Cultural Diplomacy

Baum + Whiteman food consultancy recently chose Kimchi, Korea’s traditional fermented vegetable dish, as one of the top food trends for 2016. According to Google, Bibimbap was one of 2015’s top five ‘rising’ foods by search query volume. And T.G.I. Friday’s—the north star of mainstream Americana—has even experimented with adding Korean tacos to its menus.

Twelve American high schools students, have traveled to China to participate in the U.S. China Student Leaders Exchange before they leave for college in the fall. [...] The program's goal is to foster understanding between the US and China by providing nationally recognized American teenagers with an opportunity to immerse themselves in Chinese education and culture.

In the early 2000s, the Japanese government started to evaluate the value of the country’s popular culture industry following international successes in anime/manga [...] Realizing that its cultural influence expanded despite the economic setbacks of the Lost Decade (from 1991 to 2000), Japan sought to promote the idea of ‘Cool Japan’, an expression of its emergent status as a cultural superpower.

Bangladesh embassy in Washington has held an interaction with the young US professionals as part of its annual 'public diplomacy outreach'. [...] The embassy said over 70 professionals from a variety of disciplines joined the "Embassy Experience" programme on Friday evening to know Bangladesh's history, economy, investment opportunity, tourism and culture.

The colorful spectacle of pandas, martial arts and valiant heroes is, of course, far from the reality in China today, but the version of a Chinese fantasy world in which the Kung Fu Panda movies live has proved very appealing to audiences both in China and globally. 

Kabali was released in 8000-10,000 screens across the world. That scale is astonishing given that India’s soft power has largely been powered by the popularity of Hindi cinema and Bollywood.

Awad Ahmed Al-Jaz, Sudanese official in charge of Sino-Sudanese relations' file, and Li Lianhe, Chinese Ambassador to Sudan, inaugurated an exhibition about Chinese culture and the Sino-Sudanese ties.

The Polyglot Symposium underway in Montreal this weekend is the first for Georges Awaad. The 17 year-old just graduated high school and with a facility in 16 languages, he is looking forward to a career in diplomacy.

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