“If you are going to tell people the truth, you better make them laugh; otherwise, they’ll kill you.”
-George Bernard Shaw

I used to think that humor was one thing that didn’t translate in cross-cultural communication. In my travels, I had watched numerous attempts at jokes fail miserably as they got lost in translation or cultural nuances. Things often ended awkwardly amid the seemingly untranslatable nature of humor.

Type in the Mandarin words for “invest” and “Canada” into the popular search engine Baidu, and an official Canadian government website doesn’t appear until the 25th link. Lack of easy access to information in Mandarin about investment, education and immigration in Canada is weakening our relationship with China.

Mr. Xi’s journey to America’s heartland underscores the importance of the public dimension of U.S-China diplomacy. Since China’s “soft power” efforts have largely been bi-coastal, Mr. Xi’s trip to the fly-over country is particularly noteworthy. Let’s hope that Mr. Xi’s Iowa visit will help broaden and enrich the Chinese imagination of America.

Muscatine, Iowa, is to play host to a special guest on Wednesday, when China’s Vice President Xi Jinping, the nation’s presumed next leader, returns to the small town he first visited as part of a sister-state program more than two decades ago. Mr. Xi’s journey to America’s heartland underscores the importance of the public dimension of U.S-China diplomacy.

The coming visit of Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping is expected to provide an opportunity to further promote public diplomacy between the two countries. Xi is visiting the United States at the invitation of Vice-President Joe Biden, starting from Feb 13 to 17.

At a time when the rest of the world marvels at — or perhaps dreads — China’s rise, Beijing perceives a serious weakness in its own armour: the lack of soft power. For all its economic woes, the West still possesses ample soft power as evidenced by its cultural domination.

In partnership with the Chinese embassy in the United States, the WAE brought the "Colorful China," a cultural exchange program that made its debut in the United States in October 2010, back here again last November with a showcase of exquisite costumes, dances, music and rich fabric of Chinese ethnic groups.

China is taking this cultural war seriously, on both domestic and international fronts. Beginning Jan. 1, two-thirds of entertainment programs on China’s 34 satellite channels, including game shows, dating shows and celebrity talk shows, were deemed “vulgar” and cut, making way for programs that “promote traditional virtues and socialist core values.”