Beyond products

This new cultural confidence is expressed on the global stage. China is moving beyond exporting singular products to deploying what Shi Anbin, director of the Tsinghua-Epstein Center for Global Media and Communication at Tsinghua University, calls "clustered exports".

The spearhead is the digital "New Trio": web novels, online games, and web dramas, which form a complementary cluster. Chinese web novels attract readers worldwide, from Southeast Asia to North America; web dramas are rapidly expanding overseas, captivating audiences; and games like Black Myth: Wukong have become global blockbusters.

This digital ecosystem is amplified by Chinese-born global platforms like TikTok and Xiaohongshu (RedNote), which provide the infrastructure for organic, peer-driven cultural diffusion. As The Economist noted in a 2025 piece titled "How China became Cool", this grassroots, commercial charm offensive is effectively reshaping the country's international image.

It has increasingly become the case, analysts say, that China has stopped anxiously comparing itself to external benchmarks and started building a new language of cultural creativity and confidence.

Its codes are written in record-shattering box-office numbers, sold-out museum souvenirs, viral web dramas, and the quiet choice of a domestically crafted scent.