A new digital restoration of The Goddess, a 1934 silent movie from a golden period of the city's film industry, was recently shown at the Shanghai Film Festival.  It is one of several remasterings that come as Beijing tries to extend its soft power by exporting Chinese culture around the world, and build a stronger movie industry able to compete internationally.

Japanese noodle-soup shops can be found from Sydney to Stockholm. In Washington, New York and Los Angeles, long lines form at the hippest new ramen restaurants.  The Japanese government is also using ramen as a form of soft power — or at least al dente power.

When you first arrive in Mexico City, your senses are overwhelmed by the sheer size and the never-ending hum of activity. Choosing a focal point can be exhausting. Every facet of the city seems as important as the next.  If you’re an architecture enthusiast, this feeling is multiplied twofold.

State Department work doesn’t just involve diplomats and briefcases. U.S. cultural diplomacy sent “jazz ambassadors” such as Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong overseas at the height of the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s. The programs and cultural exchanges have only expanded since.

"The difference between cool Korea and earlier Asian pop culture waves is that Korea has been working to make this happen for almost two decades. Korea is cool because it decided to be cool — it's the first country in history that has made being cool a massive policy priority, backed by the Korean government to the tune of billions of dollars."

“Saudi Arabia has been a riddle wrapped in an enigma available to view only in the abyss of the world stage. To the rest of the world we are a very big question mark,” Hafez explains, meaning the world is eager to know this country beyond the stereotypes generated by 9/11 and as the “oil capital of the globe.” According to him, the first way to discover a country is by looking at its cultural elements – literature, poetry, cinema, TV, and paintings.