Growing cultural confidence

Zhang Hanyu is a PhD student in Atlanta, Georgia and a Bilibili veteran of six years. Her interests on the website cover many subjects – from deep learning courses to pranks, vlogs and beauty makeups.

“I love the bullet screen. It makes funny videos even funnier,” Zhang said, adding that she is such a fan of the platform that she even bought Bilibili stocks.

Zhang also watches videos randomly showing traditional Chinese dress. “Although this is still a subculture group, such videos instill in our overseas Chinese some confidence in our culture.”

Zhang said that she can often feel the confidence in being a Chinese today. “People from different countries around me all put expectations on China.” She also said that she plans to work as a teacher to encourage the next generation of Chinese engineers, especially female engineers.

Zhao Shi, a Bilibili user since 2015, said that watching Bilibili is part of her daily routine and she loves the channels on food and life the most. She likes the advertisement-free videos on the website, as well as the rich array of films, TV and anime resources on it. She thinks Bilibili is multicultural and overall a fantastic platform.

Zhao, a university student in South China’s Guangdong Province, said that she felt China’s voice on the international stage has been growing increasingly louder

thanks to the rise of its national strength and reputation.

“I’d like to align my personal goals with the ‘Chinese dream.’ While embracing positive culture from other countries, I also want to introduce traditional Chinese culture to the world.”

Professor Zhang Yiwu noted that the popular rock and punk culture pursued by the 70s and 80s generation is more of a rebellion against real life and local culture. As the earlier group of young Chinese people to have more contact with Western culture after the reform and opening-up, they looked up to the cultural differences between East and West, yearning for the possibility of a better life in developed countries.

Some people who were born in the 1970s grew up in a less affluent society and those born in the 1980s did not grow up in the internet age – they experienced the transformation of China going from poor to rich first-hand. This kind of longing and admiration of the West came from a lack of confidence, Zhang said.

However, the younger generation now has the confidence to look at Western culture with equal status. They believe that different lifestyles and values are the result of the different cultural and social development trends, not that China is backward in any way, he noted.

“This kind of cultural confidence will result in China being more active and creative in its development on the international stage in the future.”