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Hundreds of millions are on the move for China's nine-day Spring Festival holiday and a globally staged Spring Festival gala celebrates for the Year of the Horse.
What do they tell us about China in 2026?
Welcome to Road Today, a news program with a different perspective.
I'm Ge'Anna in Beijing.
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A record number of travelers are on the move, as people across China enjoy the longest spring festival holiday in recent years.
The break, which began on Sunday, is giving many the chance to plan longer getaways.
China's National Immigration Administration says cross-border trips are expected to jump more than 14 during the holiday, with the daily crossing averaging over 2 million.
For more on this.
Joining us on the line is Liu Zhijing, senior fellow with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.
Thanks for joining us and happy Chinese New Year.
Happy New Year.
Mr. Liu, we are officially in the year of the horse.
From an economist's point of view, how's consumer spending shaping up so far this holiday season?
I think this holiday has some special features compared to the event last year or the year before.
We see totally different behavior and the trend of consumption, especially the enthusiasm of the chinese people residents, that has shown the powerful and the potential of the consumption, especially the ai shopping, i think is becoming the most important attractive consumption behavior, especially when we visited all the shops and some places that we can see the AI related services.
So the AI shopping is becoming more attractive and becoming more popular because it's welcomed and accepted by the whole society, especially by those young generation of consumers.
They like to have some more assistance and the modern level services with the AI support.
And the second thing I think is quite important, that they also prefer to have something related with The robot, the assistant, the services or events function during the holiday, when they went to the restaurant to buy shopping or buy boxing or the film visiting, they always like to have some more robot services together.
So to show this new development to the young generation, to their children also, they can show this to the aging people, because they always bring their parents and their children together to go shopping or to go start selling.
From this side they can really show the development of China's economy, especially China's technical modernization, how far or how modern now we are becoming.
Speaking of new spending habits and trends in how people are celebrating this year, It seems that the long holidays being spent on family trips rather than just returning home,
So, compared with the traditional ways of celebrations at home?
What different changes in the Chinese concept of family reunion does this reflect?
You know, the Spring Festival has very special meaning for the Chinese people because this is a good chance and opportunity to have family reunion, no matter how far the home is or in the remote area.
That people or the workers in the cities, always traveling a lot from the far, different places to go back to see their family or have their family reunion.
This is quite important event and historical behavior for the chinese culture nowadays, i think, because the time is changing, especially for the transportation facilities have been well managed and modernized it.
Now there's no bigger problem or pressure for people to take a high speed train or even buy own car driving back to home.
So they have more opportunities and the possibilities.
Especially we will see the flexibility for the people that to go home.
So go home for reuni is no more the only way that for the people to get their family together.
Actually they also they can take the family members outside of their home in other cities to reunite or to visit that they are in other cities to enjoy the new culture, to explore new customers there, find the new things for parents, for themselves and for their children.
So that's why we can see this is a home-moving reunion, a new trend for this spring festival.
So I saw many reports already see the old parents already coming to the cities that where the children working or even they go together in the third city or third region to have a family gathering.
So this is really very positive and also make the people's life more colorful and more convenient.
The longer break has encouraged more people to take longer trips.
We see winter sports trips, warm escapes and cultural tours are leading the way this year and most winter tourists come from the south, while warm trips are dominated by the north.
Temple fairs and traditional experiences are also very popular.
So first of all, what do you make of this north-south dual flow travel pattern?
I think seeking differences is the nature of human beings, because this is a very normal behavior and action taken by the people.
The people in South like to go to North to see different cultures because they have different caterers and living inhabitants also.
So this is also from other side.
The North people try to see something more colorful, different things, that in Southern part of China.
So even in Beijing we see that if you're living in Chaoyang, you always try to go to the other regions in the same city to see different performance of the cultural differences.
So that's, as people always say, differences make more attractiveness.
This is true because people, by seeking differences they can find, they can learn, they can know more knowledges from historical events and also from modern technical advancement.
So by doing so, that many people can learn from each other, from its differences, what they have something very special and what we have some special.
That's why make the people that always traveling from home to other, third and even fourth different regions.
So i have many friends that they told me that During the nine days the holiday they will go to at least four or five cities to see different culture and behavior.
This is true.
I think this is a quite important activity taken by the people, normal people here.
Beyond domestic travel, international travelers are also flocking to China.
Recent data from travel platform Feizhu, or Fleegi, shows bookings are up over Four times compared with last year.
Argentina tourists increased ninefold, while bookings from the Netherlands, Spain and the UK all are more than doubled.
Why has coming to China for the Spring Festival become a new trend among foreign tourists and what attracts them the most?
About China's Spring Festival traditions
I think two reasons for the foreign visitors coming to China for Spring Festival.
One reason is that they have to experience what the real atmosphere of Spring Festival in China, because they can see it in TV and other movie or in other reports, but they have to see by their own eyes to experience this atmosphere here, what the meaning real meaning of spring festival to China or for Chinese people.
And secondly, even more importantly, in my opinion, many young generation coming to China is a fact-seeking, because they know or are cheated by Western media about China, because all these reports, most of them, 80 or 90 percent disordered China's real picture.
So always try to not mirror China's facts.
So even many older people or middle-aged foreigners in Europe, my friends there, have never been outside of Europe.
They even remember or even have the picture of Chinese in 100 or 200 years before with the Qing Dynasty.
This is the truth.
This is not a joke.
This is a fact.
Many people really do not know what's really happening in China.
So nowadays they want to have more fact-seeking.
As we know, there are many young people coming to China to make the report and also make a very great influence.
The impact on the media, online media, especially in the Western media.
So they are shocked, they are surprised by the facts.
So many young people came to China for fact-seeking, to see real China and to find the facts and also learn from China.
What happened for China to be developed so well, so fast, so stable?
So this is a very good chance for exchanges of two sides, for culture, for the technical exchanges and also from all these business activities.
I think the interest of both sides is good for foreign visitors, but also good for China, because we can also learn a lot from Westerners.
That really makes sense.
As you mentioned earlier, technologies and other striking aspects of this year's celebration.
On Chinese New Year Eve, many people watch the Spring Festival Gala or the Chuan Wan.
A traditional for decades.
This year, the gala featured a high-tech program with martial arts robots which stole the show and sparking talks about home robots.
Are you impressed by the evolution of China's robot industry over the past year and by how these robots have progressed from slow walking at last year's gala to fast clustered movements today?
We should say frankly that the performance this year's Spring Festival Youth Gala shows the real development and advancement of China's technological industry.
Because from the last year, this has already deeply impressed the whole world.
Nowadays, many people are trying to find a new development or a new advancement of this field.
Now I think that these people will not feel disappointed because they saw really a very shocked advancement and modernized technology in robot or human-like robot activities.
Here for the progress and the advancing point is not only because they are flexible, can be moving maneuvering, but i think in deep ceiling we can see something very special.
First, all this robot they have a capability for self reaction.
This is very important progress.
And the second is also for self-logical behavior.
Taken, we can see the kung fu is not only a maneuver but also all these maneuvers and actions connected and then linked together closely without any possible error.
This is very important.
That is, a logical reaction is more important than anything else for the robust technology.
So when we see this color, we can see that when chinese the robots can have logical thinking, logical action, logical reaction, that is really a big surprise progress for the robot industry in china.
No matter how far we can go further, this is the basic point for the for the chinese robot technology, especially for ai technology for home use the robot.
I think the.
We don't need to wait too long times.
I think within this year, i think some robert for home use or for special purposes, for home services, will come to the market.
I will be welcomed by the many families.
I think many people are really already trying to pick something or take some robots at home to make their life more easy and more convenient.
So we have really high appreciation for this young generation who create such a possibility and the advancement of robot technology industry.
Indeed, looking forward to that moment.
Thanks, Mr. Liu, for those insight of analysis.
That was Liu Zhiching, senior fellow with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmi University of China.
This is Road Today.
Stay with us.
Welcome.
I am Chu Chu Zhang, Deputy Director at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Fudan University.
On the World Today program.
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As China celebrates the Year of the Horse, the 2026 Spring Festival Gala has welcomed performers around the world for a display of cross-cultural exchange.
Among them is the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, bringing traditional dances to Chinese viewers.
Piroska Torek, cultural manager of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, says the group feels deeply honored to share Hungarian folk culture on such a globally watched stage.
Speaking with our reporter Xue Wen, Piroska highlighted the warmth of Chinese people in the country's remarkable development, noting that dance is a universal language that connects cultures beyond borders.
Pirozhka, welcome to China and to the 2026 Spring Festival Gala.
This year's theme is Galloping State Onward Unstoppable.
Could you tell us about the performance your team bringing to the stage and how this unique international collaboration came about?
So first of all, thank you for everything.
And we are really honored that we can take part in this prestigious spring festival.
We hope that the piece, the little part that we brought to the Chinese stage will be welcomed with love by the Chinese people, because we wanted to show you the the most powerful, the virtuosity side of the Hungarian folk tradition.
The characteristic of the men's dance in Hungarian folk tradition is really that it is full of energy, full of power, and they are very lively.
So this virtuous dance movement with clapping hands, clapping the boot, It gives really an extra, an extraordinary energy to the dance choreography.
And yeah, we're really happy that we got the invitation from the organizers.
And yeah, it is a great opportunity for us to introduce the Hungarian culture all around China and, I guess, all around the world as well.
So I just wonder, before coming to China, how much did you know about Chinese New Year and the scale of the Spring Festival Gala?
We knew that this is the biggest event in China.
And yeah, it's really such a great thing for us that we can be part of this very unique festival.
I heard that the Chinese New Year is in context with the moon and that every year is in connection with some animal, symbolizing the power and the characteristic of the coming year.
Let's talk about the Hungarian folk dance here.
So for many viewers in China, this might be their first close look at this Hungarian folk dance.
So what stories or traditions does the folk dance aim to share about Hungarian culture?
What is important, that in the Hungarian folk dance, in the traditional dances People I think it is just like in other culture they try to show how they feel about the different types of their life.
Like it is all about love or birth, death.
They would like to show how the people, average people in the older times lived.
And what is the connection between men and women?
Sometimes it is full of energy and power.
And it's very virtual, mostly in the men's dance.
You can see this.
But sometimes it's soft, like in the women's dances.
And it is full of emotion as well.
When the men and women dance together.
Of course, this is also showing the connection and how they behave with each other.
Sometimes it is very lively, sometimes it is more slow.
So this tries to introduce the behavior of the people.
However, it is also important that this is coming from from the past times, like when they worked on the field.
So the movements also can show.
So it can be sometimes a little harder because they had to work like this.
I will say, as a cultural ambassador, through dance, how do you see performances like this, building bridges between our two countries?
More specifically, how can they help people in Hungary and China understand and appreciate each other's cultures more deeply?
I think that this is really amazing how the dancers can work together in one choreography.
And for me this is really very, very important that to show the people that how they can interact without knowing each other before, because this was the first time for them also to meet.
And the choreography with the different cultures.
It's still one complex and you cannot feel that it is.
Everything is so much together that I think for me the meaning is that dance is an international language.
And with dance, you can emphasize and you can show all your emotions.
It's like, even though dancers from different countries, they cannot maybe understand each other's language, but they can move through their bodies to enhance their relations and emotions understanding of each other.
Another thing I love to bring up is you know, recently there has been a big trend on global social media called becoming Chinese.
People around the world are exploring Chinese wellness, fashion and lifestyle.
And now you are in China.
You have experience, like the work with Chinese other artists and performers.
With your firsthand knowledge.
What new discoveries have you made that you'd love to share with your friends and family back home?
So it's really very, very interesting always to come to China, because it is really the Chinese people are so warm-hearted.
They really feel like they try to do everything that we feel like home.
So it is the most important thing.
I think that we always feel ourselves very well when we are in China.
It is amazing to see How nicely so, for example, when you see different kinds of technical equipments which are used by Chinese people.
And for us, it is really special to see how much development there were done recently.
So I think it is really beautiful.
And lastly, as we celebrate the Year of the Horse, a symbol of strength, courage and progress in Chinese culture, what special wishes or message would you like to send to Chinese people here and around the world celebrating this festive season?
I think that it is really very interesting how you... celebrate these new years.
And I feel like in China.
When I come here, I always feel that there are some wiseness in the people.
And I would wish that, besides the strength and courage, it is also always very important to remember to stay calm, besides having a lot of energy, and be wise and enjoy the moment.
Don't rush with the time so much because it is important to live our life in pleasure.
That was Piros Katorik, cultural manager of Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, speaking with Xu Yawen.
More to come on Road Today.
Why is becoming Chinese going viral overseas?
Stay with us.
We'll be right back after a short break.
Welcome back to Road Today, our Chinese New Year edition.
What does it mean to become Chinese, and why are people saying it online?
From TikTok to X, the phrase is going viral.
Is it cultural admiration, social commentary, or a search for alternatives?
My colleague Qu Yuan, is joined by Qu Qiang, a professor and a fellow of the Belt and Road Research Center at Minsu University of China, Warwick Powell, adjunct professor of Queensland University of Technology Australia, and Harvey Zoding, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, to explore the forces behind this unexpected trend and what it reveals about a changing world.
So let me begin with Harvey, who's now in Vienna.
What was your first response when hearing or seeing the phrase becoming Chinese on social media?
And if You can pick one.
Which post or move impressed you most?
Well, actually, too young.
I myself, I was puzzled until I learned more about this trend.
Right.
But on reflection, it's a reaction to what President Xi Jinping has called changes that we haven't seen in 100 years, because I think it's an even longer timeline than that.
The global order is morphing to might makes right in the US and the trends being discussed in Davos this week, as we've seen.
China represents the long sweep of the generally stable history and wisdom, such as, for example, traditional Chinese medicine successfully performed by barefoot doctors well before Christ was born.
In my country, I would say the US represents the shredding of norms we've grown up with.
But China's had a stable hand on the global steering wheel for millennia.
And while Melania's husband is flooding the zone with instability and chaos, I'd say we're seeing a longing, especially in young people now, for cultural warmth instead of culture wars.
So we're seeing people-to-people exchanges going viral, especially after COVID.
And which post impressed me?
Well, there's an influencer named Emma Hong.
And she said I see a bunch of Americans drinking hot water with lemon and honey, eating congee, eating hot pot, drinking more soup and eating Chinese vegetables.
So me, I was touched when she said my culture can be your culture, and she got over 3 million views.
So Emma, to me, is a prime example of a world citizen who's from Hanan province, who studied in Florida, and she's a world citizen like my wife, who's sitting next to me today, who's from China and has come to Vienna and lived in many countries and tries to make me more Chinese.
Unfortunately, she's only half successful, but we're still working on it.
Yeah, that's very interesting.
This episode of drinking hot water warm water is kind of like promulgated, like to I don't know if it's into like everybody's heart and those who are trying to turn it into like Chinese.
So to Warwick as an Australian Chinese, right?
What's your take there?
Look, I think it's very interesting.
And thanks very much for inviting me to join the show today, because for me it's also a lot of fun, because it allows me to, in a sense, reflect on my own life's experiences, but to also see a new generation of people not Chinese people who are exploring aspects of Chinese cultural practice and incorporating them into their own everyday lives.
And perhaps, as Harvey mentioned, there is a reaction to a sense of disconnected, meaninglessness in many contemporary Western societies.
You know, philosophers talk a lot about the emergence of social enemy, the disenfranchisement and alienation of many people that they feel from the world around them and a yearning for a sense of connectedness.
And these cultural practices and i'm thinking particularly around dietary practices, are part and parcel of, i think, a turn to explore other ways of connecting with the world around us.
But we also see that in the exploration of tai chi and other aspects of Chinese cultural practice.
And a lot of it relates to this sense of promoting well-being.
Right.
So Western societies have been so helter skelter for so many decades, where consumerism has been an increasingly dominant feature of cultural life, where speed sort of dictates the rhythms of life.
You know, nothing's fast enough.
And I get the sense that people are saying, actually, this isn't quite right for me.
And I'm just curious to see what these other possibilities are.
Look, I drink hot water myself, so I don't think it's that unusual.
But certainly when my Australian friends you see me drinking hot water when they're having a glass of cold water, i do get some odd looks.
But as i say to them, look.
There is a sense of wellness that comes with all of this and i think that it simply says something about our times that maybe things are a little bit disconnected from the world around us, that people are seeking that warmth and seeking a way in which their own wellness can be part and parcel of being reconnected to the world Right.
Like Warwick and Harvey, both mentioned actually the Chinese culture, including like practicing Tai Chi, are there for many years.
Chang, from your perspective, from a Chinese perspective, how different is this time?
And what's so unique about this trend?
Are you to any extent surprised?
Well, I'm not surprised.
China is a civilization continued for like in the past 5,000 years.
And among all the ancient civilization, China is a civilization slash, a state you know, continued for so long and basically unchanged.
I think it's the only one.
If you go to Egypt, you'll find out Egypt right now is basically an Arabic country.
It's not an Egyptian country.
They're not using their picture kind of ancient language anymore.
If you go to Rome, basically you will see the Rome and its relic scattered in America and Italy and France and Germany and Spain.
But where is Rome today?
But if you go to China, you will find out basically, Chinese like China, like 5000, 2000 years ago, when you know our emperor in Qing dynasty, in Song dynasty, in Tang dynasty, if they can wake up from the tomb, they basically find out.
Okay, they're using the same language, same people, same territory, same culture, unchanged.
So that shows you.
The point is, the Chinese culture is very resilient, vibrant and also very lively for all the time being.
And I think there are several times in the Western history that Chinese culture has become, you know, I think, very popular among all the crowds, including the novelties and, you know, vast majority of the community people in there.
Chinese, china and ceramic wares, Chinese painting, Chinese silk, You know from the Roman period of time, has become, you know, the top luxury products there.
And also in the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, the Chinese not only silk and ceramic wear, but also the lifestyle has been adored by, you know, the palace and Eric Starosy.
So I think that is, you know, another would say, you know, fashion as a circle.
Now it's a fashion come back again.
I think the trigger is that through the TikTok, through the Little Red Note and also On Axe and YouTube, there are so many bloggers or just ordinary people.
They're filming their daily life on the V-blogs every day, put them on the internet.
And then people started to see what is the current Chinese people and their lifestyle it is.
And they find out, wow, it's very, very interesting.
Well, in a larger sense, they're providing another lifestyle option besides the current quote-unquote mainstream Western lifestyle.
And they find, hey, we have some other choices.
We can cook our egg in another way.
It's not only sunny set up and omelet.
You can have tomato egg.
You can have steamed egg.
You can have all that and water.
You know before.
China's impact of water goes outside everybody.
They only know one thing is that they grab a water out of the fridge and then drink it up.
Now you see, we can cook the water, we can boil it with tea, with so many things, and with herbal.
You know connotation inside of it, for example, it's not only tea with milk you can have, you know well, i mean, in america people think english people are already civilized, quote unquote enough, because to put tea and a milk inside of it this is already very, you know, stylish.
But when they come to china, you will find out This is just far from being enough.
Chinese people will find, you know, goji bear.
They will find ginseng.
They will find danggui.
They will find huangchi.
And everything, put them into the water just to boil it, to make this water not only quenching your thirst, but also to make sure that you can keep yourself healthy.
And this is just one example of it.
And also they find out Chinese, you know, internet community is very large.
We have so many digital nomads all over the world.
Basically, there's nomads only herd or hunt in the western turf of the digital world.
But now they find, hey, we have another option.
It's the oriental places.
We're not only talking about China.
We have so many oriental lifestyle population in Malaysia, in South Korea, in Vietnam, in Japan.
That's true.
So they find out there's a very large market.
That's the reason why they're following it, for not only the traditional way, but also following the modern reason.
To Warwick, a lot of becoming Chinese content I've seen so far comes from the U.S.
So what about in Australia?
And what's your interpretation of those imitating Chinese lifestyle to some extent?
People are saying it's kind of probably kind of humor or parody or even sometimes probably irony.
How sincere or ironic do you think they are?
Look, there's always multiple dimensions to these sort of cultural practices and artifacts.
But I think it's worth bearing in mind two things.
It's actually not the first time that things Chinese have captured the imagination of the West.
And I think back to the 17 and 1800s, for example, when the likes of Leibniz and Voltaire spoke highly of China and we had all sorts of fads around Chinese aesthetics porcelain, silk.
And of course, tea, as you mentioned before.
So it's not the first time that things emerging from China has captured the imagination amongst both Western elite and also the Western public.
The second thing that I'll say is that I think that there is something very interesting about this in this particular moment historically, and that is that over the course of the past Maybe 10 years, maybe a little bit less
There has been an active attempt, certainly at a political level, to cultivate a popular culture that inherently demonizes China and Chinese things and the fact that people are, even if playfully, talking about this being my Chinese day or my Chinese moment, actually showing a willingness to speak of China and Chinese things in a positive tone.
In other words, It is actually a rejection of the demonization of China.
Right.
So the attempts by the mainstream, the political forces and the mainstream media that has been part and parcel of shaping public attitudes in the West in many ways have turned people off and turned people away.
I haven't seen so much of it in Australia.
You asked about Australia.
But it is hard for Australia to compete for airspace with the United States, in large part because for every one Australian there's about 12 Americans.
So whatever happens in the United States has a lot more just numerical heft.
The other thing too, of course, is that because of that, it also has a much stronger cultural impact footprint across the globe.
Media and social media.
So even if there was some Australian emulation and I'm sure there is it certainly won't be doing the rounds in the way that these sorts of things happen in America.
The last thing that I'll say about all of this is that and I think this was touched on earlier that the experiences of almost this time last year, maybe about 11 months ago, with a little red note in some ways, I think, opened the window and opened the door for this kind of cultural engagement.
And again, it is a demonstration that at a foundational level, at a civil society level, the attempts to demonize China have not been entirely successful.
And so I think not only is it fun you know people are obviously having a lot of fun with this but it's also showing that there is something a little bit more sophisticated and resilient about public cultures that the attempts to demonize a culture and a people and a place simply struggle to overcome.
If you know those who are saying that we're pursuing this trend or becoming Chinese.
They're so sincere.
I bet a lot of Americans or some Westerners, including Americans, have long been Japanese, because in the 1980s, During Japan's economic boom, there was also a wave of a fascination with becoming Japanese.
Do you remember that period?
Or can you tell us what happened there?
Is what we are seeing now a repeat of history with just China replacing Japan this time?
Well, it's an interesting parallel because prior to the trend of becoming Japanese was a period in which Americans would jump on top of Japanese made motor vehicles and smash them with baseball bats and destroy Japanese made radios and televisions, because Japanese manufactured products were seen as a threat to American industry.
So there's some interesting parallels in terms of those experiences.
Look, I think there has been for a long time across societies generally, but certainly in Western societies and particularly ones in which financialised capitalism has become a dominant feature of life and commodification of just about everything in life is now the principal mode of existence.
So there's been a fetishisation of commodities that humans see themselves as consumers foremost, And all of that leaves a sense of hollowness.
And that has been the case for a long time.
And many have spoken about this over the course of the last 40 or 50 years.
This leads to a number of reactions.
One is a nostalgic reaction.
And we see that in imaginaries about, you know, a previously better time.
And in the Western public consciousness, those better times can be invoked around traditional values.
They can be invoked around some sense of a previous golden era, etc., etc.
But there's also another kind of reaction, and that is one that seeks to explore alternative ways of thinking about one's own being in the world and the world itself.
And the philosophies from Asia, whether they were the philosophies and aesthetics of Japan or whether they were the philosophies and aesthetics of Buddhism, broadly speaking, have played an important role in that attempt by Western populations, an alienated population, to try to find new groundings in the world.
And this in some respects is a continuation of those sorts of patterns.
They happen because of the hollowing out of meaning in contemporary commodified western capitalist societies and clearly, the attempt to find meaning in the turn to Japan and Japanese aesthetics and Zen Buddhism.
I mean, I remember all those books about, you know, Zen Buddhism and motorcycling Zen Buddhism and blah blah.
And of course Zen Buddhism has strong Chinese origins anyway, in Chan um, so so.
So in some ways, the return to Asia, which goes back to the 1700s, is an attempt to transcend the limitations of the Western Enlightenment imagination and the constraints, if you will, the aesthetic constraints, the ethical constraints and ultimately, the affective constraints that now leave people yearning for more, you know.
So we, we see people talk a lot about the secularization of western societies and i think the key issue here is is a sense of meaning, And this is an attempt to find meaning and purpose.
And some of that comes from self-reflection, comes from cultivating new habits of life and ultimately, comes from transforming one's own mind and body and the relationships between the two through new forms of practices.
So is this a return to Japan?
Well, you know, I think it's actually a continued reaction to the hollowness and the absence of meaning in what is financialized capitalism.
Then would you expect it to be some turn into some niche online subculture?
Well, the one thing about online world is that it enables all sorts of niches to form.
And I will have no doubt that.
You know, subcultures will emerge from this, you know, with people who have deep passions about particular things.
So the digital world enables people with relatively niche interests to connect with others who share similar interests.
And I won't be surprised at all if that happens.
I'm hopeful though, that what it will also do is prick curiosity about other parts of the world, particularly in America, where it is widely understood that the American population tends to have a very insular perspective of themselves, of America, American society and its relationship to the outside world.
And if this is a means by which people in America, particularly younger generation coming through, have their curiosity about the rest of the world provoked and which then encourages them to actually go and discover things for themselves, then I think that'll be a good thing.
Where that ends up in five or 10 years time, specifically in terms of people becoming Chinese.
That's a different question.
But I think more importantly, It is about provoking people to be more open about the possibilities of the world and be more open about the possibilities of others in the world playing a role in their lives.
Individuals are actively presenting China in their own ways, maybe in a more open-minded way.
But could this signal a transfer of a narrative power like very different from a dominant Western media narratives?
Could this turn into a bottom-up rediscovery of culture?
Harvey?
Well, I don't know that I consider it bottom-up, but I consider the fact that we have these new tools that we didn't have when we were talking about, let's say, Japan's rise.
We have social media, we have the internet, we have algorithms that, for good or for bad, drive people to topics that they may be interested in.
And I believe that with those tools now, the world is opening up.
It's there.
We can almost touch it.
We can almost feel it on our phones, on our computer screens and so on.
And, I think, going back to something we talked about moments ago, this fact that President Trump tried to kill TikTok and gave rise to Americans who loved TikTok.
TikTok wanting to preserve the interactions that they had with others and with Chinese people, that they went to some Chinese apps and that they had a people to people connection, even though it was an online connection.
But that connection was very strong and it made people learn more about each other.
It made people learn that, yes, we're different, but we're all more or less the same.
We want the same things.
We want to live a good life.
We want a clean environment.
We don't want war.
And, instead of the demonization that comes out of the mouth of some politicians and rabble-rousers, we started to see a commonality.
And I think that this is a really a very good trend.
I believe that it's actually going to continue And I'm hopeful that, because of this, we are going to be building more and more bridges to China and other cultures, so we can work together on the problems that unite us rather than the problems some of them manmade which divide us.
That's what we all hope for.
But, Chiang, from your perspective, how long do you expect this trend to last?
Well, it's going to be last for quite some time, like always.
Sinology is always a very important study in the Western society for a very long time.
But I think its audience sometimes, you know, circled.
Bigger and smaller wax and wing is yin and yang theory as well.
I think currently we've been entering a stark period of time, like back in 60 years ago when hippies started to pop out in America.
And now I call it, you know, the Confucius style hippie period of time.
People just want to love and a peace again because, as we just mentioned, people just get sick and tired of everything because everything are happening not because of the vast majority of people.
It's not what they're doing.
It's, you know, the top or the elites.
You know, people don't want a war.
People don't want to greenland and only the few families and establishment they want so.
But all the consequences need to be imposed on ordinary families.
So people get sick and tired of all that.
And plus of the long-term impact of the capitalism, you know consumptionism has actually been also on the ordinary families inflation, shopping frenzy and everything.
People suddenly get sick and tired.
They want to weigh out, So they want a different way of life with just a mansion.
So I think currently we've been reaching another climax of this kind of the Oriental Western or some kind of lay down hippest spirit of life.
And well, I'm not going to lie.
It's going to.
Have this wax and whey moment as well, for sure.
For example, when you're hitting another golden period of time of economic growth.
People will just rush into this kind of a massive economic opportunities again if it will benefit every ordinary families.
So I think in the 1940s and 50s people don't buy things like that, because everybody will have their bigger car, bigger house and a bigger family.
So people believe that they can have, and they're awesome.
They believe their self are awesome.
And to follow the mainstream can be the only answer and an important result.
But when you reach 1960s and 70s, people find out, wait a minute, it's all delusional.
We're nothing but an unconsciousness chess on the board.
And then we need to redefine and refine our self, to find the wisdom from, you know, the oriental society, remember steve jobs, find them in india and some other you know very iconic people.
Find buddhism, find yoga, find confucianism back at that moment, right and now.
This is a history coming back again.
So my foresee if you wanted me to do the forecasting, my foresee is that this trend is going to stay all lasting for another 10 years before a climax.
And then when business opportunity come back, and probably people will forget about it a little bit.
But don't worry about that.
But the seed of the wisdom has already been implanted in the whole world.
By that moment, people will know that they always will have another choice of lifestyle besides the current lifestyle they've been living in.
So this will always be here like China, like Chinese culture.
Five thousand years never disappear and always thriving. and longer lasting.
So this is going to be the truth of this Western and our civilization.
Warwick Powell, adjunct professor of the Queensland University of Technology Australia, and Harvey Zoding, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, speaking with our Tu Yun.
That's all the time for this edition of World Today.
I'm your host, Diana.
Thank you so much for listening and happy Chinese Spring Festival and wishing you a prosperous year of the horse.
