish: peace and tranquility. This wish is mentioned in the Book of Changes and in the system of rites and music. I feel like we didn’t seem to understand the rules of international culture communication previously. Our efforts were unplanned and unorganized. We should learn from popular art how to maintain cultural vitality and learn communication techniques from young people. We should adopt a younger and modern perspective to communicate the essence of a culture. I would not want to use the word “young” because people tend to think something that seems young must be something that is modern. The simple copying of old models is like blind imitation, which is never good. The real beauty lies in the fundamental aesthetic connotation and aesthetic spirit expressed by the subjectivity of Chinese culture. So, I think a culture that has lost its subjectivity must be a culture without charm.

Wang Yiwen: According to the discussions just now, the issue of subjectivity and diversity relates to theory, principle and practice. It exists in all activities. Just like Professor Huang says, Third Pole Culture is a theoretical system that combines knowledge and action, and advocates that such a dialectical relationship should be embodied and perfected in practice.

The last question from me is, based on your research and experiences, what do you think of the international influence of contemporary Chinese culture, and what are its primary constraints?

Guo Guang: I think we are just beginning to improve the communication and influence of Chinese culture. There is a lot to be developed. Previously, some conditions were not very ready. I think culture dissemination is linked to the development of economy and comprehensive national strength. China is now the second largest economy and can pose very big influence economically and politically. We have the urgent need of expanding our influence, and other countries also urgently need to understand China. We must reflect on the gains and losses from the communication of culture. We have many successful experiences and cases, but we also have many failures and lessons. What conclusions can we draw? In the communication of cultural elements, we should keep in mind the importance of symbolism and choose the essential part, the things that foreigners can understand and see as the embodiment of Chinese culture. A second conclusion is, we should adopt an international perspective in expressing Chinese culture. We went to London to carry out localized operations with our British partner to avoid using the Chinese market-oriented approach to publishing in an international market. Such collaboration improved our view points, our way of thinking and our global perspective. A third conclusion is, we should make use of the market. For Chinese culture to be introduced to the world and have more influence, the government must provide support and scholars must conduct research. But the most important thing is the creation of products. We should create good books, films and literary works based on fine traditional Chinese culture and arts. The prosperity of literary and artistic creation is also very important. One last point, culture dissemination sometimes needs commercial promotion and commercial operation. If our products are no good, no one would want them, even if they are free. We need to make high-quality books and films for which the foreign audience is willing to pay. We can spread Chinese culture and enhance its influence through business models. These are some conclusions we have based on our experiences.

Zeng Qingrui: Let me just talk about one point. In the background of China’s reform and opening up, I think we should open up a bit more. People of foreign countries are now having a range of theories about the Tibet issue and the **njiang issue. I think we can open the door and let them in, for example, the Lop Nor area, except some places there are closed to visitors due to military reasons. But how about a visit to the vineyards at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains? That should be nice. The Uyghur workers there are doing very well. There is also an assistance project in Yunnan Province that is dubbed as “China’s Switzerland.” The project site is surrounded by thick forests and snow-capped mountains, like in Switzerland. I say we let Westerners in and take a look. At present, there are many tight restrictions on Westerners going to Tibet. A small number of intelligence agents can barely achieve anything. So, we can open our arms and let foreign people see for themselves. This will be a boost to cross-cultural exchanges.

Zhao Hui: This morning, I heard the Looking China Project had completed 700 films, which is amazing. This means there have been nearly 700 teams. If each team has 6 people on average, which is already a very small scale, then a total of 5000 people, possibly 10,000, have participated in video creation. In fact, this is a subtle way to provide learning opportunities for the participants. Director Kar-wai Wong used a lot of Chinese elements, such as water, light, and lamps in the film, The Grandmasters. Where there are lamps, there must be people. When the heroine Gong Ruomei needs to make a decision, she will go find a lamp in front of a Buddha. She believes she is conversing with her father’s soul. There are no boundaries for the spread of many videos. When we figure out the cultural connotation of a video, we have found its image, which carries its meaning. The meaning is then linked to the formation of artistic mood and story space. This kind of culture dissemination and production is a huge wealth. I think those 700 videos should be systematically sorted out and analyzed. In the past, we would invite professional foreign teams to shoot about China, which would inevitably include some traces of their mainstream culture. I have always believed the real culture is in the folk culture. During my recent visit to Fujian Province, I saw the wood carvings and bamboo carvings in the folk museum. They are so impressive. I’ve seen Chinese exhibits in many foreign museums. While being exquisite, they seem to have no life in them. But in folk art, there are no rules for creation. Many human expressions, animals, and even horse-dragons, have used a lot of image combinations, which may have been used in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. So I always feel that the origin of Chinese culture is in the folk culture. The videos we make are shot by ordinary shooting teams who find inspiration in the folk culture. They are actually the most vibrant ones.

When I was a visiting scholar in the United States, I invited some international students there to make a film about high school students from their perspectives. The film was broadcast on iQIYI.COM, and ranks among the top three online films. So let me go back to the issue of commercialization. If we are talking about commercialization first, things are definitely not gonna be easy. I understand what Mr. Guo just said. We first find a core, and then find a way to clearly express this core and a way to carry its content, which is the method to edit and present the story. With that, commercialization will definitely rise. Now our communication methods are very old-fashioned. We really need to learn from the flexible communication methods of short videos. Its operation has broken the boundaries for videos. It is actually a circle-specific communication and a social communication system. This system is marked by collective unconsciousness. In the we-media era, for any group of population, as long as they are in a certain circle, the big data algorithms will figure out their preferences very accurately. Data knows your mind and life circle better than anyone around you.

Wang Yiwen: The three experts talked about Chinese culture with vivid examples from different angles, especially regarding the strengths and many weaknesses in the process of culture dissemination. Now let’s come back to Professor David Bartosch. With a foreign perspective and a long time of research experiences in Eastern and Western cultures, Mr. David must have his own observations and points of view on Chinese culture and the problems with its communication.

David Bartosch: First of all, on the positive side, I think China has now integrated itself into the global system. China also needs to introduce Chinese culture and Chinese civilization to the world. In the past, China had adopted a very correct way to spread its culture. Now we may encounter some obstacles, but I think they will disappear and can be overcome. This is because the world is very interested in Chinese culture, maybe not just a few people, maybe the majority of people, like 50 or 60%, are highly interested in Chinese culture. But for Western media, they might not put much effort into covering Chinese culture or publicizing the Chinese civilization. This could be an obstacle. Maybe there are some incorrect descriptions of China on social media right now, but these media are not mainstream or the majority. So I think this problem will more or less disappear in the future.

The problem we are facing now is, how to spread or circulate more Chinese culture in a way that better benefits China and its economy. Because my wife is Chinese and I would also come to China very often, I can better understand Chinese culture. But many foreigners outside of China cannot directly experience Chinese culture like me, so we need to spread the Chinese civilization to them. I think there is a special element here, that is, what is culture? Its core meaning is self-improvement. The essence of culture is self-enhancement and self-improvement, and also involves self-improvement of individuals or groups. The Chinese culture has been vibrant for more than 5000 years, which also requires us to improve ourselves and become better. Cultural activities should be driven forward with more intense efforts. For the United States, I don’t think American culture was that powerful in the past, and its development was based on some commercial sales such as Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola is a sugary beverage that has a certain effect on the body. This is how it builds its own culture. But Chinese culture is different. It’s not built in such a short period of time. We need to create more cultural products from a long-term perspective. This is based on learning and the concept of continuous self-improvement. If China can achieve this, the country will have its own cultural trademarks and cultural logos. In particular, we cannot underestimate the power of the younger generation because they are more open-minded. Many young Chinese students are very smart. I am amazed by the younger generation of China. They could have countless possibilities. On the one hand, young Chinese people understand Chinese culture; on the other hand, they also learn different languages. We know language learning is very difficult, but for young people, they could demonstrate very powerful creativity after understanding different languages. This also helps to create more cultural products. In particular, since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative, the Chinese have had more opportunities to get to know more cultures, including ancient civilizations such as Russia, Pakistan and ancient Persia. The essence of these civilizations is actually their self-improvement and self-cultivation. So in this process, we will see more fine parts of the civilizations. This essence relates to the spiritual level, and it is very healthy for us. This is something China can do and will do. There is no doubt that China will be very, very successful, and no one can stop China from achieving success.

I also agree with Professor Zeng on Tibet. It is a very beautiful place, just like Switzerland. Pitifully, many people don’t know about it. But when Tibetan children can master the three languages of Chinese, Tibetan and English, they will be very smart. They will be able to achieve great things when they grow up. That’s why they will become very good spokespersons. But we must be patient. As Chuang-tzu once said, we cannot help seedlings grow by pulling them, we must wait for those seedlings to grow into big trees. So I am very optimistic, and also very honored to share my thoughts here.

Wang Yiwen: Thanks to the four experts. Third Pole Culture has put forward the expectations for the international communication of Chinese culture from a macroscopic level. Professor Huang is currently presiding over a major project of the National Social Science Fund of China, called “The Generation of International Influence of Contemporary Chinese Culture.” The word “generation” is very accurate. It recognizes the status quo of the international influence of contemporary Chinese culture and the arduous task for Chinese culture. We shall develop cultural subjectivity and also make due contributions to world culture and human civilization. The ideas of the four experts have deepened the theme of this Dialogue. Thank you, and thanks to everyone for participation.

**ang Yunju: I would like to express my gratitude to the professors who participated in the Third Pole Culture Dialogue. You have contributed some very exciting discussions. Dear guests and friends, after a whole day of discussions and exchanges, this International Forum has achieved a lot. Through the main forum and the roundtable discussions, we have had the chance to listen to the research results and the points of view of several experts on the subjectivity of Chinese culture and the theory of Third Pole Culture. The three speakers at the roundtable also shared with us their wonderful ideas. In the Third Pole Culture Dialogue, the participants expressed some very fresh ideas. This Forum has achieved the expected results, and received a number of important academic viewpoints and papers. Thank you for your strong support for this Forum.