Folk soft power in nation-state building: the political use of folk culture in post-Mao China

Folk culture was typically associated with rural superstitions and feudal norms. It was appropriated by the state and intellectuals to modernize the nation and mobilize the masses to unshackle China from the grip of the imperialist invasion in Republican China, and was later revolutionized to help construct socialist China. However, after being condemned as the Four Olds, folk culture experienced a nationwide revival in post-Mao China. This article explores the official use of folk culture in realizing domestic political goals in post-Mao China, a strategy that I call 'folk soft power.' Through a case study of the largest folk art fair in contemporary rural China, I examine how the fair received official endorsements as a social basis for building a socialist spiritual civilization and a harmonious society in the reform era. It was also heritagized as a national intangible cultural heritage (ICH) to create a shared cultural identity in the new millennium. I argue that the Chinese authorities deploy folk soft power to reproduce a people-oriented state and a Chinese nation rooted in folk culture. Folk soft power deliberately makes light of state presence to consolidate regime legitimacy and reorient the meaning of Chineseness.