Cultural trade underpins the "people-to-people bonds" of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), yet Chinese cultural and creative products remain weakly positioned in partner-country markets, largely because supply is organised around what China wishes to present rather than what foreign consumers understand and want. Using an online survey of 1,010 Russian consumers, this paper examines the structure of cultural consumption demand in a major BRI partner country. We measure awareness of and attitudes towards 27 Chinese cultural symbols, purchases of eight categories of Chinese cultural products, and differences in preferences by age, education and occupation. Three findings emerge. First, demand is layered by cognitive accessibility: symbols perceived directly through the senses (giant panda, tea, silk, porcelain, the Great Wall) are widely liked, whereas ideational and language-dependent symbols (Confucianism, Taoism, the Chinese language, folk music, Peking Opera) attract neutrality, dislike or unawareness. Second, preferences are heterogeneous: younger consumers favour high-recognition and participatory symbols, middle-aged and highly educated consumers favour symbols with interpretive depth, and older consumers favour historically anchored symbols; Pearson correlations between demographic attributes and symbol attitudes are small but statistically significant. Third, purchased products are concentrated in handicrafts, original toys and calligraphy and painting. We derive implications for the "Happy Chinese New Year" brand and for a tiered, segment-specific approach to cultivating cultural demand in BRI countries.

Xinna Zhao, Chenyang Bao, Jiahao Zhang. Analysis of Cultural Consumption Demand in Belt and Road Countries: Evidence from Russian Consumers' Preferences for Chinese Cultural Symbols. International Journal of Business Management and Economics and Trade (2026), Vol. 7, Issue 3: 71-85. https://doi.org/10.38007/IJBMET.2026.070307.

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