1. Introduction.- 2. China’s Soft Power Building and Its TV Industry as a Soft Powerhouse.- 3. Foreign Markets and Professionals: The Gatekeepers.- 4. Local Embeddedness vs. China’s Soft Power: The Case of Offline Media.- 5. The Conversion Paradox in Quasi-Sinophone East Asia.- 6. The Limits of Outsourced Soft Power.- 7. Seeking Virtual Capital through Online Media in the Digital Age.- 8. Conclusions.- 9. Postscript: Envisioning the Future of China’s Soft Power.

“Soft Power Made in China gives a comprehensive picture of how China’s soft power—TV programs in particular—faces opportunities and constraints in the transnational circuit of media production, distribution, and consumption in East Asia. The book includes up-to-date information gathered through the author’s own fieldwork, as well as relevant secondary materials; it also introduces key concepts in cultural and economic sociology. Empirically well-grounded and theoretically insightful, this book is an indispensable new study.” (Seio Nakajima, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University, Japan)“Claire Seungeun Lee in her new book provides a thoroughly-researched critical analysis of China’s Soft Power strategy in East Asia. Her book will surely stimulate further debates not only on the controversial concept of soft power itself, but also on a range of interdisciplinary issues concerning the future of the region in the context of China’s rise.”(Xin Xin, Reader in International Communications, University of Westminster, UK) “Soft Power Made in China has provided us a uniquely comparative and empirically rich study and fills the existing gap in the literature on China’s soft power. This book uniquely vested efforts to engage with the audiences of East Asia—Sinophone and quasi-Sinophone communities—of transnational Chinese soft power projection via media and unveils the Chinese soft power dilemma in the region. Claire Seungeun Lee’s book offers insights to soft power competition in global South in the Chinese century.” (Jia Gao, author of Social Mobilisation in Post-Industrial China, 2018)

Offers empirical findings based on extensive fieldwork along with a novel theoretical framework to rethink soft power studies from an interactive and comparative standpoint Contributes to current research on China’s soft power via media products by analyzing its manifestation in two interconnected processes of strategic generation and embedded reception in neighboring East Asian developed countries Utilizes a multidisciplinary approach grounded in audience research, sociological studies, science and technology studies, and institutional approaches