The Greater Bay Area: film festivals as platforms for cultural diplomacy

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (the Greater Bay Area), formally established in 2019, is envisioned by the government as a 'world-class city cluster' partly aiming at promoting China's soft power globally. Given the intensity of the global competition for cultural power, this article examines tensions arising between the political imperative for ideological unity at home and the diplomatic need for global engagement. It approaches the question through a case study of Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival (GZDOC)-China's only state-level documentary festival, established in 2003. In incorporating market practices into its state-led regime, GZDOC has appropriated a model of cultural diplomacy to balance the political need for regional integration and nation branding with the commercial imperative of engaging with the global marketplace-to mediate the conflict between 'localisation' and 'internationalisation' of the cultural brand. However, the main challenges facing the festival agenda lie in the uncertainties of the regulatory regime involving censorship and legislation for intellectual property rights.