Riding the wind of rebirth

"In his theory, a city's strength is divided into two types: hard power and soft power."

"Hard power is easy to understand. Its core elements are the total economic output represented by GDP, as well as the material foundation for urban development such as fiscal revenue, natural resources, and infrastructure. It will directly affect the city's resource allocation, industrial layout, and residents' living standards."

"If that's the case, then our autonomous prefecture's overall strength isn't that great," Li Yutang said. "Out of the fifteen counties, eleven are deeply impoverished!"

“In fact, Liangshan Prefecture does have a solid foundation of strength,” Zhou Zhi said. “Liangshan Prefecture has unique geographical advantages, climate advantages, environmental advantages, mineral resources advantages, and agricultural advantages. It’s just that its development has been severely lagging behind due to reasons such as poor transportation, dispersed population, heavy historical burdens, and late start.”

“As long as everyone recognizes this point and makes targeted adjustments, the problem can be solved step by step,” Zhou Zhi said. “I also believe that local officials and the masses have the determination and ability to do so.”

"When the People's Republic of China was founded, Liangshan Prefecture was still a semi-slave and semi-feudal society. In just fifty years, it has traversed two thousand years of development history and reached the level it is today, which is already quite remarkable."

"Haha, don't try to comfort me. If I didn't know the current situation in Liangshan Prefecture better than you, I wouldn't need to be the Party Secretary. I should be working under Lao Tu." Li Yutang laughed, "Keep talking about your so-called... soft power."

"Oh, in Joseph Nye's theory, urban soft power refers to the sum of non-material urban social elements, with urban culture, government services, residents' quality, and image dissemination as its core. It should encompass comprehensive forces such as social cohesion, cultural appeal, scientific and educational support, and participation and coordination, and together with hard power, it constitutes urban competitiveness. Together, they become an important support for promoting the harmonious, healthy, and leapfrog development of urban society and economy."

"If hard power is the bones of a city, then soft power is its flesh and blood. Liangshan Prefecture has a unique urban style and actually has a considerable advantage in terms of soft power."

"Given the lack of national emphasis on the soft power of urban areas, if Liangshan Prefecture had paid more attention to it earlier and put in more effort, it could have played some very good cards."

"First, let's talk about culture. Liangshan Prefecture has a unique ethnic minority culture, including food culture, festival culture, as well as clothing, dance, poetry, legends and many other fascinating cultural elements. Judging from the process of compiling the Yi Bimo culture data in the past two years, the Yi culture still has a very strong attraction to the outside world. Whether it is the academic community, the cultural community, or even the entertainment industry, they are very interested."

"How to tap into these resources is a matter for the Cultural Bureau."

"Next, let's talk about tourism resources. Liangshan Prefecture is located in the most complex geological and geomorphological region in China, covering a variety of landforms from river valleys and lowlands to plateau snow-capped mountains and glaciers. This has created the most diverse and unique landscapes, as well as unique karst caves, hot springs and waterfalls. At the same time, the climate is warm and comfortable, the air quality is extremely high, and the fruits are abundant and sweet, making it an excellent place for health and wellness tourism."

"How to tap into these resources is the responsibility of the tourism bureau." "Once these resources are tapped, they should naturally be promoted to let people across the country and even the world know about them, creating a resource effect. Of course, this requires the production of television commercials, radio promotion, and so on. It should be promoted in a three-dimensional and comprehensive way with various activities and brands. For example, we can create popular music, novels, and TV series with the Daliang Mountains as the background, or hold influential international events, etc., which can form a complete set of coordinated work."

"For example, we can utilize the various sports bases already established in Liangshan Prefecture to host sailing races, cross-country cycling races, and triathlons; we can also use the winding and rugged mountain roads to host car rallies; at the very least, we can build the road around Qionghai Lake into a lakeside greenway, then host a marathon, and broadcast it live on television to enhance the city's influence."

"In addition to these, it is also very important to create a good cultural environment and institutional mechanisms. At present, various regions do not pay enough attention to soft power in the process of development. There is a phenomenon of emphasizing economic construction while neglecting social development, and emphasizing hardware construction while neglecting software support. As a result, cities have only bones and muscles but lack spirit."

"Then Liangshan Prefecture could completely 'go against the grain' and vigorously develop its tourism and service brands. It could establish a mayor's hotline and exert maximum oversight and crackdown on any behavior that deceives or extorts tourists and investors. During peak tourist season, it could focus on improving tourists' accommodation and dining needs. To give an extreme example, could Qionghai Park be opened as a simple camping and reception area during peak season when resources are scarce? Could government canteens be opened so that tourists can at least get a hot meal? Could dedicated parking lots for tourist buses be established? This would create a warm and hospitable city image, making guests feel right at home."

“These require the leadership to have a strong service mentality and to pay sufficient attention to resources,” Zhou Zhi continued. “For example, Huili Ancient City and Jianchang Ancient City Ruins in the city are valuable tourism resources that can be fully developed. In this respect, I think we should learn boldly from DT City.”

"When Liangshan Prefecture's hard power is not yet enough to stand out from other cities, we should focus more on its soft power. Implementing a coordinated approach across culture, tourism, sports, radio and television can be a concrete way for Liangshan Prefecture to leverage its soft power, bring out the region's unique charm, and create a city brand that other cities cannot replace."

"That's right, irreplaceable and first-mover advantage are both winning formulas." Zhou Zhi continued, "Irreplaceable means unique. For example, Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong, the Populus euphratica forest in Xinjiang, the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, Hukou Waterfall on the Yellow River, and the landscape of the Li River all have uniqueness, which is what makes them irreplaceable."

"First-mover advantage refers to being the first to be known by the public among similar soft power, creating a leading effect. So even if similar landscapes appear later, people will remember the first one."

"Take the Great Wall for example. There are actually many places that could be used to create Great Wall landscapes, but when people mention the Great Wall, the first place that comes to mind is Badaling. Take pandas for example. Although pandas mainly inhabit the Qinling Mountains, which theoretically belong to Shaanxi, when people talk about pandas, the first place that comes to mind is Sichuan. Why? It's because the first panda reserve, Wolong, is in Sichuan."

"The same applies to golden snub-nosed monkeys. The most beautiful and well-known golden snub-nosed monkey is actually the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey. However, because of the panda, a symbolic species, Yunnan Province is now trying to steal this brand. When many people talk about golden snub-nosed monkeys, they often think of Yunnan Province rather than Sichuan Province. But in fact, the image of the golden snub-nosed monkey in their minds is the golden-haired, blue-faced Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey, not the gray-black and gray-white Yunnan golden snub-nosed monkey."

"That's called having a preconceived notion." (End of Chapter)