Cultural Diplomacy

From punk rock musicians to state-sponsored emojis, a look at the role of popular culture in PD communication.

Another eye-catching performer is Mixer. Formed in 2013, the rock group won Best Band at the Golden Melody Awards last year and has participated in ROC Ministry of Foreign Affairs-backed cultural diplomacy tours of Japan and South Korea, with their energetic shows proving popular with both local and overseas audiences.

Reclining Odalisque

The cultural diplomacy of "Islamic Art Now" at LACMA.

November 5, 2015

When Armand Diangienda picks up an instrument that he has never played, he looks for its hidden rule. That skill [...] was crucial twenty years ago, when he started the Kimbanguist Symphony Orchestra, in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2014, they travelled to the U.K. to perform with several ensembles, including the BBC Concert Orchestra, in a tour of English cities.

Mario Gonzalez is from Pro Mexico, the Mexican government's trade and investment agency that organized [a Mexican Design pop-up showroom in central London]. "Tonight is our first ever showroom with Mexican designers," he says. "The idea is to position Mexican designers in the UK. They're very well known in the States or other areas, but not in Europe.

The play attempts to show how violence, especially as a result of war, shapes those characters. Raffo, an Iraqi-American who grew up in Michigan, links the stories to Iraq’s history and political forces, with commentary from characters who range from a child indifferent to the debris of war littering her neighborhood to an aging political exile, comfortably commenting from afar. 

For four days last month, an art collective called Postcommodity erected a two-mile-long temporary installation of balloons that bi-sected the U.S.-Mexico border. Called “Repellent Fence”, the project included 26 balloons, each tethered to the other, which floated right above a stretch of the border located on the edge of Douglas, Texas and Agua Prieta, Sonora. 

Ahead of crucial election, musicians rail against government-sanctioned repression of persecuted Rohingya minority. The band Side Effect is one of Myanmar's most popular punk rock bands and among a growing number of musicians rallying to combat hate speech. The performance came as religious tensions escalate in the former military dictatorship leading up to a landmark general election on Sunday.

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