Optimization Research on the Global Expansion of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road Culture ()
1. Introduction
Under the call of a new cultural mission, “going global” is no longer merely an economic strategy to promote China’s commodity exports and capital outflow, but also an initiative and action to carry forward Chinese culture overseas. Promoting the “going global”, or global expansion of Chinese culture, is not equivalent to general cultural exchange. The former requires telling China’s stories effectively and realistically, disseminating Chinese wisdom, and enhancing the world’s rational understanding of Chinese culture [1]. The Maritime Silk Road was not only a route for Chinese goods to go global in ancient times, but also a channel for Chinese culture to spread overseas. Maritime Silk Road culture, formed through the historical practices of commodity trade and cultural globalization, represents both the material and spiritual wealth condensed from these interactions, and serves as a bond connecting different civilizations. Today, taking Zhejiang—an important hub along the Maritime Silk Road—as a perspective to study the global expansion of the Maritime Silk Road culture not only helps Zhejiang’s culture and spirit spread overseas along the Silk Road as a continuation of tradition, enhances the international community’s understanding of Chinese values and wisdom—both by drawing connections between past and present and by using a localized case to illuminate broader national significance; but also enables the Silk Road to continue to witness dialogues between civilizations in the new era and become a road of civilization that connects people’s hearts under the contemporary Global Civilization Initiative.
2. Exploration of the Connotation of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk
Road Culture
Starting from the macroscopic cultural background, this paper identifies the historical and cultural coordinates of the Maritime Silk Road in Zhejiang. Based on this, summarizing the existing cultural elements and activity forms of the Maritime Silk Road in Zhejiang through literature and investigation research serves the purpose on screening and extracting representative communication content for the cultural global expansion.
2.1. Cultural Background
The Maritime Silk Road is a maritime channel for ancient China’s foreign trade and cultural exchanges [2], which not only realized the circulation of commodities and local specialties between the East and the West, but also promoted friendly exchanges between China and countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. The main trunk lines of this route are divided into the East China Sea departure route and the South China Sea departure route [3]. The East China Sea departure route passes through Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other provinces in China, while the South China Sea departure route mainly sets sail from Fujian and Guangdong provinces. Correspondingly, important node cities of China’s Maritime Silk Road include Ningbo, Wenzhou, Quanzhou, Guangzhou and so on.
As an important stop along the ancient Maritime Silk Road, Zhejiang has witnessed a long history of the Maritime Silk Road and accumulated a profound Maritime Silk Road culture. Ningbo, the core city of Maritime Silk Road culture, was the first region in the province to conduct in-depth research on this culture and explore relevant cultural elements. Zhoushan, adjacent to Ningbo, is a typical marine port city that provides abundant materials for studying the connection between the ancient and modern Maritime Silk Road. Wenzhou, also a port city, has seen a sharp increase in attention to Maritime Silk Road culture after the excavation of the Shuomen Ancient Port Site, with a succession of relevant research results emerging. In addition, the East Zhejiang Canal passing through Hangzhou is an important inland water transport route connected to the Maritime Silk Road, witnessing the import and export of assorted commodities. Moreover, Lishui and Taizhou also contain Maritime Silk Road culture embodied in crafts and religion forms. This study selected 20 cultural relics sites of the Maritime Silk Road in the above-mentioned cities as research bases to investigate the external forms, internal heritage, and the current situation of construction and communication of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture.
2.2. Cultural Elements
Through literature and empirical research on the Maritime Silk Road sites in Zhejiang, the cultural elements of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road mainly include the following categories:
1) Handicrafts
As the most common export products on the Maritime Silk Road, porcelain is the core element of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture. The Yue Kiln, Longquan Kiln and Ou Kiln, which produced porcelain, have become important cultural relic sites; and the craftsmen who made porcelain are the creators and practitioners of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture. In addition to porcelain, lacquerware and clamp-resist dyeing are also heritages with Zhejiang characteristics on the Maritime Silk Road. In ancient times, our ancestors sold their labor products overseas; today, as intangible cultural heritage inheritors, the descendants not only inherit traditional craftsmanship and the spirit of artisans while integrating modern artistic elements, but also tell the historical culture and ideological concepts behind these handicrafts to the people and pass them on to other regions and countries.
2) Trade
The most direct functional orientation of the Maritime Silk Road is a trade route. The practice of foreign trade has endued Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture with unique commercial and trade elements, and the remains corresponding to different links in the trade chain are the most vivid annotations of this culture. Specifically, important water transport routes such as the Sanjiang Estuary and the East Zhejiang Canal vividly prove that Zhejiang connects the inland and overseas areas by “water”. Water routes end at ports, and ports such as the Shuomen Ancient Port embody the magnificent momentum of “ports connecting the world”, thus endowing the people of Zhejiang with the spiritual quality of daring to explore outward and “daring to be the first in the world”. In addition, warehouses represented by the Yongfeng Granary, merchant ships represented by the Wanhu Shenzhou, and navigation marks represented by the Tianfeng Pagoda and Wangjing Gate are all the precipitation of Maritime Silk Road history and culture on the transport routes; trade management institutions represented by the Laiyuan Pavilion and the Zhejiang Customs, and coastal defense strongholds represented by the Shipu Ancient City reflect the important connection between Maritime Silk Road culture and politics and military affairs; in the Dinghai Ancient City and Dongsha Ancient Town, Maritime Silk Road culture marked by trade is presented to contemporary people in the form of towns.
3) Foreign Exchanges
The Maritime Silk Road not only witnessed the exchange of commodities, but also the communication of cultures. In Zhejiang, the Qing’an Guild Hall and the Goryeo Embassy are historical witnesses to the friendly exchanges between merchants from different regions and countries; Mount Putuo in Zhoushan, Guoqing Temple and Longxing Temple in Taizhou symbolize the mutual influence and integration between foreign religious culture and China’s traditional religion and customs; Chinese and foreign cultural exchanges mediated by books have left many marks in the Tianyi Pavilion of Ningbo, providing direct evidence for the exchange characteristics of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture.
2.3. Cultural Activities
In addition to static cultural elements, Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture also subtly influences people’s spiritual world through dynamic activities. According to the research results, the people can understand, contact and experience Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture mainly through the following ways:
First, media publicity. In terms of subjects, those participating in the communication of Maritime Silk Road culture include both mainstream media such as the official accounts of “Zhejiang Culture and Tourism” and the cultural and tourism departments of cities in the province, as well as self-media created by cultural companies, intangible cultural heritage studios or individual residents. In terms of forms, diversified and full-platform communication allows the audience to settle down to read or listen to the unique historical stories of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road, and also enables them to directly see the modern picture of this culture.
Second, cultural exhibitions and conferences. Exhibitions of Maritime Silk Road cultural relics and heritage co-hosted by the publicity departments, cultural departments, universities and enterprises, build a platform for the people to learn, appreciate and communicate. Forums, seminars and symposiums themed on the communication and publicity of Maritime Silk Road culture often gather representatives of government departments and experts and scholars from various places to exchange experience in cultural construction and discuss the inheritance and innovation of Maritime Silk Road culture.
Third, grassroots activities. In recent years, Maritime Silk Road culture has not only been integrated into research and experience activities held by communities and intangible cultural heritage studios, but also become an indispensable theme for many cultural companies or organizations in planning relevant activities. Regardless of the form, these cultural activities are directly facing residents, with the purpose of enriching their cultural life and bringing culture close to them.
2.4. Cultural Communication
After the above sorting out, the basic overview of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture has been clarified. To promote the global expansion of this culture, it is necessary to screen out the parts with reference significance, inheritance value and communication possibility, and extract cultural symbols and historical memories that are easy for the international community to understand and accept. Only in this way can overseas people be willing to listen to Chinese stories and understand Chinese values and spirits in a real and comprehensive way. During the thematic analysis of the literature and interview data, the following three types of issues emerged with high frequency: 1) cultural heritage and research activities; 2) the communicative nature of Maritime Silk Road culture; 3) international friends’ interest in Chinese culture. Moreover, these three types are not isolated from one another but together form a logical progression from the surface to the deeper level: the first focuses on perception, the second on connection, and the third on exploration. Based on this, this study identifies three dimensions—perceptible cultural relics, interconnected civilizational genes, and profound historical and cultural heritage—and, from each of these perspectives, determines the appropriate content for cultural communication.
1) Perceptible Cultural Relics
In the past 20 years, Zhejiang Province has always implemented the principle of “protection first” [4], preserving the ancient charm of a large number of famous historical and cultural cities, blocks and villages and towns. At the same time, on the basis of protection, Zhejiang has also actively promoted the activation and utilization of cultural relics, making history more closely connected with modern people’s lives. The investigation shows that Zhejiang’s protection and development of Maritime Silk Road culture have made it possible for overseas audiences to approach history and culture: the construction of heritage parks and cultural exhibition halls allows international friends to form a bodily cognition of the historical appearance of these spaces during their visits, and understand historical stories and acquire historical knowledge through explanatory texts; the holding of research and experience activities enables foreign friends to personally experience the production processes of intangible cultural heritages such as porcelain and clamp-resist dyeing, and learn the traditional Chinese artistic concepts embodied in these handicrafts. Therefore, the cultural relics that can be perceived by the senses and the mind can build an intimate connection between Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture and overseas audiences.
2) Interconnected Civilizational Genes
Taking the “sea” as background and “connection” as core, Maritime Silk Road culture features a strong spirit of openness, inclusiveness and communication, which is consistent with Western marine civilization. On the one hand, whether it is the fishing culture of going out to sea, the historical relics of commodity trade or the literature relics of foreign exchanges, all reflect the positive pioneering spirit of the people of Zhejiang, which is easy to resonate with Western nations famous for their adventurous spirit. On the other hand, the parts related to worship and belief in Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture have a natural attraction to Westerners with a religious tradition, which is conducive to stimulating their interest in understanding Chinese traditional religion. In short, Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture represents the marine culture with Chinese characteristics, which can promote Western people to form a new understanding of the character of the Chinese people and the characteristics of Chinese culture in the collision, communication and integration with Western marine civilization.
3) Profound Historical Heritage
Through the interviews, the fact that many foreign tourists have a strong interest in the history and culture of Zhejiang and other parts of China is found, and there are also international friends studying Chinese culture who have close exchanges with craftsmen in Zhejiang. One of the reasons is that as an important starting point of the inland areas of the Maritime Silk Road in the Song and Yuan dynasties [5], Zhejiang maintains a long historical root, nurtures a unique humanistic spirit, and has a far-reaching impact on Zhejiang’s active actions in high-quality promotion of the construction of the “Belt and Road” in the contemporary era. Therefore, the Maritime Silk Road culture with a profound historical heritage can not only fully satisfy foreign friends’ curiosity and thirst for knowledge about Chinese history and culture, but also arouse their interest in exploring the historical source of the spiritual power that inspires the people of Zhejiang to participate in local construction and development. This is also a good opportunity to prove the continuity and inclusiveness of Chinese civilization to the international community and demonstrate the spirit of reform and innovation of the Chinese people.
3. Attribution Analysis of Promoting the Global Expansion of
Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road Culture
In addition to determining the appropriate communication content for the global expansion of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture, it is also necessary to employ the “feasibility-necessity-importance” analytical framework to clarify the multi-dimensional reasons for the implementation of this international communication, so as to build a theoretical support for the landing of the initiative.
First of all, promoting the global expansion of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture is feasible. In terms of the characteristics of the culture itself, this culture was formed in the historical practice of the interweaving of world diverse civilizations, and people from every civilization can find factors marking their own identity recognition in this culture. In terms of cultural resources, Zhejiang Province is rich in Maritime Silk Road cultural resources: a multitude of historical sites are distributed all over the province, and each site radiates can be expanded into cultural blocks and even cultural towns by radiating to the surrounding areas, thus a number of intangible cultural heritage skills, folk stories and simple human feelings are wrapped in a larger cultural space, showing great potential for development and innovation. From the perspective of external favorable factors, as a forerunner of China’s opening up to the outside world, Zhejiang Province not only has rich experience in international exchanges, but also has accumulated a solid material foundation through import and export trade with the thinking of “developing Zhejiang beyond Zhejiang” [6]. Thus, it can provide sufficient experience and financial support for the global expansion of its Maritime Silk Road culture. In addition, in recent years, Zhejiang Province has set new goals on the road of promoting high-level opening up [7], and will further open up space and provide assistance for the international communication and exchange of culture in the process of pursuing better results in the open economy in the future.
Secondly, promoting the global expansion of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture is necessary. The multiple contradictions and challenges faced by the internal influence and external output of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture put forward urgent requirements for its spread to the whole country and the world. To begin with, there is a disconnect between the richness of connotation and the uniqueness of value of Maritime Silk Road culture and the public’s cognition. As mentioned above, Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture is diverse in form, has a long history and is distinctly characteristic of Zhejiang. Nevertheless, the survey revealed that the majority of respondents were unable to list any representative sites of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture, nor had they ever engaged in activities associated with it. It can be seen that the promotion of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture is relatively low, and it does not appear frequently and integrate deeply in people’s lives. Therefore, it is necessary to raise the people’s (especially the youth group’s) cognition and discussion of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture by publicizing its cultural value and international influence, so as to provide a more fertile living soil for the protection and inheritance of this fine traditional culture. Besides, there is a contradiction between Zhejiang’s important position on the Maritime Silk Road and its insufficient influence in the domestic Maritime Silk Road culture field at present. Zhejiang Province has played a key role both in ancient maritime trade and in the modern construction of the “Belt and Road”. However, Zhejiang’s research on the local historical origin of the Maritime Silk Road and the recognition of its historical status are slightly lagging behind, resulting in its influence in the domestic Maritime Silk Road field being not as good as that of Fujian and Guangdong provinces which also have ports, and even less than that of Jiangxi Province as a commodity export place. According to research, Zhejiang not only has a number of ports for ocean trade, but also is densely covered with connecting channels between maritime and inland shipping, and also undertakes an important commodity production function. Therefore, it is necessary for Zhejiang Province to accelerate the research on its historical status on the Maritime Silk Road, make good use of the above favorable factors to expand the influence of its Maritime Silk Road culture, and supplement important materials and add strong impetus to China’s application for the World Heritage of the Maritime Silk Road. A final consideration is, the transformation of the international order calls for the bridging of civilizational gaps and the deepening of civilizational exchanges. At present, the international situation is undergoing profound changes, and the international order is also experiencing profound transformation. Maritime Silk Road culture was formed in the historical practice of equal exchanges and harmonious coexistence of diverse civilizations. In the contemporary world, the interests and cultures of all countries are more deeply intertwined, and China, with the peaceful and inclusive “genes”, still advocates the construction of a new international order in which “all countries conduct equal exchanges on the basis of mutual respect for historical traditions and ideologies to realize the common development of all mankind” [8]. Promoting the global expansion of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture is, in a macroscopic sense, a subtle way to convey China’s distinctive view of the international order to the world and express China’s vision for deepening mutual learning among civilizations when the world expects China’s stance under the great changes unseen in a century.
Finally, promoting the global expansion of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture is of great importance. For the culture itself, “cultural diplomacy” is conducive to inspiring the people’s sense of mission to protect and inherit the fine local traditional culture, and encouraging literary and artistic workers to realize the creative transformation and innovative development of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture with their craftsmanship and wisdom from the top down; it can also enhance the sense of responsibility of the Chinese people to convey the concepts of Maritime Silk Road culture to international friends, which realize the interconnection between different civilizations through people-to-people bonds. Furthermore, the overseas spread of Maritime Silk Road culture can provide concrete cases for the common values of all mankind advocated by China, and promote the international community to eliminate misunderstandings of the “Belt and Road” Initiative and resonate with its purpose. The global expansion of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture is not only of great significance in the cultural and diplomatic fields, but also will indirectly promote the improvement of other social elements. For one thing, attracting more domestic and foreign tourists to visit the Maritime Silk Road historical sites in Zhejiang and participate in cultural experience activities is beneficial to promoting the quality and upgrading of the cultural and tourism industry, especially accelerating the development and improvement of supporting services for international docking, thus transforming cultural influence into economic driving force and increasing economic resilience with cultural and tourism popularity. For another, building a strong open province requires not only continuous efforts in commodity trade and international market construction, but also an institutional track for cultural output and international cultural exchanges. The improvement of the international influence of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture will force the accelerated deployment of supporting policies and development strategies for cultural trade and cultural cooperation, thus releasing new driving forces for high-level opening up.
4. Optimization Paths for the Global Expansion of Zhejiang’s
Maritime Silk Road Culture
Although the number and influence of cases of the overseas communication of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture are limited at present, “going global” has become an important orientation of China’s cultural development, thus boasting a bright prospect. Based on the content characteristics, the current situation of promotion and communication, and the human, financial and material conditions, optimized paths with both structural and connective features to better boost the spread of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture to the world has been designed.
4.1. Structural Optimization: Accurately Improving
Communication Efficiency
Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture is diverse in content and rich in levels, so it is necessary to design specific paths for different forms and levels to ensure high-quality results of external communication.
1) Paths for Different Forms
Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture includes both material and intangible forms, so communication methods suitable for different forms should be formulated.
To promote the communication of material culture, it is necessary to make good use of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), big data and cloud computing in improving communication accuracy and efficiency, and empower the cultural globalization with digital and intelligent technologies through the construction of “digital museums” and other methods. For example, simulation technology can be used to restore the unclear historical relics of the Maritime Silk Road, so as to reproduce their original appearance for the audience more intuitively, make them convinced of the value of this route in promoting the prosperity of trade and friendly exchanges between countries, and recognize the spiritual core of equality, inclusiveness and openness contained in Maritime Silk Road culture. In addition, cooperating with high-quality social and cultural institutions or interacting with well-known cultural IPs can also improve the communication effect of the material culture of the Maritime Silk Road. Specifically, in museums and cultural centers with large space, complete facilities and high levels (such as provincial and municipal levels), special exhibitions on Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road sites can be held, and the historical process can be narrated and cultural concepts can be conveyed through the display of scaled-down site models, so that the audience can form a holistic understanding and deep impression of this culture; creative logos integrating Maritime Silk Road sites can be designed and integrated with well-known cultural IPs, and the influence of the latter can be used to improve the understanding and love of local residents and foreign tourists for Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture.
For the communication of intangible culture, the visual transformation function of new media technologies, the perceptual transformation function of interactive experience activities and the preservation and recording function of cultural memory archives should not be ignored. Firstly, empowered by new media technologies, the intangible form of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture not only endows the audience with interactive experience and aesthetic enjoyment, but also expands the communication space with the platform effect, allowing more overseas people to see and interact with Maritime Silk Road culture through social media. Secondly, as mentioned above, immersive and interactive cultural experience activities enable the audience to directly “feel” Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture with their senses. To optimize the effect of global expansion, it is necessary to increase the number of such activities, strengthen publicity through diverse channels, and innovate the forms of activities in combination with the customs and behavioral habits of different civilizations, so as to enable international friends to understand and accept the concepts of Maritime Silk Road culture in the process of experience. Thirdly, build digital archives or digital resource banks for intangible culture, centrally sort out numerous information such as intangible cultural heritage resources related to Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road as well as their news dynamics, special reports, notices and announcements, and translate the archive content into bilingual or multilingual versions [9], so as to enhance the appeal of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture with a narrative that connects China and the world.
2) Paths for Different Levels
Promoting the global expansion of Maritime Silk Road culture should not only stay at the reproduction of symbols or the description of spirits, but also achieve in-depth cultural experience and cultural identity in a more heart-stirring way.
First of all, establish a special research project on the “Global Expansion of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road Culture”, absorb experts of different disciplines and talents from various fields, hold themed exchange forums and academic seminars, and jointly explore how to achieve the three-dimensional goals of symbolic cognition, emotional connection and value identity in the communication process of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture on the basis of respecting cultural differences, so as to complete the progress from the superficial to the deep. In addition, continue to establish friendly city relations, bring literary and artistic works and folk performances related to the Maritime Silk Road to other countries, and achieve mutual understanding between different nations in development concepts and value pursuits by this common historical and cultural memory, thus completing the transformation from the outside to the inside. Last but not least, carry out cooperation with foreign official media and academic institutions, explore the historical facts, relics and heritage of the Maritime Silk Road in different countries and regions respectively, and work together on the serial publicity of the history and culture of the Maritime Silk Road, and jointly optimize the condensation of its spiritual concepts. Strive to elevate this regional culture to a spiritual value that can encourage all human civilizations, thus completing the sublimation from a point to a plane.
To sum up, in the contemporary era, the Maritime Silk Road with a long history should connect multiple nations into a “marine community”, and the Maritime Silk Road culture should become a spiritual wealth shared by people all over the world.
4.2. Connection Optimization: Gathering Communication
Momentum from Various Sources
The external communication of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture is an organic system, which not only includes subjects, objects and modes of action, but also has diverse connections with other surrounding things. Therefore, in optimizing the path, connecting and integrating the communication of Maritime Silk Road culture with the things that interact with it is required, so as to continuously accumulate driving force for the cultural globalization.
1) Integration with People’s Cultural Life
China’s cultural undertakings implement the mass line, and carry out a variety of work relying on and for the people. The investigation found that whether it is the staff of cultural places, craftsmen or ordinary people, even if they have little understanding of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture, they have shown an optimistic attitude when expressing their opinions on its future development and external communication. According to the China Cultural Development Report (2024 - 2025), Chinese residents’ satisfaction with cultural origin and civilizational identity, cultural confidence and cultural construction has increased significantly [10]. Based on this, it is important to transform people’s inner love, enthusiasm and recognition of culture from spontaneous emotions to conscious awareness, and then to practical actions. Also, transfer their universal feelings for Chinese culture to the awareness and behavior of protecting and communicating local culture.
The specific path optimization design can adopt the following ideas: The first key point is, further implement the cultural benefiting people project and increase the opportunities for local and foreign residents in Zhejiang to experience Maritime Silk Road culture. For example, hold more cultural and art exhibitions as well as community cultural festivals, let the people get close to Maritime Silk Road culture through popular forms such as stamp checking and clocking in, taking photos and sharing, as well as innovative forms such as route visits and treasure hunts, and let more people understand Maritime Silk Road culture through online and offline interactions to accomplish external promotion. Another important factor is, integrate the cultural elements of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road into residents’ living spaces. On the basis of environmental and architectural protection and within the scope permitted by urban development, integrate images of Maritime Silk Road sites or historical stories of this route into infrastructure such as walls, road signs and sidewalks, as well as public cultural service places such as libraries and cultural palaces, making Maritime Silk Road culture a visible and memorable spiritual symbol for the people, thus gradually cultivating their cultural subjectivity and initiative to participate in cultural communication, and making them consciously introduce and recommend Maritime Silk Road culture to foreign friends in different forms of folk exchanges such as business cooperation, learning and communication, and neighborhood mutual assistance. The final consideration is, give full play to the bridge role of overseas Chinese in foreign cultural exchanges. Since the reform and opening up, people of various backgrounds from Zhejiang have spread all over the world [11], and the cultural concepts of the ancient Maritime Silk Road have a profound influence on the ideological concepts and behavioral ways of every person from Zhejiang. No matter where they are, they show the spiritual qualities of pragmatism, integrity and forging ahead, and never forget the fine tradition of friendly exchanges and equal cooperation with people of other countries. Therefore, it is of significance to attract and gather overseas Chinese to contribute to the global expansion of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture by setting up overseas Chinese cultural communication projects or establishing overseas Chinese cultural friendship centers.
Overall, integrating the global expansion of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture with people’s cultural life can not only continuously consolidate the mass foundation of this culture, but also rely on the mass force to significantly improve the frequency and efficiency of its external communication.
2) Integration with the Development Practice of Cities and Counties in Zhejiang
Promoting the global expansion of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture is a cultural communication practice, which should be combined with a range of development undertakings of Zhejiang Province and its cities and counties. The specific measures that can be taken include but are not limited to:
In the first place, integrate with cultural projects. On the journey of accelerating the construction of a strong cultural province, Zhejiang can include Maritime Silk Road culture in the brand building, polish the golden business card of “Poetic and Pictorial Zhejiang” together with Liangzhu culture, business and trade culture and landscape culture, and further enhance the province’s cultural leading power at home and abroad; integrate the historical stories and humanistic spirit of the Maritime Silk Road into Zhejiang’s traditional opera forms such as Yue Opera, Wu Opera and drum lyrics, allowing overseas audiences to see the creative combination between intangible cultural heritages; strengthen the correlation research on the relationship between the Maritime Silk Road spirit and Zhejiang’s traditional ideological concepts such as attaching equal importance to justice and benefit, promoting trade and benefiting workers, and applying learning to practical use, so as to show the image of “Humanistic Zhejiang” to the international community.
In the second place, integrate with development strategies. For example, the global expansion of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture can be combined with the strategic goal of building the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port into a “world-class strong port”, the “Strong City Action” of Wenzhou to build the “third pole of the province”, and the development plan of Zhejiang Province to “further promote the integration of culture and tourism”. Such measures are not only conducive to increasing the carriers and docking points for the global expansion of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture, but also showing the consistent pioneering spirit of living towards the sea, the enterprising spirit of striving for perfection and the flexible spirit of adapting to circumstances in the development practice of various fields in Zhejiang Province.
Moreover, Zhejiang Province should actively explore the construction of a mechanism for different cities and counties to jointly promote the external communication of Maritime Silk Road culture, form a more complete narrative system and expand the radiation power of overseas communication through resource sharing and experience integration, so as to further enhance Zhejiang’s position and discourse power in the field of Maritime Silk Road culture. At the same time, carry out exchanges and cooperation with other provinces along the Maritime Silk Road, learn from each other’s experience in the construction and publicity of Maritime Silk Road culture, pool wisdom in the mechanism optimization and method innovation of the external communication of this culture, and work together for the common goal of carrying forward China’s Maritime Silk Road culture overseas.
5. Conclusion
Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture has a long history and diverse forms. It includes the content that is easy for overseas audiences to love, understand and yearn for. Promoting the global expansion of this culture is not only practically possible in terms of cultural characteristics, but also has favorable conditions in terms of resources and support, and can effectively respond to the urgent demand for expanding its influence and communication power. At the same time, this cultural export practice not only directly contributes to cultural construction and mutual learning among civilizations, but also indirectly boosts industrial upgrading and policy improvement. Based on this, optimizing the paths for the global expansion of Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture is needed for enhancing its international influence via concrete actions. Specifically, it is worthwhile to accurately design methods for different cultural forms and communication goals at different levels to improve communication efficiency, and use the method of “leveraging existing forces” to continuously gather driving force for cultural exchange and communication from people’s cultural life and the development practice of cities and counties in Zhejiang. In the future, only through continuous optimization can Zhejiang’s Maritime Silk Road culture go global with more proactive attitude and steadier pace.
Fund
This research was supported by the Provincial Undergraduate Training Program on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Number: S202510345102).