Performance matters

Like literature, performing arts has also played an indispensable role in consolidating China's soft power.

In 2005, the Ministry of Culture issued a notice encouraging performing arts troupes to take an active part in international competitions and cooperation, as well as further promote the exports of commercial performances.

But after seven years' of efforts, the major problem for China's performing groups is reaching out to the Western mainstream audience.

While some companies are still searching for answers, some early birds have reaped the benefits.

Set up in 1991, Wu Promotion has been one of China's pioneering performing arts companies and event organizers. Every year the company organizes more than 300 concerts and events in Europe, and is one of the most successful private enterprises to take classical Chinese performance overseas.

"Europe's mainstream society does not exclude a foreign culture, but we should wisely choose our products," says Wu Jiatong, manager of the company.

"A good product not only meets the audience tastes but also passes profound cultural connotations."

"For example, if you stage Peking Opera in Italy, apart from a perfect show on stage, you also need to inform the audience off stage that like Italian opera, Peking Opera is the national opera of China and also an ancient performing art," he says.

After expanding its business operations to Europe and the Middle East, Wu Promotion is poised to enter the US market in 2014.

"It is a gradual process for China's performances to enter mainstream Western society, and may take the efforts of several generations."

"We hope in the near future we cannot only see China-made clothes and shoes in New York, Paris or London, but also people lining up to buy theater tickets for Chinese performing arts."

Big disappointment

Film, one of China's most important soft power ingredients, has not seen the kind of success that policymakers envisaged nor has it made box-office waves.

While China's domestic box office revenue has climbed to new highs in the past few years, directors and producers are facing an embarrassing situation of receiving hardly any attention in the Western markets.

Sergei Vladimirovich Bodrov, a two-time Academy Award-nominated Russian-American film director, uses a metaphor to say that Chinese filmmakers need to learn proper story-telling languages that are accepted by the West.

"Filmmakers are like street musicians - you have to attract passers-by in a few seconds to let them throw money to you."

But some insiders are optimistic that Chinese filmmakers may soon make major breakthroughs.

China Lion Film Distribution Inc, a film distributor in North America and New Zealand, has been partnering with two top film production companies in China, Huayi Bros and Bona, to screen Chinese films in major US cities since 2010.

The company chooses 12 to 15 Chinese films every year to exclusively screen them in the US and Canada, with about 20 to 37 screens dedicated to these films all year long in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.

Joshua Lo, marketing coordinator of China Lion, says the audiences are mainly overseas Chinese, "but if the film is unique such as including historical topics, local Western audiences would show interest, too".

Since 2010 when the screenings began, the influence of Chinese films has been growing, Lo says, and he estimated that in three to five years, Chinese films will make major breakthroughs in overseas markets.

"Some avant-garde film directors like Jia Zhangke have already established themselves at the international film festivals. So we just need to keep trying."

He says it is a good sign that more and more Chinese films are participating in international festivals.

Some film insiders point out that the importance of developing China's film industry is not just to earn bigger box office receipts.

"The biggest meaning of Hollywood films is that every year, thousands of millions of people around the world watch them, through which they learn about American values, culture and way of life," says Zhou Tiedong, president of China Film Promotion International, a government organization designated to promote Chinese films.

However, as more Chinese cultural products make inroads in the overseas markets, there should also be awareness that such kind of products need a longer time for success.

"Cultural products cannot be exported in the same way as we export cars or financial services. Hard-sell promotion campaigns do not necessarily deliver results," Vassiliou says.

"In the cultural sector, the relationship between nations is crucial for creating interest, and therefore market opportunities."

Contract the writers through liulu@chinadaily.com.cn