Japan was once an Asian bowling powerhouse, but its reputation has declined in recent times. So it's now looking to strike up a partnership with Singapore to lift the sport, especially at the junior level. Twelve Japanese students, age between 12 and 17 years old, arrived in Singapore as part of a Japan International Exchange programme.

From Dec 2 to 4, Wudang Mountain Tourism Area held a Wudang photography and calligraphy exhibition in Erfurt, Germany. The exhibition served as a prelude to the Sino-German culture exchange in Hubei province. This year is the 40th anniversary of China-German diplomatic ties. Hubei province organized a delegation to go to Germany and preside over the Hubei Culture Exhibition Week.

India and Pakistan have used "cricket diplomacy" to improve relations in the past, and over the next little while they will do it again. Pakistan's national cricket team is in India for the first series of games between the two countries in five years. The matches will take place from Dec. 25 to Jan. 6. For this very reason, the Indian government has issued a number of visas to Pakistan cricket fans, allowing them to enjoy the matches live.

Cricket legend Kapil Dev remembers what it was like playing for his country against India's bitter rival, Pakistan, when he made his international debut in 1978: a bowler was expected to aim at the batsman's body...Fast-forward to 2012, and India and Pakistan are once again preparing to face off on the cricket field, playing their first series since 2008, when already brittle relations were shattered by the Mumbai attacks.

The aggressively waged cultural war campaign against Iranian media, or research projects and other intellectual-cultural activities, should be understood with such a clarity as that of a cultural war against Iranian efforts to reach to the western masses conducted by the west simply because the western states does not want to have a third-party breaking their monopoly to communicate [lies] liberally and unchallenged to their western masses.

The Taiwan International Cultural & Creative Industry Expo (TICCIE) has thus seen considerable growth in the number of either participants or exhibit categories since the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA), the predecessor of today’s Ministry of Culture (MOC), proposed to arrange the annual event three years ago.

After 31 years of public service, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leaves the limelight behind. On Friday, President Obama nominated Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to take her place as secretary of state, leaving Clinton to help him move in and then bow out.

The past year was a turning point in Sino-Japanese relations: Japan suffered a total defeat. Beijing realized practically all its diplomatic objectives, whereas Tokyo could not achieve any of them. But this victory may prove self-defeating for China.