[SCMP]Wang Huiyao: How China can borrow from Aristotle’s art of rhetoric to tell its story better
February 19 , 2022■ Facts and figures are important, but China’s story cannot be told in terms of GDP and bilateral trade alone.
■ An effective way to boost credibility and emotional pull is to let diverse voices tell stories about China, forming a rich, eclectic non-governmental discourse.
By Wang Huiyao | Founder of the Center for China and Globalization(CCG)
We’ve come a long way since the writer Lu Xun bemoaned the plight of a “voiceless China” to an audience at the Hong Kong YMCA nearly a century ago. Today, China has built the world’s largest diplomatic network, a globe-spanning media organisation, and plays a prominent role in multilateral organisations.
The country is one of the world’s great developmental success stories and its handling of the pandemic has been remarkable by any measure.
Yet negative views of the country persist abroad and have increased in advanced economies since the outbreak of Covid-19, according to the latest survey by the Pew Research Center.
What explains this gap between China’s achievements and its international image? Geopolitics, cultural differences and the West’s global media hegemony are surely part of the answer. China’s image is often coloured by misunderstandings, stereotypes or biased reporting.
Even so, those who “speak for China” could do more to nurture a national image that is credible, admirable and respectable. Simply having a voice is not enough. It must also be used to tell stories that global audiences find persuasive.
For a guide in this endeavour, one could do worse than pick Aristotle. The Greek philosopher laid out principles that have shaped Western rhetoric since ancient times. His Rhetoric is one of the most important works ever written on the topic of persuasion.
At the heart of Aristotle’s theory is a trinity of elements and how they work together: logos, pathos and ethos.
First comes logos – appealing to reason. When facing false claims or distortions, people speaking for China should remain calm and construct rational counter arguments. In our current charged atmosphere, it is all too easy to react impulsively to unreasonable attacks and try to fight fire with fire. But such responses will not win over sceptical audiences unless they are based on solid logic and empirical evidence.
China’s story is full of mind-boggling numbers: 800 million people have been lifted out of extreme poverty; it is a vast market set to import over US$22 trillion worth of goods over the next decade; it has pledged 2 billion vaccine doses to other countries, and it will plant 36,000 square kilometres (14,000 square miles) of new forest each year.
These facts and figures are proof of China’s contribution to global growth and public goods. They appeal to the interest of nations and people around the world and are powerful tools to deploy in the name of logos.
However, when it comes to persuasion, Aristotle reminds us that logic alone is not enough. To sway an audience, pathos – emotional appeal – is also important.
One way to create emotional resonance is to frame issues in terms of themes and values shared by global audiences. Another is to bring narratives to life with relatable characters.
The importance of characters in storytelling is universal and a widely held belief in modern public relations and marketing. Recent research has even found that character-based narratives cause the synthesis of oxytocin, a neurochemical that motivates people to cooperate.
Telling stories imbued with human pathos is especially important in a fragmented era when all things local are making a comeback. Stories about abstract processes like “globalisation” or “the rise of China” are complex and difficult to comprehend. They can even cause anxiety – especially when shaped by malign interests.
Macro narratives should be fleshed out at a more human scale to make them more resonant. For example, there could be vivid portraits of how poverty alleviation changes the lives of individual farmers and families, or how the Belt and Road Initiative benefits overseas communities at the grass-roots level.
This brings us to the persuasive power of ethos, which rests on the credibility, authority and moral character of the speaker. Without ethos, appeals to logic and emotion may not be trusted in the first place.
To establish ethos, those speaking for China must be willing to engage and build rapport with others who may have different world views or preconceptions. This means accepting invitations to speak to the foreign media and public audiences, instead of refusing because they might be critical.
Ethos requires a willingness to listen and converse in good faith, a recognition that confidence and humility are not mutually exclusive and that to be tolerant is not to lack a firm stance.
The need to engage and promote constructive dialogue is a key theme of I Talk About China to the World, a recent book by the Center for China and Globalization. It recounts the think tank’s efforts to connect with global audiences on stages such as Davos, the Munich Security Conference and the Paris Peace Forum.
An effective way to boost credibility and emotional pull at the same time is to empower a diversity of voices to tell stories about China, forming an eclectic non-governmental discourse that spans policy, business, culture and everyday life.
Social media allows anyone to tell their story – young or old, male or female, rural or urban, from any walk of life. Giving voice to these stories will help to convey the diversity and complexity of China, unlike simplistic narratives that reduce the lives of 1.4 billion people to narrow tropes or political issues.
Scholars can support this polyphonic storytelling by drawing on their specialist expertise and research to frame and discuss China’s development, challenges and solutions in the language of social science and other disciplines.
Non-governmental voices can be more enterprising in shaping the terms of the debate on China by using diplomatic backchannels and developing new multilateral platforms for exchange.
When it comes to speaking for China, Aristotle reminds us that an acerbic tone does not help convince others; that facts and figures are important, but that China’s story cannot be told in terms of GDP and bilateral trade alone. China has a great story to tell and a diverse cast of calm but proactive voices is needed to tell it.
From SCMP， 2022-2-19
