The hard truth of soft power behind Nezha, Black Myth

The rise of China's soft power comes as no surprise. What is more intriguing is to observe the emerging new logic behind the shifting scenes. The landmark breakthrough appears like a meticulously orchestrated multi-act drama. First, Black Myth: Wukong, hailed as the "definer of next-generation Eastern fantasy", stormed global gaming markets. Then, DeepSeek R1 burst onto the scene, forcing Silicon Valley and similar tech hubs across the world to reassess China's competitiveness in AI.

Meanwhile, Ne Zha 2 shattered many box office records for animation films, surpassing Pixar's Inside Out 2 by a large margin.

Finally, as if to crescendo this momentum, a report from a prestigious London-based institution announced that China's soft power has not only climbed to second place among the 193 UN member states evaluated but also achieved significant growth in six of the eight "pillars of soft power" and two-thirds of specific metrics listed by Brand Finance.