Commenting last week on Israel’s surprising ninth-place Eurovision finish, achieved thanks to votes from millions of usually anti-Israel Europeans, Avshalom Halutz of Haaretz wrote sarcastically that the dramatic improvement over previous results “seems to validate Israel’s decision...to send its carefree ‘Golden Boy’ party anthem to Eurovision, after years of trying in vain to find favor with the Europeans with apologetic and hypocritical songs about peace and tolerance, and failed gimmicks like candlelight or a duet between a Jewish and an Arab singer.” Despite being an exaggeration, ther

These are not the Chinese athletes you’ve seen on TV, those scarily synchronized divers or the gymnasts plucked from preschools for their bone structure. The Ultimate Frisbee players running and diving all over these fields are too scrappy, too goofy and having way too much fun. Ultimate Frisbee (often called just Ultimate as “Frisbee” is a trademarked brand) is growing in China, and 17 teams gathered here in Beijing for the national championship in late May.

The forgotten story of how one of Jacksonville's young and talented Symphony Directors reconstructed the cultural milieu of Germany, including its denazification, immediately after World War Two. Join us after the jump for the story of how John Bitter, who was only 25 years old when he became the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra director during the 1930s went to Berlin to draw the poison out of its high culture.

BEIJING – The latest “Doraemon” movie has scored the biggest box-office revenue for animated films in China, brightening the atmosphere between the two countries as they gradually mend strained ties.

“Stand By Me Doraemon,” a three-dimensional movie, was released in theaters across China last Thursday. It was the first Japanese movie shown in China after the Japanese government effectively nationalized the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea in September 2012, touching off strong reactions among both the Chinese leadership and public.

Should public servants consider cultural impact when developing policies? Julianne Schultz says cultural policy has been undervalued, but combating Australia’s cultural deficit has been stymied by equating culture with arts, and arts defined quite narrowly as the non-commercial sector. It’s time to think much more seriously about culture. For years we have bought the Clinton truism, “it’s the economy, stupid”, but this simple binary no longer provides sufficient guidance for the future.

Mahjong is nearly ubiquitous in China. The clicking of tiles is a subtle background noise that visitors might notice as they stroll the streets and parks of the country. Mahjong is not new to the world outside of China, but its rising popularity is making the game into a de-facto form of Chinese cultural diplomacy. [...] Foreign visitors took note of the game's popularity and entrepreneurs exported the game from China to the US in the 1920s.

SAN FRANCISCO—For Sam Chapple-Sokol, a chef who has spent time working at the White House, food is the missing ingredient in international relations. The Daily Signal connected with the food connoisseur in San Francisco’s Mission District, where he explained the concept of “culinary diplomacy,” a term he coined.