Chinese Migration in the 21st Century: Socio-cultural Processes in Contemporary China and their Effects

on Globalisation

Cultural Implications of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) for Pakistan

Hypothesis:

CPEC will not enable the Chinese culture to penetrate into and modify the Pakistani culture to a

considerable extent in the foreseeable future.

Abstract:

China and Pakistan have historically had very close economic, military and political interrelation

with each other. In 2021, the two countries celebrated their 70th anniversary of diplomatic ties

which can be termed as an all-weather partnership between the two countries. The relation

between the two countries has conspicuously been friendly with no perturbing friction seen as

such. President Arif Alvi of Pakistan has used the expression “..Deeper than the oceans, higher

than the mountains and sweeter than honey” to describe this alliance. The relationship saw a new

high in 2013 when China, as a part of its 'One Belt One Road' initiative, started working with

Pakistan on a $62 Billion dollar project called China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The

project is aimed at boosting the economy of Pakistan by modernizing its railway, highway and

energy infrastructure and providing China with a land route to the ports of Pakistan. This grand
proposition has also promised to integrate other countries of the region. The project is enormous,

and although China has made considerable investments within Pakistan in the past, CPEC truly

stands out as a flagship project. Much of the discussion about CPEC revolves around the

economic advantages (and disadvantages) that the project will bring for the two countries

especially Pakistan. However the scale of the project is quite overwhelming and China has

plunged far enough, that it may have implications beyond the ones concerning solely an

economic agenda. It is not unwise to predict that this project may also have an impact on the

social and cultural fabric of the Pakistani society. In this essay I would like to explore the

potential pathways through which Chinese culture can penetrate into the Pakistani society

especially the impressionable youth. These key areas are namely: Mandarin Language, Chinese

Migration, Media and Formal Efforts.

Mandarin Language

Learning a language not only enables you to communicate with more people, but it also opens

doors for understanding and deeply exploring another culture. English is an example which

provides us with evidence for this. As English became a global language it enabled people to

watch English movies, read English literature and communicate with an English speaking

person. This in turn made people aware of the culture of English speaking countries and also

influenced them into adopting aspects of it. Through Hollywood, American culture advanced like

an epidemic and many cultures that once looked down upon the very foundations of American

values have knowingly or simple erratically adopted them. Similarly, Mandarin can also

influence the cosmetics of a region by enabling and even inspiring people to use it as a tool to
indulge deeper into the Chinese culture. In Pakistan learning Mandarin has become very popular

in the past few years. One of the main reasons behind it is China Pakistan Economic Corridor.

People expect that learning Mandarin will give them an edge when it comes to competing for

thousands of job opportunities that CPEC will create. A substantial number of Chinese workers

have already come to Pakistan for working on projects under China Pakistan Economic Corridor

and many more will follow. This influx has also created a demand for supervisors, lawyers,

engineers and translators. But they need to learn Mandarin to get employed or at least to improve

their profile and increase their chances of getting a job. Moreover the lower cost of higher

education in China as compared to west and a high number of scholarships from the Chinese

state for Pakistani students, also fuels the demand for learning Mandarin. Few years ago there

were only 2000 people who were learning Mandarin, now the number has increased to more than

25,000.1 The National University of Modern Languages in Islamabad, Pakistan’s premier

university for teaching languages, which has been teaching mandarin since the early 1970s for

most of the times used had only 60 students where most of them were military officers. Now

there are 500 students who have opted to learn Mandarin. In 2014 there were 10 teachers

teaching Mandarin and now the number has increased to 40. Two volunteer teachers are

provided by the Chinese Embassy. This demand is only increasing with time and universities do

not have enough staff to teach Mandarin. To deal with this situation the Chinese government and

Chinese universities have offered around 5000 scholarships to Pakistani students (more than to

students from any other country). The Chinese government hopes that some of these students

will return to Pakistan to teach Mandarin.2The NED university of Engineering and Technology,

1“Chinese Language Learning Emerges as Trend in Pakistan | English.Scio.Gov.Cn,” accessed January 14, 2022,
http://english.scio.gov.cn/internationalexchanges/2018-12/11/content_74262688.htm.
2DiaaHadid and Abdul Sattar, “In Pakistan, Learning Chinese Is Cool — And Seen As A Path To Prosperity,” NPR,
October 9, 2018, sec. Goats and Soda, https://www.npr.org/2018/10/09/638987483/in-pakistan-learning-chinese-
is-cool-and-seen-as-a-path-to-prosperity.
one of the oldest public engineering universities in Pakistan, has made it compulsory for first

year students to take “Chinese Language” course. The university thinks that it is the need of time

to have at least a basic knowledge of the language’s Mechanics.3 Such interest is not limited to

university level. Chinese language courses also being offered at large private school networks

like the City School and Roots School System.4There is no doubt that the Chinese language has

attracted an interest from Pakistanis which was unprecedented in the past. The question however

is can it play a role in impacting the culture of the society through means described above? The

first thing to look at is the number of people learning the language. Although popularity of

learning Mandarin has increased throughout Pakistan, in a country of 220 million the total

number of people who can actually speak the language is still a negligible figure. People are

learning the language but only for and to the extent that it benefits them in their career or studies.

It has not gained the same level of popularity as English, it has not become the interest of the

masses to learn it and most importantly it is not enabling the people to dig deeper into the

Chinese culture and take an impact from it. If the number of people who can understand a

language is not significant, we cannot say that the language itself can play that enabling role. It

seems long before Mandarin can dominate a country that is visibly more attracted to the Western

way of life and its freedoms as opposed the relatively conservative approach of its neighboring

super power.

Chinese Migration

3Dawn.com, “NED University Makes Chinese Programme Compulsory for Freshmen,” DAWN.COM, December 8,
2017, https://www.dawn.com/news/1375345.
4Muhammad TayyabSafdar, “The Local Roots of Chinese Engagement in Pakistan,” 2021, 7.
Culture is a process of continuous growth and evolution which can neither be created nor

destroyed. One of the ways through which culture evolves is when people of different races with

different customs and values coexist in a society like a melting pot. Thus, such impact on culture

is also expected if a large group of immigrants live in a foreign country and interact with the

locals. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor has drastically increased the number of Chinese

people living in Pakistan. These people are entrepreneurs, engineers, businessmen and workers

seeking to reap the benefits from CPEC. According to diplomatic officials around 10,000

Chinese nationals live in Islamabad and another 35,000 in other parts of Pakistan.5 The number

of Chinese people living in Pakistan increased by three times after CPEC.6 According to a senior

public health expert 5 million Chinese nationals will be working in Pakistan by 2025.7 New

Chinese shops and businesses are popping up on the streets of Pakistan. The number of Chinese

children in various private schools in Islamabad is increasing and teachers report that there are at

least 3-4 Chinese pupils in their class and few schools even have more Chinese students than

Pakistani ones.8 Since 2017 a Chinese Language newspaper called “Huashang” has been coming

out of Islamabad every week. A new trend of interracial marriages is also emerging. Several

marriage bureaus operating in China and Pakistan provide matchmaking services to pair Chinese

men with Pakistani Christian Women.9 It may seem that through such large scale Chinese

immigration into Pakistan, an impact on local culture is bound to happen. However, as we probe

further into it, we realize that this might not actually be the case. The main reason behind this is

5Danyal Adam Khan, “In Pakistan, a Wave of Chinese Residents Rides to the Subcontinent as Trade Ties Flourish,”
Text, Scroll.in (https://scroll.in), accessed January 14, 2022, https://scroll.in/article/910834/sights-and-sounds-of-
china-in-pakistan-cpec-brings-a-wave-of-chinese-nationals-to-the-subcontinent.
6AsadHashim, “A Slice of China in the Pakistani Capital,” accessed January 14, 2022,
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/9/3/pakistan-a-slice-of-china-in-islamabad.
7“‘Number of Chinese Nationals Working in Pakistan to Reach 5m in next Four Years,’” accessed January 14, 2022,
https://www.geo.tv/latest/371838-5mn-chinese-national-to-be-working-in-pakistan-by-2025.
8Khan, “In Pakistan, a Wave of Chinese Residents Rides to the Subcontinent as Trade Ties Flourish.”
9Khan.
that although there are many Chinese people living in Pakistan and this number is expected to

increase drastically, there is little actual interaction between the locals and the Chinese residents.

One reason is that most of the Chinese workers arrive in Pakistan without families and have an

intention of short term stay. As Danyal Adam Khan notes “Due to the short nature of their stay,

most of them do not feel the need to learn local languages. Their cultural understanding of

Pakistan also remains limited. Their isolation is heightened by the availability of facilities that

cater exclusively to a Chinese clientele”. Many of the Chinese workers remain in their dedicated

camps with special security provided to them by the state. For example Pakistan is reportedly

building a city to house half a million Chinese national in the port city of Gwadar but only

Chinese citizens will live in the gated zone. Many of the businesses opened up by Chinese are

meant only to cater the needs of Chinese expats where often English or Urdu is not spoken.10

Interracial marriages are very few, and are limited by the strong role of religion in the Pakistani

society. Since most of the Chinese residents in Pakistan have intentions to go back, are living in

secluded communities and make little interaction with the locals, the higher probability is that

the presence of this foreign community will not have much impact on the culture of Pakistan.

Moreover, Pakistan has a very resilient and conservative society, which is unlikely to accept any

change easily. It is more probable however that a parallel Chinese culture may exist within

Pakistan as the number of Chinese residents increase.

Media

In May 2021, Ali Zafar, a famous Pakistani singer, along with his Chinese counterpart Xiang

Minqi released a song called “You have stolen my heart”. The song was sung in Urdu and

Chinese, and celebrated the historic friendship between Pakistan and China. Such portrayal of

10Hashim, “A Slice of China in the Pakistani Capital.”

friendly ties between two countries has become more common after CPEC. Along with

economic projects China is also investing in media. Pakistani media itself, especially the state

owned Pakistan Television Network (PTV), mostly promotes a soft image of China and any

criticism (even constructive) is rare to be aired. China’s state run Xinhua news agency has signed

an MOU with local Pakistani media which includes provision of free content in Urdu and

English to their Pakistani counterparts. A “Rapid Response Initiative System” is to be

implemented between China Economic Net (Chinese online news organization) and Pakistan

China Institute (an Islamabad based think tank) to systematically counter negative views against

China and CPEC. China is also subsidizing trips for Pakistani journalists to take training sessions

in China.11 An Urdu dubbed Chinese drama called “Beijing Youth” is being aired on the state run

PTV channel. In 2019, PTV World (also owned by PTV) aired first Chinese cartoon series titled

“Three drops of Blood” which was also sponsored by China. “Experts say China has been

ramping up attempts to win the hearts and minds of citizens in Belt and Road nations through

language, traditional media and social media campaigns, echoing the cultural firepower

previously wielded by Western nations, which have leveraged everything from language centers

to Hollywood and blue jeans to burnish global influence”.12 As noted with the example of

Hollywood in the start, it is true that slow yet power influence through media and pop culture are

efficacious means of impacting the culture of recipient audience. However, in case of Pakistan

the Chinese movies, songs, drama serials and other media products have not gained mainstream

popularity. The reasons for this can be largely associated with the already existing radical

cultural and religious differences between the two countries. Not only China, but western pop

11“The China Factor in Pakistan’s Media Landscape | IPCS,” accessed January 9, 2022,
http://www.ipcs.org/comm_select.php?articleNo=5695.
12“China Boosts Soft Power in Pakistan via Film and Social Media,” Reuters, September 11, 2019, sec. Media and
Telecoms, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-silkroad-pakistan-softpower-idUSKCN1VW0LJ.
culture products are also largely absent from mainstream media. For such products to be aired on

electronic media, they need to comply with the religious and cultural standards strongly in place

in the Pakistani society. For example, the display of explicit romantic scenes, women in short

dresses or consumption of alcohol on National TV is not a possibility. Since many of these

products would not comply with such standards they remain limited to online media, and away

from the common and illiterate person. Due to the lack of demand, the Chinese content on

internet is not dubbed and hence further decreases the audience. Being deeply religious the

Pakistani society not only owns anything Islamic as “theirs” but also rejects to consume non-

Islamic culture and history. As a contrast to Chinese TV serials, it would be interesting to look at

the popularity of Turkish dramas in Pakistan. Currently airing dubbed Turkish series “Ertugrul

Ghazi” has broken many records in the country and became the most watched TV serial of all

time in Pakistan. It has more viewership than in Turkey itself. The series is based on the life of

the Turk Leader Ertugrul whose son Osman Ghazi is considered to be the founder of Ottoman

Empire. The series was dubbed and aired on the directions of the Prime Minister of Pakistan

himself who claimed that the show would help Pakistan understand the significance of Islamic

civilization. A similar series called “Payitaht Abdulhamid” is also very popular within Pakistan

which glorifies the last absolute monarch of the Ottoman Empire. The Pakistani people take

pride in claiming such historical events to be “their” and hold nostalgic sentiments. Such can

never be the case for western or Chinese products which will always be viewed as foreign. To

highlight the fact that such media items create an impact on culture, it should be mentioned that

for the Turkish series mentioned above, some segments of Pakistani society are also criticizing

them because they feel such series are a threat to local culture.13 Therefore, despite conscious

13“Ertugrul: The Turkish TV Drama Enthralling Pakistan,” BBC News, June 15, 2020, sec. Asia,
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53024479.
efforts by China, it is very unlikely that Chinese culture can penetrate into the Pakistani society

through media.

Formal Efforts

The promotion of cultural ties and people to people contact is on the official agenda of both

China and Pakistan. Foreseeing a much closer partnership in future, the two countries also want

the people to share a bond with each other. Efforts in this regard are being made through various

means. Just like other parts of the world Confucius institutes also exist all over Pakistan. The

Confucius institute in NUML University Islamabad is the first in the Muslim world and

considered to be one of the best. Pakistan’s Punjab and China’s Jiangsu were declared twin cities

and Punjab-Jiangsu Cultural Centre (PJCC) was established in Lahore. PJCC offers language

course, organizes cultural programs, and sponsors students’ exchange between Punjab and

Jiangsu province. Pakistani China Institute (PCI), a think tank located in Islamabad, has

emerged as a dynamic cultural communication channel between Pakistan and China.

Collaboration in media is also discussed above. Besides such initiatives the Chinese Embassy in

Pakistan and its cultural office is itself very active in promoting the Chinese culture among

Pakistani people.14 These efforts no doubt make people more aware about the Chinese culture

and help create a positive image. However to be aware of another culture and to integrate that

culture into one’s own are two different things. Formal direct efforts for promotion of culture

would mainly work in the favour of former. To tell that “this is our culture” would not create an

impact that underlying indirect factors discussed above can make by taking advantage of the

unconsciousness of the people that they are absorbing another culture.

14 Bai Gui and Arif Muhammad, “Exploring Channels of Cultural Communication between Pakistan and China,”
Media Watch 7 (May 1, 2016): 188–95, https://doi.org/10.15655/mw/2016/v7i2/98724.
Conclusion

Although it is quite natural for people to be affected by influx of another people in the case of

migration, and historically the sub-continent has had a dynamic cultural heritage of vast and

diverse culture mixing to such an extent that a lingua-franca such as Urdu came into being.

However, these cultural shifts were only possible due to common religious belief centered on the

concept of God, which being the common factor allowed different cultural practices to be

integrated or allowed them to influence one another. One of the key differences between China

and its Asian neighbors is that of a different belief system. The Chinese outlook on life looks at

the world like an organism and drives its motivation, determination and culture from a non-

religious perspective. However, in Pakistan the culture is the by-product of a deep-rooted

religious mindset that has a 5000 year long history. Different belief systems produce different

outlooks which result in different values and different priorities. In this case, learning mandarin

and the influence of Chinese media in Pakistan will only highlight these differences and might

produce retardation in cultural integration. Food is a good example of this strong belief system.

As a Muslim majority country, the outlook towards food and its consumption is more religiously

defined which is aligned with the Pakistani culture and so deep rooted as a heritage mindset that

it remains entirely inflexible. Food, clothing, rituals, and values are the foundation of culture.

These come to a stalemate against Pakistani culture making culture integration highly unlikely.

However, in the light of practicality and in the small areas of cultural behavior some cultural

work ethics might influence Pakistani culture more positively as it would already have some

similar roots in the Pakistani culture to some extent, such as work ethics and learning of martial

art.
CPEC is no doubt an enormous project which naturally comes with some non-economic

implications as well. Culture is one such area where observers have pointed fingers. Although it

is hard to claim that Pakistani culture will take no impact due to the Chinese influence coming

with CPEC; considering all the factors discussed above we can also safely predict that any such

impact will not be significant enough to alter the cultural fabric of Pakistan to a non-negligible

extent.
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