Why Chinese Propaganda Loves Foreign Travel Bloggers

//Spend some time browsing YouTube or Instagram and you might come across a growing new genre: China travel vlogs.

……The bloggers have been interviewed by Chinese state media and their experiences promoted with trending hashtags such as “Foreign tourists have become our internet spokespeople.”

Many of the videos in the genre appear authentic, without the typical hallmarks of state involvement, said Fang Kecheng, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who studies Chinese propaganda. The market for the videos — in the West as well as China — points to a real hunger for more diverse, human-oriented stories about China, Professor Fang said.

“It actually reflects that the mainstream media do have their problems in terms of China coverage,” he said. “They do tend to focus more on geopolitics.”

But he cautioned that the travel videos, in making sweeping statements about the “real China,” risked being equally one-dimensional. “It’s also another kind of not respecting the agency or autonomy of people actually living in this country.”//

Full article: https://nyti.ms/4d7ZnxE (The New York Times)