The Role Of Culture In Public Diplomacy

Cultural diplomacy has been recognized as an increasing important aspect in publicdiplomacy and is a powerful instrument by government to foster cross-cultural understanding,build trust between nations and promote image and interest. However, how to utilize culturalrelations in international affairs has attracted worldwide attention especially when a country`simage has been views with different opinion on how a countries uses its cultural diplomacy inorder to build and enhance its image. Therefore, the application of China cultural diplomacythrough the Confucius Institute as a non-profit educational organization. According toHanban (2005), the mission of CI is to enhance world people’s understanding to Chineselanguage and culture, diversify the world’s lingua franca and develop the friend relationshipbetween China and other countries in the world. And to enable the public know the realintention of China and Chinese people in promoting it image building globally. From2004to2014China has set up476Confucius Institutes and851Classroom in127countries andregions. The Confucius Institutes project can be seen as an instrument of China culturaldiplomacy, they are seen as a part of wielding China soft power projection in which China isattempting to win the heart and minds of foreign publics.Therefore, as cultural Institution of China, and also it has been regarded as crucial culturaldiplomacy instrument of China. However, there are different opinion on whether ConfuciusInstitutes are China cultural diplomacy of wielding its soft power, with some scholars arguingthat Confucius Institutes are raising China soft power. While other are arguing that ConfuciusInstitutes are not wielding China soft power, On the other hand critiques view ConfuciusInstitutes as propaganda tools of China. With such critics on the capacity of ConfuciusInstitutes to raise China`s soft power. some scholars have studied the Confucius Institutes onthe ability to generate China soft power from a general perspective without focusing onspecific institutes while other have attempted to study specific institutes. However none ofthem have attempted to analyzed the effectiveness of University of Lagos Confucius Institute.Therefore, this thesis aim to conduct an empirical research of the Confucius Institute Lagoswhich is selected as the case study to find out whether it is wielding China soft power andenhancing its image in Nigeria. The thesis tries to answer two questions. First, Does theconduct of Confucius Institutes has a positive impact to enhance China`s image in Nigeria?Secondly, How effective is the Confucius Institute in enhancing China`s image in Nigeria. Isit making it more positive or negative or no change? To answer the above questions, theActivities of University of Lagos Confucius Institute on Nigerian perception of China are embodied and demonstrated based on the empirical data collected through questionnaire thatwere administered to the students at the University of Lagos Confucius Institute and alsoinformation were source through the internet, journal articles, Newspaper, and textbooks. Thethesis illustrates on whether the Confucius Institute Lagos activities are affecting positively ornegatively on Nigerian perceptions of China or it does not have any effect. However, theresearch were done under the frame work of cultural diplomacy and public diplomacy as wellas the application of China Cultural and public diplomacy. In making the data presentationand analysis, simple percentage and tables were used to ascertain the views of the studentsthrough the questionnaires that was administered to them at the University of LagosConfucius Institute. This will provide the existing literature of the cultural diplomacy throughthe Confucius Institute project which has been views differently among scholars. Theresearch finding indicates that the students before their enrolment into the Confucius Instituteprogram their perceptions of China and Chinese people were very negative. But after learningand understanding of Chinese language and culture for some period of1to2years theirperceptions of China and Chinese people became very positive. This indicates that theactivities of University of Lagos Confucius Institute are affecting the students perception ofChina in a more positive way since majority of the students at the University of LagosConfucius Institute have now change their negative perceptions of China and Chinese peopleto a positive way. This also shows that Confucius Institute is making a contribution inpromoting the positive image of China and raising its soft power in Nigeria. However, despiteall the achievements being made by the Unilag Confucius Institute. There exist some areas ofconcerned that are limiting the effective role of the Confucius Institute programs inpromoting and enhancing the good image of China in Nigeria which includes Scarcity oflocalized Chinese teaching materials, lack of qualified Chinese teacher in the Institute and theneed for more expansion of cultural center. Although the Unilag of Confucius Institute is stillat it primary stages of development, it has the potential to wield more China`s soft power inthe future in Nigeria if the authority could spare no effort to overcome the existing challengesin the entire project of Confucius Institute. However, the thesis recommends that since thereare two Confucius Institutes in Nigeria and the researcher was focus on single case study ofUnilag Confucius Institute. Therefore, Future studies can be done by conducting a researchon the Nnamdi Azikiwe Confucius Institutes Abuja so as to have the complete picture of theactivities of Confucius Institutes in promoting and raising the good image of China in Nigeria...