http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25910722
2014/1/28
"President Xi Jinping has vowed to promote China's cultural soft power by disseminating modern Chinese values and showing the charm of Chinese culture to the world.
"China should be portrayed as a civilised country featuring rich history, ethnic unity and cultural diversity, and as an oriental power with good government, developed economy, cultural prosperity, national unity and beautiful mountains and rivers, Xi said.
"China should also be marked as a responsible country that advocates peaceful and common development, safeguards international justice, and makes contributions to humanity, and as a socialist country which is open, amicable, promising and vibrant."
Chinese President Xi Jinping is determined to promote China's cultural "soft power", and this applies to pop music too. The singer carrying the state's hopes for success in the West is Ruhan Jia - but can the Communist Party machine create a star?
"I'm going to kick off my shoes tonight," Ruhan Jia tells me, backstage before a concert in Shanghai. "It makes me feel more wild, I can jump around."
Feeling wild is not something that comes naturally to the 31-year- old classically trained musician.
She doesn't drink, smoke, or go to nightclubs. Her life is dominated by one aim, to become a global hit in the West - and she has the power of the Chinese state behind her.
But success means learning to adopt the confidence and attitude of a Western pop star. Starting with the shoes.
In 2011, Ruhan became the first artist to be signed to Earth's Music, a state-backed initiative to produce Chinese musicians that can crack the international music market.
It's part of an attempt to increase China's soft power - its cultural appeal around the world. The Earth's Music project is seen as so important that it's even said to have been included in the current five-year economic plan.
"If you have a strong economy, people think of you as a big country, and we have a strong economy," explains Bill Zang, Vice President of Synergy, Ruhan's record label.
"But only when you are strong culturally are you seen as a superpower."
Trained at the Shanghai Music Conservatory, one of China's leading classical music institutions, Ruhan's soaring soprano voice has won her a role in several high profile projects, including Damon Albarn's rock opera, Monkey: Journey to the West.
"My childhood was playing my piano," she says. "Every day after school I would practise for four hours… that was all I did."
Now though, she must relearn, turning her classically trained voice into something less refined, more uninhibited.
For the evening's concert she performs with American rock group Edisun, and true to her promise, the shoes are neatly flicked off, mid-duet.
Synergy thinks that East-West fusion music is the key to cracking the global music market. That's why Ruhan is collaborating with Edisun. Her songs combine elements of Chinese music with Western pop.
But so far Western bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Metallica have had far more success in tapping into the enormous and increasingly wealthy Chinese market, than their Chinese counterparts have had in the West. In terms of cultural exports, China has a long way to go to reach superpower level.