beijing

New app enhances the Beijing Forbidden City experience and puts China's ancient history in a very modern context.

Online clips —both geared for external and domestic consumption — has become a popular means for China to promote its policies and its perspective on issues, as part of its still fledgling, and often ham-fisted, soft power. Previous attempts have included aggressively nationalistic rap and cute, catchy tunes about its five-year plan.

It’s called “panda diplomacy” and it’s thought to have started as early as the Tang Dynasty in the 7th century when Empress Wu Zeitan sent a pair of bears (believed to be pandas) to Japan. This Chinese policy of sending pandas as diplomat gifts was revived in 1941, on the eve of the United States entering World War II, when Beijing sent two cuddly black-and-whites to the Bronx Zoo as a “thank you” gift. 

Hosted by the Korean Cultural Center in China with support from institutions including the Embassy of the ROK in China, Korea Cultural Performance Day was unveiled on Monday in Beijing. [...] Han Jae-heuk, head of the Korean Cultural Center in China, pointed out at the opening that the performance was a good opportunity for person-to-person cultural exchange between South Korea and China.

China is eagerly trying to win hearts and minds in politically and economically crucial states, especially those with abundant natural resources. [...] It is a major priority for Beijing. The Chinese state is well-equipped with “hard” power, but its global influence is nonetheless stymied by two serious obstacles: on the one hand the language barrier, and on the other the country’s fearsome reputation as a military and geopolitical superpower on the rise.

Beijing today lodged a formal protest with the U.S. because President-elect Donald Trump, bypassing established diplomatic channels, spoke to Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen yesterday by telephone. [...] “During the discussion, they noted the close economic, political, and security ties exists between Taiwan and the United States,” notes the readout of the Trump transition team of the historic conversation. 

Do Chinese people like to laugh?  Well stand-up comedy in general is a new idea to Chinese culture and expat English language comedy in China is an even bigger novelty given that the Beijing circuit is still in its infancy at around four years old. Currently the scene has two English language stand-up clubs, which hold a combination of three weekly open mics at various bars throughout the city. 

Over the past few decades of China’s rise, Beijing’s soft power pitch to the developing east has been an indictment of Ugly Americanism. China had fallen victim to Western and Japanese imperialism, and as a result pledged to act not as a patron but a partner in decolonialism and development. 

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