Vietnam has twice the population of SK and still growing. Who knows it might even be larger than SK in 50 years time.
Genetic quality of Vietnam is still inferior than that of Korea,Vietnam's GDP is driven by Samsung of Korea,Vietnam has to bank on population dividends like India.
Viets have more north Asian genes than say,Cambodia,but its easy to distinguish average Vietnamese just from facial shape ,nose and eyes than Korean or other asian from north.
Gene matter,culture matters, that's the reason world's one of the largest nation like India is such a backward hellhole.
Hard work can't overcome genetic limitations,hard work and propel people to success but to be world beater u need genetic traits that complement the endeavor.
Historically, China had a far more cosmopolitan and inclusive outlook. This is especially reflected in China’s golden ages like during the Tang Dynasty. Modern Chinese nationalism however has many elements of extreme xenophobia and racialized point of views that we see expressed by certain Chinese pdf members, if these viewpoints dominate then China has no chance of becoming a global power. At most they can be a superpower but not one with a globally relevant cultural impact, just a wheeler and dealer and supplier of goods and money.
May be Tang empire was too cosmopolitan that , despite its appeal abroad,it didn't survive.
What a nation needs is stability,not try too much to woo foreigners,Korea has spend decades in honing their hallyu now their society gets effected by the same very element that effects the west, loads of foreigners are mixing with koreans and vice versa,importing foreign ideas that are parasitic, cosmopolitan yes,but good for Korean ethnic and social identity ? no.
Japan didn't set out to conquer the world with anime or their culture,in fact japan sucks in projecting soft power,probably more than even china,all their intentional soft power projection project like "cool japan" were embarrassing failure and gained no momentum.
What really clicked with global citizens are the high quality production in anime and other art made for local consumption.
The naruto,dragonballz,ghibli epics were never made with global domination in mind,they were made by Japanese artist that simply wanted to make the highest form of Japanese manga /anime for their readers,in japan. Same case with Japanese culture,what really attracts foreigners about japan is their local traditional Japanese culture in its purest refined glory.
And Japan & Korea ,who's not bound by archaeic soviet communitistic tradition(which make everything rather boring and cumbursome)Japanese and Korean culture preserved their natural elegance and thrived.
For China to have cultural impact globally,it has to do nothing but improve and refine their culture locally,if the standard of culture can be fine-tuned well in aesthetic manner it will gain appeal abroad, reinvent itself from the archaic soviet style communist ways, quality products has appeal that can't be contained by borders.
China wouldn't have to release free pop culture contents to woo foreigners,if Chinese production can deliver high quality products that can compete with Koreans and Japanese for local audience ,foreigners will go to great length to stream those illegally.
