Lord co-wrote and co-edited Cities, Museums and Soft Power, a book of essays by prominent culture experts on the influence of museums and arts institutions on cities and citizens. While hard power is exerted by countries through weapons, war, sanctions and money, soft power creates influence through persuasion, agenda-setting and culture, Lord says.

In a bid to boost the art, culture, theatre, music and creative thinking sphere in the city, a group of industrialists, entrepreneurs and corporate executives has formed the Chennai International Centre (CIC).

Changsha, capital city of central China's Hunan Province, has been awarded the title of the "2017 Culture City of East Asia" in a program established by China, Japan and South Korea in Beijing. [...] The three candidate cities were judged by an 11-member committee of experts in the fields of cultural exchange, cultural service system construction and intangible cultural heritage protection and inheritance.

"China Kaleidoscope: Jinjiang City Week," was launched on Monday to boost and improve the image and reputation of the city, a country-level city of Quanzhou, in Fujian Province. Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Jinjiang Committee's Director, Lin Huiling, said that the event was part of the international promotion of Jinjiang's image as well as a crucial step towards internationalisation.

In 2015 the WHO said that smoking is on course to kill 100 million Chinese in this century, and it warned that if the Chinese continue the habit, that rate could increase to 3 million per year by 2050 [...] From Mao Zedong to Deng Xiaoping, China has a long history of luminary smokers. However, “ashtray diplomacy” has abated thanks to a policy introduced in 2013.