China has been good at a lot of things: manufacturing cheaply, catching up on A.I., dominating renewable energy, building hard power. What it’s been less good at is soft power. But that seems to be changing. Have you heard about Chinamaxxing? Read on.

中国有很多强项：低成本制造、在人工智能领域迎头赶上、称霸可再生能源、打造硬实力。它一直不太擅长的是软实力。但情况似乎正在改变。你听说过“Chinamaxxing”吗？接着往下看。

Today, my colleague Vivian Wang in Beijing writes about how China is suddenly winning hearts and minds. (Spoiler alert: It might not actually have that much to do with China itself.)

今天，我在北京的同事王月眉(Vivan Wang)撰文讲述中国为何突然开始赢得人心。（剧透：这或许其实和中国本身关系不大。）

Cool China

酷中国

By Vivian Wang

作者：王月眉

Last week, my colleague Yan Zhuang wrote about a funny trend: young people on TikTok who are “becoming Chinese” by embracing stereotypically Chinese behaviors — drinking hot water, wearing slippers, eating congee.

上周，我的同事Yan Zhuang报道了一个有趣的潮流：TikTok上的年轻人通过刻板印象中的中国生活方式——喝热水、穿拖鞋、喝粥——来“成为中国人”。

“Becoming Chinese” (or “Chinamaxxing,” if that’s your preferred term) may just be a TikTok fad. But it fits into something I’ve noticed recently: To a growing number of people around the world, China seems to be getting cooler.

“成为中国人”（或是你更习惯说的“Chinamaxxing”）或许只是TikTok上的一阵风潮。但这契合了我最近注意到的一个现象：在全球各个角落，越来越多人眼中，中国似乎正变得越来越酷。

Major American influencers, like the YouTuber IShowSpeed and the streamer Hasan Piker, have traveled to China, where they raved about its high-speed trains and LED light shows. The N.B.A. star Victor Wembanyama spent 10 days meditating at a Shaolin temple. A new Adidas jacket inspired by the historical Tang suit was a viral fashion hit. And of course, there was the Labubu.

视频博主IShowSpeed和主播哈桑·派克等美国著名网红都曾到访中国，对中国的高铁和LED灯光秀赞不绝口。NBA球星维克托·文班亚马曾在少林寺冥想修行十天。一款以唐装为灵感的新款阿迪达斯夹克成为爆款时尚单品。当然，还有Labubu。

Over the course of its decades-long ascent, China has been good (and is getting better) at many things: developing technology, dominating supply chains, building up military power. What it has not been great at is winning hearts and minds, especially in the West — until, seemingly, now. So what changed? It might not actually have that much to do with China itself.

在数十年的崛起过程中，中国在很多领域都表现出色（且正变得更强）：发展技术、主导供应链、壮大军事力量。它一直不擅长的是赢得人心，尤其是在西方——直到如今，情况似乎变了。那么，究竟是什么变了？答案或许其实和中国本身关系不大。

Savvier outreach and glittering infrastructure

更精明的对外传播与亮眼的基础设施

China’s struggles with soft power have usually boiled down to its authoritarian government, which has hurt the country’s image abroad in multiple ways. (Just last week, a Hong Kong court sentenced the pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison.)

中国在软实力上的困境通常可以归结为它的威权政府，这在多个方面损害了国家的海外形象。（就在上周，香港一家法院判处民主派传媒大亨黎智英20年监禁。）

Government censorship has also limited many outsiders from seeing the full range of Chinese creativity. Instead, the government has tried too hard to manufacture a state-sanctioned version of Chinese cool, with heavy-handed movies. (Remember the film “The Great Wall,” starring Matt Damon? Most people don’t.)

政府审查也让许多外界人士难以了解中国创造力的全貌。相反，政府用力过猛，试图通过手法生硬的电影，打造官方认可的“酷中国”。（还记得马特·达蒙主演的电影《长城》吗？大多数人早就忘了。）

The authoritarianism hasn’t changed, but the government has gotten savvier in its outreach efforts — for example, making it easier for foreign tourists to visit China. Most casual tourists won’t encounter the more suffocating political controls here, and they get to interact with ordinary Chinese people, in all their diversity. Visitors often say they’re surprised by how normal everyday life seems.

威权体制并未改变，但政府的外宣手段变得更精明了——比如，简化外国游客来华手续。大多数普通游客不会接触到这里令人窒息的政治管控，反而能与形形色色的普通中国人交流。访客常惊叹于这里日常生活的平凡景象。

But the biggest reason for China’s sudden appeal may have little to do with China itself. Polls show that opinions of China in the West are still, on the whole, mostly negative. It’s just that America, to many people around the world, is looking bad, too. And according to scholars, if people are looking for an alternative to the United States, China may be the most obvious place to turn.

但中国突然走红的最大原因或许和中国本身基本无关。民调显示，总体而言，西方对中国的看法仍以负面居多。只不过，在全球许多人眼中，美国同样形象不佳。学者认为，如果人们想要寻找美国之外的另一个选择，中国可能是最显而易见的去处。

Even aside from the most drastic actions by the Trump administration — its threats to take Greenland, its defense of killings by federal agents in Minneapolis — there’s a sense that the U.S. has failed to provide basic things, like functioning infrastructure. China’s gleaming trains look appealing in comparison.

即便抛开特朗普政府最极端的举动——威胁吞并格陵兰、为明尼阿波利斯联邦特工的杀人行为辩护——外界也普遍感到，美国连基础设施正常运转这类基本的事都做不到。相比之下，中国崭新的高铁就显得格外有吸引力。

The political and cultural fracturing of America has “significantly weakened the appeal of the U.S.,” Ying Zhu, a film studies scholar who has studied Chinese soft power, told me. “The appeal of China at the moment is more of a reaction” to that than real enthusiasm for China itself, she said.

研究中国软实力的电影研究学者朱影（音）告诉我，美国的政治与文化分裂“大幅削弱了美国的吸引力”。她说：“中国当下的吸引力更多是对这种局面的反应”，而不是对中国本身的真正热忱。

Can the vibe shift last?

这种氛围转变能持续吗？

Still, these shifting attitudes — regardless of what’s behind them — could have real implications for how other countries approach China. Many Western leaders have visited Beijing recently, promoting trade and cultural exchange, despite blowback from China hawks at home. If there was less domestic pressure, those types of visits could become easier and more frequent. And there would probably be less appetite for moves against China, as we saw in the opposition from many young Americans to the TikTok ban.

尽管如此，无论背后原因是什么，这种态度转变都可能对其他国家的对华政策产生切实影响。尽管面临国内对华鹰派的反对，许多西方领导人近期仍访问北京，推动贸易与文化交流。如果国内压力减小，此类访问可能会变得更轻松、更频繁。正如我们看到许多美国年轻人反对禁用TikTok那样，针对中国的举措也可能失去更多支持。

A recent survey by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace found that most Americans, especially younger ones, were not very worried about what would happen if China surpassed the U.S. in global influence. That “casts doubt on whether the American public would be willing to bear significant costs to maintain a power position superior to China’s,” the authors wrote.

卡内基国际和平基金会近期一项调查发现，大多数美国人，尤其是年轻人并不太担心中国在全球影响力上超越美国。报告作者写道，这“让人怀疑美国公众是否愿意付出巨大代价，以维持对中国的优势地位”。

An important question is whether this vibe shift can last. Zhu was skeptical. “Cultural trends come and go,” she said. “Fashion and fads are sensitive to the shifting geopolitical dynamic.” She noted that, despite viral trends and Labubus, China had yet to produce, say, a global hit movie.

一个关键问题是，这种氛围转变能否持续。朱影对此表示怀疑。“文化潮流来去匆匆，”她说。“时尚和风潮对地缘政治局势的变化十分敏感。”她指出，即便有网络爆款潮流和Labubu，中国至今仍未推出一部真正的全球卖座电影。

Parts of the Chinese government, too, seem worried that other countries’ soft power is still stronger. The Ministry of State Security last month published a warning, seemingly directed at Chinese influencers, about posts showing off glossy lives outside China.

中国部分政府部门似乎也担心自己的软实力不如人。国家安全部上月发布一则警示，矛头似乎指向国内网红在网上炫耀国外光鲜生活的行为。

“They one-sidedly showcase the glamorous aspects of foreign countries. Even worse, some have selectively ignored China’s development achievements,” the post said. “That provides an opportunity for the ‘soft aggression’ of Western ideology.”

“（他们）片面展示国外的光鲜侧面，更有甚者对国内发展成就选择性失明，”文章写道。“为西方意识形态的‘软侵略’提供可乘之机。”