In 2025, an animated film broke box office records and brought in around $2.13 billion, making it the fifth-highest-grossing movie of all time and the highest-grossing animation. This time, it was not “Zootopia,” and it was not “Frozen” either. It was a Chinese film called “Ne Zha 2.”
In a film industry once dominated by the U.S., “Ne Zha 2” may appear to represent a growing Chinese stake in the global film industry. Yet looking more closely at “Ne Zha 2’s” success paints a slightly different picture. Little known in the U.S., over 99% of the film’s box office revenue came from mainland China, with only $23 million grossed in the United States.
Although “Ne Zha 2” mostly found success in China itself, the film still represents a growing pop culture industry within China. In recent years, box office sales in China have exceeded those in the United States for the first time, with over 90% of sales coming from domestic films. This indicates the rising levels of influence and popularity of the movie industry within China. Beyond film, that influence is beginning to spread across China’s borders.
A new age of consumption based on social media is on the rise. Trends and products originating in China are populating the screens of hundreds of millions worldwide. Over 100 million units of Pop Mart’s Labubu were sold in 2025. The Labubu trend reached the backpacks of schoolchildren across the globe, as well as the designer bags of international celebrities from Dua Lipa and Kim Kardashian to David Beckham and Lisa. This begs the question: Is China really failing to catch up to the U.S.’s international pop culture influence? Or is the nation simply moving towards the future of media: TikToks and trends?
Cultural influence is essential for growing a country’s international appeal. For now, this power remains a relative strength for the U.S. But as America’s influence wanes, China is working to fill the gap by succeeding not in industries of the past, but in the media of the future.
Former Director of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard, Joseph S. Nye, Jr. coined the term “soft power” in the 1990s. According to Nye, soft power — including cultural tools — is a crucial part of the U.S. government’s mission to get other countries to accept the American mindset and values. Indeed, the government does not control the movies that are produced, but it is helpful to the U.S. as a whole to have its media front and foremost in the eyes of people around the world. Soft power can help boost trade relations and strengthen allies.
Historically, the U.S. has done well on this front, with strong international impact and allied networks. China has struggled to achieve the same. A 2023 YouGov survey across nine countries found that 66-89% of respondents felt that there was a “great deal” or “moderate” amount of American cultural influence on the movie industry. Similarly, 61-85%, 60-86%, and 52-73% found Americans to have a great or moderate influence on their TV, music, and brands, respectively. Yet, despite these strong figures, Nye himself argued that U.S. soft power is slipping due to the foreign policy choices of the Trump administration amid falling international impressions of the U.S.
As the influence of the U.S. begins to falter, the question remains whether China can swoop in to take its place. China is the second-largest country by population in the world. Its economic power has grown in recent years, but the international cultural influence of China hasn’t grown in the same way. Although China has been successful and a world leader in economic growth, it can take lessons from other nations in expanding cultural power.
An important case study of this idea is the incredible rising influence of South Korea. South Korea, a country of just 51.6 million people, has created a massive wave of pop culture influence through K-beauty like dewy skin makeup looks, glass hair trends, and PDRN skincare products; K-dramas such as “Squid Game,” “Crash Landing on You,” and “Queen of Tears”; K-pop with BTS, BlackPink, and PSY’s “Gangnam Style”; and even success across America’s biggest stages and screens through “Maybe Happy Ending” and “Parasite.” With South Korea showcasing a massive success story, the Chinese government is beginning to embrace the idea of pop culture expansion.
Since President Xi Jinping assumed office, China has attempted to push itself further into the hearts and minds of international consumers through an expansion of cultural diplomacy. To do so, the Communist Party deviated from methods of the past by loosening regulations and control over some private media businesses, going so far as to publicly support the movies “Wukong” and “Ne Zha” in a New Year’s address. Cultural influence is not solely about selling products; it is also about selling the values, traditions, and ways of life of Chinese society — an important effort alongside political strategies like the Belt and Road Initiative. The Initiative was launched in 2013 and consists of significant infrastructure investment in developing nations across the world. While one global soft power index still ranks the United States first, China is gaining ground and has rapidly shifted from the country with the eighth most cultural influence in 2021 to the second today. In the U.S., industries like Hollywood and professional sports, brands from Apple to Coca-Cola, and research progress have helped to keep the nation on top. Meanwhile, the Belt and Road initiative, technological innovations, and growing brands have propelled China up the ladder, now ranking less than 1.5 points behind the U.S. However, that success isn’t just in cultural metrics. Alongside pop culture gains, China has risen to rank first for business and growth potential, third for economic strength and stability, and second in overall soft power metrics.
Another international industry based in China revolves around video games. The worldwide sensation Genshin Impact is a product of the Chinese gaming company miHoYo. In 2025, Genshin exceeded $10 billion in player spending since its release in 2020. The mobile version of the game held over 15.2 million active users in June 2025, with over 300 million total registered accounts across all platforms. Other games like Black Myth: Wukong, which sold over 25 million copies across the world on Steam with revenues approaching $1 billion, have similarly taken the world by storm. When it was first released in August of 2024, Black Myth: Wukong was the most downloaded PlayStation game in both the U.S./Canada and Europe beating out classics like EA SPORTS Madden NFL 25 and Grand Theft Auto V. Black Myth: Wukong is a particularly good example of how modern media represents timeless cultural values, as it is adapted from the 16th-century Chinese novel “Journey to the West,” drawing from mythology and ideology, including Taoist and Buddhist folklore alongside Confucianism.
Today, around 26% of Americans have a favorable view of China, including 34% of people under 50 years old. That may seem low, but the figure grew 6% over the last year and has almost doubled since just 2023. This rising popularity is seen even more at the global scale. In a survey of 36 countries, 46% viewed China favorably compared to only 36% who saw the U.S. in a positive light. The rising popularity of China is likely due to a multitude of factors. It is difficult to disentangle the complicated web of policies, economic changes, and other elements. But the commercial success of games and products from China is growing. It is possible that growing pop culture influence and global soft power have played some part in the rising global popularity of China.
Nye came up with the concept of soft power over 35 years ago. Since then, the world has changed in many ways, including the rise of the internet and the increasingly large role that China plays on the international stage. Maybe, in this new area of influence and media, it is time to revisit what plays into Nye’s soft power.
China has used a variety of media types, from trendy products to video games, to steadily climb the ladder of global cultural relevance. A simple glance at cultural industries central to the U.S. and to previous cultural soft power ideas, like Hollywood, would paint the picture that the U.S. is still far ahead of China. But the reality is a much more complicated picture of political power in an evolving world of culture and media. It is time to redefine what soft power in culture looks like in a new era that is increasingly based on media and the online world. The exact trends, games, and shows of the future remain uncertain. But one idea stands: China is beginning to strengthen its international reputation and influence, potentially approaching the levels of soft power America once considered one of its biggest strengths.
