Abstract
This article examines the use of material objects and interactive technologies in Confucius Institutes (CIs) as a means of affectively engaging foreign audiences. By asking for an emotional investment in Chinese culture on the part of foreigners, CIs work to re-orient audiences outside China towards the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in positive ways. In particular, I examine a museum-like exhibit space in CI headquarters titled the China Exploratorium. While the exhibit ostensibly is meant to provide a brief overview of China, its culture and history, the space is less about cognitive learning and more about experiential learning. The Exploratorium invites bodily engagement with interactive displays as a means of getting foreign visitors to “feel” Chinese culture. This article explores three techniques used in the exhibit whereby affect is potentially produced (interactive displays, insertion of the self into the exhibit, and touristic devices). These techniques aim to make Chinese culture fun, entertaining and enjoyable, and the PRC a happy (and thus benign) place by association.
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©2014 by De Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Rethinking China’s Soft Power
- Articles
- Reporting for China: Cosmopolitan Attitudes and the “Chinese Perspective” among Chinese Correspondents Abroad
- Rewriting the Chinese National Epic in an Age of Global Consumerism: City of Life and Death and The Flowers of War
- Fei Cheng Wu Rao (非诚勿扰): Staging Global China through International Format Television and Overseas Special Episodes
- Exporting the Communist Image: The 1976 Chinese Peasant Painting Exhibition in Britain
- Projecting the Good Life at Home and Abroad: Lineages of the Chinese National Image from 1949 to the Present
- New Public Diplomacy Meets Old Public Diplomacy – the Case of China and Its Confucius Institutes
- The Politics of Affect in Confucius Institutes: Re-orienting Foreigners towards the PRC
- Book Reviews
- Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel: The Syrian Dilemma
- Jaesok Kim: Chinese Labor in a Korean Factory: Class, Ethnicity, and Productivity on the Shop Floor in Globalizing China
- J. H. Elliott: History in the Making
- Daniel Brook: A History of Future Cities
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Rethinking China’s Soft Power
- Articles
- Reporting for China: Cosmopolitan Attitudes and the “Chinese Perspective” among Chinese Correspondents Abroad
- Rewriting the Chinese National Epic in an Age of Global Consumerism: City of Life and Death and The Flowers of War
- Fei Cheng Wu Rao (非诚勿扰): Staging Global China through International Format Television and Overseas Special Episodes
- Exporting the Communist Image: The 1976 Chinese Peasant Painting Exhibition in Britain
- Projecting the Good Life at Home and Abroad: Lineages of the Chinese National Image from 1949 to the Present
- New Public Diplomacy Meets Old Public Diplomacy – the Case of China and Its Confucius Institutes
- The Politics of Affect in Confucius Institutes: Re-orienting Foreigners towards the PRC
- Book Reviews
- Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel: The Syrian Dilemma
- Jaesok Kim: Chinese Labor in a Korean Factory: Class, Ethnicity, and Productivity on the Shop Floor in Globalizing China
- J. H. Elliott: History in the Making
- Daniel Brook: A History of Future Cities