(A Closer Look at China: Diplomacy) Facing the world, how does Xi Jinping tell stories?
China News Agency, Beijing, September 27th: Facing the world, how does Xi Jinping tell stories?
Author Zhong Sanping
"The land is fertile, the crops are ready to be planted, the trees are lush, the flowers and fruits are lush, and there are many good horses."
Before the start of his Central Asia tour in September 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a signed article published by the Uzbek media, told the story of Xuanzang, a monk in the Tang Dynasty, depicting the beauty of Samarkand.
The history of friendly exchanges between the two countries for thousands of years comes from the story.
If diplomacy is an art about communication, "storytelling" may be one of the most effective forms of communication.
It can be the spring breeze and the rain, moisturizing things silently, but also deafening and thought-provoking. This is the power of the story.
As the "first speaker" of Chinese stories, Xi Jinping often uses storytelling in his speeches on visits and signed articles published by foreign media to let people in more countries hear China's voice and enhance mutual understanding.
Counting down the stories that Xi Jinping has told on diplomatic occasions, it is not difficult to find that the long and long history of exchanges between China and foreign countries is his inexhaustible "material library".
In Singapore, a maritime transportation hub, Xi Jinping talked about the model of Zheng He's treasure ship in the local museum;
In India, the place where Buddhism originated, Xi Jinping mentioned the allusions of the White Horse Packed Sutra;
In Iran on the Silk Road, Xi Jinping said that the deputy envoy of the Chinese envoy Zhang Qian had received a grand reception here.
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Data map: "Zheng He's Treasure Ship" 1:1 scale reconstruction of the hull.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Yang Bo
In the long history, China has forged indissoluble bonds with many countries, forming a common memory of acquaintance and acquaintance today.
Whether it was hearing about camel bells or seeing each other in boats, the past exchanges have become the stories of today, and also build the foundation for future interactions.
How to make audiences with different cultural backgrounds understand what the Chinese say?
Those stories that inspire cultural resonance often create a wonderful "chemical reaction" between the teller and the listener, which is exactly the trick for Xi Jinping to quickly shorten the distance between each other.
At the Mayor's Dinner in London, UK, Xi Jinping talked about two drama masters from the East and the West, Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu.
"Everyone who has read Shakespeare's works can not only feel his outstanding talent, but also get profound life inspiration."
At the same time, he also introduced to the British audience, "Tang Xianzu, a playwright of the Ming Dynasty in China, is known as the 'Shakespeare of the East'. world-renowned".
The resonance of the two literary giants on the same frequency has shortened the "cultural distance" between China and the United Kingdom.
In Seattle, Washington, USA, when talking about Hemingway and his "The Old Man and the Sea", Xi Jinping also mentioned an anecdote of his own: "I went to the bar Hemingway used to go to, and ordered Hemingway's favorite rum. The wine was served with mint leaves and ice. I wanted to experience the spirit and the on-the-ground atmosphere of Hemingway’s time when he wrote those stories.”
In a few words and a few stories, Xi Jinping made the listeners feel that China on the other side of the ocean is not the "other" in culture.
When telling the world about China, Xi Jinping often uses storytelling, and he tells his own or his friends' stories many times.
When describing the development of China, he did not use grand scenes or any statistics, but chose a village closely related to his personal experience - the changes in Liangjiahe.
In an overseas visit, Xi Jinping recounted his time as a farmer in Liangjiahe, Shaanxi Province, "My fellow villagers and I all lived in earthen kilns and slept on earthen kangs. The villagers lived very poor and often could not eat a piece of food for a few months. Meat", "One of the things I look forward to very much is to let the villagers have a full meal of meat and eat meat often. However, this wish was difficult to achieve at the time."
Immediately afterwards, he talked about the current changes in Liangjiahe, "This year's Spring Festival, I returned to this small village. Liangjiahe built an asphalt road, villagers live in brick houses, use the Internet, the elderly enjoy basic pensions, the villagers They have health insurance, children can get a good education, and of course eating meat is no longer a problem.”
Data map: Scenery of Liangjiahe Village, Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province.
Image source: Visual China
As the leader of more than 1.4 billion Chinese people, in Xi Jinping's story of China told to the outside world, the complex and profound changes in China's past and present are condensed in a small village.
The grand narrative of China's development is reduced to vivid details everywhere.
Howard Schultz, honorary chairman of the Starbucks board of directors, was also one of the audience at the time. Through Xi Jinping's remarks, "Liangjiahe", a place name he had never heard of before, left a deep impression on him.
The story that happened in this small village in northern Shaanxi, China, gave Schultz a deeper understanding of the commonalities between the Chinese dream and the American dream.
"China needs to know more about the world, and the world also needs to know more about China." In the conversation, in the moving, in the long-lasting story, people see a specific and touching Chinese leader, and also see to a grand and complex China.
Interpreting Xi Jinping's storytelling also opens up the possibility for more people to become the "speakers" of Chinese stories.
In the Internet era, everyone is an "export of value"; in the era of the global village, everyone is a "national business card".
In this era that requires communication and understanding, touching stories is becoming a world language for communication between China and foreign countries.
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