Pop Singer Ruhan Jia Groomed by China for Global Stardom
“Time to Grow” was produced in Sweden and mixed by Bernard Lohr, who has worked with Celine Dion and Il Divo. A British record company is distributing it. Jia’s manager is a woman from Taiwan who has lived in the U.S. and Europe for years. Jia’s recording contract is with the biggest music company in China.
Her career has the backing of the Chinese government, which desperately wants an officially approved artist to gain the kind of worldwide attention its dissidents usually get.
“Time to Grow” is the first release from China’s Earth’s Music project, which is part of the government’s five-year national economic development plan.
“The government definitely wants to be No. 1 in everything,” says Zang from the front seat of the SUV. “But to find artists who fit in, who speak English, there’s not too many to choose from. Then we heard Ruhan’s song. We hadn’t heard this kind of singing before.”
That same year, Chinese President Hu Jintao made a speech about promoting Chinese culture at home and abroad.
The concept of soft power was popularized in the late 1980s by Harvard professor Joseph Nye. Today, as China confronts Japan over disputed islands in the East China Sea and squabbles with other countries over uninhabited islands in the South China Sea, Nye says Beijing is especially aware of the need to win friends.
“How do you prevent your neighbors from forming coalitions against you?” he says. “By appearing to be a popular culture and an attractive place.”
China lags behind much smaller countries such as South Korea as a cultural force because of its lack of liberty, says Ting Wai, a professor at Hong Kong Baptist University who studies Chinese soft power.
