Development of Chinese Cultural Governance since the Reform and Opening-up

Contemporary Chinese cultural governance is an important part of the national governance system and the modernization of national governance capacity. It must combine international experience and local method together and run through the whole process of cultural system reform. The good governance of culture is the goal pursued by Chinese cultural governance, which displays the management process of maximizing cultural public interest. In the new era, cultural governance reform has experienced governance subject centralized to pluralism, governance space from inside to outside, governance method from ruling by man to the rule of law, governance path from control-oriented government to service-oriented government. To further improve Chinese cultural governance in the new era, relationships between top-level design and grass-root innovation, cultural democracy and cultural concentration, national cultural interests, social cultural interests and cultural interests of the citizens, domestic cultural governance and global culture must be dialectically dealt with. In the government-market-social governance structure, mutual assistance of multiple missions and win-win of multiple subjects can be achieved, thus promoting harmony of multiple interests.

Grimy Heritage:Organic Bar Streets in Shanghai and Tokyo

Every city has built environments that are largely regarded as eyesores,for aesthetic,social,or moral reasons.Urban nightlife streets are examples of such‘grimy heritage’.Not only shabby and disorderly,they harbour forms of commercial sex,drinking cultures,and ephemeral nightlife cultures that many city residents and government officials consider undesirable.Sometimes their built forms are regarded as the enemy of genuine heritage architecture,since they obscure more solid,carefully designed structures around them.However,in many cities,organic nightlife streets—developing in such spaces precisely because they were derelict or poorly regulated—serve important social functions as spaces of creativity and community formation.This paper examines the ways that such‘grimy heritage’has developed in Shanghai and Tokyo,using examples from ethnographic research and historical sources,and addressing the question of the contribution of the‘grimy heritage’to authentic,urban social life.

The path,value and limits of the Confucius Institute in carrying out public diplomacy

On the basis of Chinese language teaching and cultural communication activities,the Confucius Institute carries out a variety of cultural exchange activities between China and the host country,which has become an effective way for China to carry out public diplomacy and participate in global cultural governance.By analysing the concepts of public diplomacy,cultural diplomacy,people-to-people exchange and cultural governance,this paper summarises three typical paths of Confucius Institutes in carrying out public diplomacy:‘from the government to foreign nationals’,‘from the government to Chinese citizens and then to foreign nationals’,and‘from the government to foreign nationals and then to foreign nationals’.The value of the Confucius Institute in carrying out public diplomacy is reflected on the level of national diplomacy,international exchange and global governance.Furthermore,the capability of the Confucius Institute as a language and cultural communication institution initiated by China and in cooperation with other countries in carrying out public diplomacy is limited.This limitation,on one hand,originates from the nature of the Confucius Institute as a language and cultural communication organisation,and on the other hand,is related to the difficulties and challenges that China faces in its participation in global governance.Public diplomacy and cultural diplomacy are based on national interests.They also transcend national interests and,furthermore,become a way for a country to actively participate in global cultural governance.The experience of and challenges faced by the Confucius Institute can have important implications for China in participating in global cultural governance.