文化软力量 Cultural Soft Power

联合早报今天刊登了郑永年题为‘是什么阻碍了中国文化软力量的崛起’的文章。题目本身就包含了好几个命题。传统文化是否是软力量是个命题。传统文化的崛起也是个命题。如何把这两个命题联系起来，也是值得探讨的。

美国教授 Joseph Nye 第一次使用‘软力量’这个名词时，显然是以探讨美国如何维持世界强国地位为背景。他发现由强劲经济衍变出来的流行文化，犹如牡丹加绿叶，互相补助而令美国的经济持续发展，同时加强美国在世界的领导地位。据我的了解，传统文化作为一种软文化，尚未有深入的探讨。

郑文的第二段写：“中国的新一代吃着麦当劳，读着哈利波特长大，不知道自己国家历史上还有李白、杜甫、花木兰，还有刘胡兰、高玉宝，甚至有大学生不知道《论语》《春秋》和《孙子兵法》。”

把西方目前流行文化（麦当劳，哈里波特）和中国的传统文化（论语，春秋）相提并论，是否适当？经济实力与流行文化的关联可能比与传统文化的关联来得紧密。以中国目前的经济实力，恐怕还未能发展出世界性的流行文化。美国的流行文化风靡世界，可是这能说明美国人保留，注重和深刻了解本身的传统文化吗？

当然，这并不否认文化崛起的重要性。到底民族文化为我们立身于世之本，不了解民族文化，我们岂不成为无魂之体，行尸走肉了吗？

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The term Soft Power was first coined by Harvard University Professor Joseph Nye, in a 1990 book, Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power. He further developed the concept in his 2004 book, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. Soft power is not exclusively cultural power, yet exporting cultural goods that hold attraction for other countries can communicate values and influence those societies.

Joseph Nye: Power is the ability to alter the behavior of others to get what you want. There are basically three ways to do that: coercion (sticks), payments (carrots), and attraction (soft power). British historian Niall Ferguson described soft power as “non-traditional forces such as cultural and commercial goods”—and then promptly dismissed it on the grounds that “it’s, well, soft.” Of course, the fact that a foreigner drinks Coca-Cola or wears a Michael Jordan T-shirt does not in itself mean that America has power over him. This view confuses resources with behavior. Whether power resources produce a favorable outcome depends upon the context. This reality is not unique to soft-power resources: Having a larger tank army may produce military victory if a battle is fought in the desert, but not if it is fought in swampy jungles such as Vietnam.
A country’s soft power can come from three resources: its culture (in places where it is attractive to others), its political values (when it lives up to them at home and abroad), and its foreign policies (when they are seen as legitimate and having moral authority). Consider Iran. Western music and videos are anathema to the ruling mullahs, but attractive to many of the younger generation to whom they transmit ideas of freedom and choice. American culture produces soft power among some Iranians, but not others.