The Impact of Chinese Overseas Chinese Contributing to the Dissemination of Traditional Chinese Medicine on Enhancing China's Cultural Soft Power in the Southeast Asian Region

Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicine culture is rooted in the excellent traditional Chinese culture, has a deep cultural heritage and unique value. It is an important part of the soft power of Chinese culture. With the recent increase in the number of overseas Chinese migrating to Southeast Asian countries, the role of overseas Chinese in the international dissemination of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is becoming increasingly significant. The overseas dissemination of Chinese medicine is conducive to helping Chinese medicine culture to go out and boosting China's cultural soft power in Southeast Asia. This paper applies the causal mechanism, taking Thailand as an example, to analyse the three basic ways of international communication of Chinese overseas Chinese: Chinese media, Chinese associations, and Chinese education, and analyses how the dissemination of Chinese traditional medicine has helped China to improve its cultural soft power in Southeast Asia, which is of great practical significance to China's efforts to promote the mutual understanding of civilizations and people's hearts and minds, and to promote opening up to the outside world and economic development.