A new article by Jie Wang examining China’s soft power and the Chinese teaching and learning in Egypt

The Mapping Connections Project is pleased to announce the recent publication of an article by Jie Wang on China’s soft power and the Chinese teaching and learning in Egypt in the journal Globalisation, Societies and Education. The article can be found here and the abstract is as follows

Soft Power from Below: Cultural Intermediaries as a Categorical Perspective on the Chinese Language in Egypt

In recent years, as elsewhere in the MENA, an increasing number of Egyptians have undertaken the study of Chinese. Existing scholarship on this burgeoning trend has tended to focus on the Confucius Institutes, a state-led, soft power-oriented policy initiative. This article argues for expanding understandings of soft power beyond official frameworks and the confines of International Relations through a methodological turn. Drawing on a case study of Cairo’s Kamal Shan Vocational Training Centre, this article proposes ‘cultural intermediaries’ as a categorical perspective on the promotion of the Chinese language among locals. Such an approach opens a new avenue for understanding: 1) soft power as socially constructed rather than simply imposed through top-down state initiatives; and 2) the roles non-state actors play in the shaping of local perceptions of China. Cairo’s Kamal Shan Vocational Training Centre pioneers vocational Chinese training that directly benefits local learners’ economic mobility, educational migration, and career development. In addition, it has successfully introduced courses in Human Resources Chinese and Industrial Chinese into the factories and offices of several Chinese enterprises, thereby contributing to the training of the local workforce ­– both a key component of, and an ongoing challenge in, these enterprises’ globalisation and localisation.