The festival has struck a multi-year deal with the Japan Foundation’s recently created Asia Center to help it bring in Asian films and film-makers to Tokyo and also to expand Japanese cultural influence in Asia.

U.S. President Barack Obama has recited Persian poetry in his efforts to engage Iran, as has State Department Persian language spokesman Alan Eyre, who frequently uses poetry in his media appearances and video messages to Iranians.

The first and only Chinese-Turkish television channel CTV has begun broadcasting films, documentaries and Chinese cultural and traditional programs to promote Chinese economy, tradition and popular culture.

Gordon B. Lankton, founder of the Museum of Russian Icons, will be honored by the Ballets Russes Cultural Partnership for his "commitment and contributions’’ to promoting relations between the United States and Russia and an improved understanding of the history of Russian icons.

The residence of the South Korean ambassador to China has been opened to the public, in an annual public-diplomacy effort to reach out to Chinese people, the South Korean Embassy said Thursday.

According to a statement issued by the foreign ministry, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Morgulov Igor Vladimirovich and Pakistan’s Additional Secretary Europe Nadeem Riyaz led their respective sides in discussions that focused on a review of political, economic, parliamentary and cultural relations.

The book is based on the true story of the 1971 Table Tennis World Championships in Japan, where the unlikely friendship between American player Glenn Cowan and top China player Zhuang Zedong set the media ablaze and drove both administrations scrambling at the highest levels.