Chinese Blockbuster Holds A Lesson For China’s Soft Power – Analysis

 March 16, 2025 

By East Asia Forum

By Wanning Sun

The release of Ne Zha 2, an animated feature film about a rebellious boy from Chinese mythology, has been hailed as a DeepSeek moment in China’s film industry. Its success makes the case for market-driven cultural diplomacy rather than government direction.

Since its release in cinemas throughout China on 29 January 2025, the film about a god-boy grossed over US$1 billion in China in nine days. This makes Ne Zha 2 the first movie to break US$1 billion in a single market — overtaking Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It is also the first time a film produced outside the Hollywood Studio System has crossed the US$1 billion mark.

A few key ingredients may account for the phenomenal box office success of Ne Zha 2. One is certainly its creative energy. The film takes a story from ancient Chinese mythology and turns it into a visual feast that is funny, fast-paced and irreverent. Its release as one of the ‘Chinese New Year Films’ (he sui pian) — a marketing gimmick that can be traced back to the post-war Hong Kong film industry — also contributed to domestic success. Another could be its ability to appeal to the patriotism of domestic audiences by poking light fun at the United States.

Above all, like DeepSeek, Ne Zha 2 relied on local talent. The film took five years to make and involved more than 130 Chinese companies. Producer and Director Yang Yu said he initially wanted to engage an overseas animation team to help with the special effects but struggled to win interest. Eventually, China’s Base FX took on the challenge.

Ne Zha 2 is a market endeavour, but this does not stop the Chinese government from boasting about it. After all, Party policy thinkers have thought long and hard about how to get mainstream international audiences, especially those in the West, to consume Chinese content. As early as the 1990s, the Chinese government was aware of the undue dominance of Western media in shaping global attitudes towards China. Enamoured of the idea of soft power, Beijing has spent around 6 billion dollars trying to get its state media content to ‘go global’ and compete with Western discourses.

The agenda of the ‘go global’ mission was to ‘tell China’s story’ to the world, with its own voice and perspective. Complimentary copies of China’s state media outlet China Daily became widely available in many major cities in the West. Chinese state media organisations also tried to forge collaborations or partnerships with Western media outlets by signing memorandums. But these initiatives have to a large extent backfired, producing widespread suspicion and anxiety about Chinese influence. The rest of the world, especially Western countries, tend to find the content of Chinese media boring, hollow and propagandistic.

In turn, the entertainment sector, not primarily tasked with telling China’s story or targeting international audiences, has shown some promising signs of delivering soft power dividends. For instance, the Chinese television dating show If You Are the One took flight in Australia and many other countries. Unlike state news media, entertainment programs like If You Are the One offer a glimpse of Chinese society that is mostly missing from the Western media, thereby offering a much-needed counterbalance — even a healthy antidote — to the China influence narrative. Though not initially tasked with promoting an attractive China, the show presented aspects of contemporary Chinese society that are more convincing, relatable and even endearing to its Western viewers.

Like If You Are the One, Ne Zha 2 is a market product that primarily targets Chinese-speaking viewers and has gone global via market mechanisms rather than Party decree. Ne Zha 2 debuted in North America on 14 February 2025 after special screenings on 12 February, and launched in cinemas in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea on 13 February. Additional releases are also planned for other countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Egypt, South Africa, Pakistan, Japan and South Korea. Now six weeks since its initial release, the film has surpassed US$2 billion at the box office. Its grossing figures continue to rise.

The phenomenal box-office value of Ne Zha 2 sends a clear message to Disney and its subsidiary Pixar — Chinese audiences may no longer need to be entertained by Hollywood blockbusters. It also puts the heads of other animation studios — including DreamWorks, Warner Bros, and (in Japan) Studio Ghibli — on notice, suggesting that Chinese animations could soon vie to attract a global audience that has so far been almost monopolised by Disney. Most significantly, the Chinese animation industry may soon begin to reverse the Mulan phenomenon — rather than letting the Americans tell a Chinese story, why can’t the Chinese tell a Western story?

At the very least, perhaps the Chinese government will get the message this time — keep your hands off and let markets do the job of finding innovative ways of showcasing Chinese culture to the world.

• About the author: Wanning Sun is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney. She also serves as Deputy Director of the UTS Australia-China Relations Institute.
• Source: This article was published by East Asia Forum

Detail of Ne Zha 2 poster. Credit: Wikipedia Commons

East Asia Forum is a platform for analysis and research on politics, economics, business, law, security, international relations and society relevant to public policy, centred on the Asia Pacific region. It consists of an online publication and a quarterly magazine, East Asia Forum Quarterly, which aim to provide clear and original analysis from the leading minds in the region and beyond.