A Study of the Culture of Five Relationships: The Cultural Soft Power of China and the Overseas Chinese

Abstract

This article focuses on the study of China’s cultural “soft power,” particularly in terms of the “Five Aspects of Relationship-Based Culture,” or in Chinese, “Wu Yuan Culture (五缘文化).” It describes the nature of interpersonal relationships that constitute social networks within Chinese culture, comprising: kinship culture (亲缘文化), geographical culture (地缘文化), religious culture (神缘文化), professional culture (业缘文化), and object-related culture (物缘文化). These cultural forms are central to the social and cultural networks of the Chinese people, helping to deeply understand the relationship between the overseas Chinese and the Five Relationships Culture. This study provides a clearer picture of the relationship between the overseas Chinese and the Five Relationships Culture, which is considered a form of China’s cultural soft power. It demonstrates and reflects the distinctive Chinese culture through the lives of overseas Chinese in foreign lands.