This review celebrates editors Jarmila Ptáčková, Ondřej Klimeš, and Gary Rawnsley’s Transnational Sites of China’s Cultural Diplomacy. Ptáčková Et. Al. advocate for a transnational approach to the study of Chinese cultural diplomacy, suggesting that various sites or localities that aim to improve the image of the PRC aboard can be read as discrete units of analysis. This method stresses the need to expand our understanding of how state or non-state actors’ excerpt or fail to excerpt influence within a given region. An emphasis is placed on the diverse set of forces that are involved in shaping the meaning of a given states cultural diplomacy. The nine chapters in this volume demonstrate how different “sites” influence China’s cultural diplomacy. An effort is made to emphasize how China has adapted or failed to adapt to local circumstance, stressing the governments rapidly changing and developing cultural-diplomatic apparatus. It is concluded that this volume constitutes an important contribution to the study of policy, cultural diplomacy, and our future understanding of the PRC and its ability to win over hearts and minds in a global context.
Book Review: Zvyagelskaya, I.D. (2018). Middle East and Central Asia. Global Trends in Regional Performance. Moscow: Aspect Press, 224 p. (in Russian)