Every time a piece of Chinese culture is produced that the rest of the world finds interesting, it’s deemed by those in positions of authority as being too Western or too provocative. It’s as if the very act of foreigners finding something enjoyable taints the nature of the cultural product itself. The powers that be seem to think that if global audiences see the same shit enough times, they’ll eventually think it’s good. The problem isn’t that China’s not successfully propagating its culture enough. Rather, the problem is that the rest/”West” of the world just isn’t that interested the products China is officially trying to offer.

Note to self: create map of China and replace cardinal directions on compass rose with West/West/West/West. Problem solved.

Also, China’s slowly but surely emerging as your wannabe hipster friend with absolutely terrible taste, only this is happening on the global stage.
China: “Hey, ever heard of Ai Weiwei?”
Norway: “Of course! We really dig his art.”
China: “Oh..yeah, he’s okay, I guess. We were into him, like, four years ago. We’re more into *blatant attempt at a name-drop* Qing Dynasty TV dramas these days. Ever seen Palace?”
Norway: “Yeah, I didn’t really get into it.”
China: “Yeah, it’s pretty deep. You probably don’t understand Chinese culture, so…”