BNU chairperson Liu Chuansheng says at the forum that the total sum of import and export of cultural products in the country has reached $14.39 billion with a yearly increase of 9 percent, while the number for cultural services has reached $5.7 billion, increasing yearly by 19.5 percent.

But Zhang Jianguo, State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs director, opines that even though China is the world's second largest economy, Chinese culture is still unable to communicate with the West fully.

"The channels and scale of Chinese culture going global are not on par with the country's abundant culture," he says.

Mei Song, director of Center of Promoting Beijing Cultural and Creative Industry, says the problem lies in China's lack of confidence in its own culture. "We do not understand our culture enough," Mei says.

Alistair Michie, honorary associate of the Needham Research Institute at Cambridge University, believes the problem lies in the gap between the former propaganda style that the Chinese were used to and the more efficient International Reputation Management ideals.

Working as a consultant since the 1980s, Michie sees the importance of changing one-way message into two-way interaction, and turning the Chinese-only team into a combination team of Chinese and foreign experts.

"Telling stories are more powerful than conveying ideas in political or philosophical languages," says Zhao Qizheng, director of the foreign committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top advisory body.