Cultural Diplomacy

This year's cultural exchange at The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival promises to be special. As festival producer Quint Davis put it, Cuba comes to Jazz Fest! Davis says it's a project that has taken time and resources. "We been working on this for two years," he explained. "We went to Senator Landrieu's office in Washington to say we want to do this. [...] We're bringing 150 people from Cuba. That means 150 visas and interviews, which has never been done."

That could be coming soon with the NHL looking at China as hockey's next great frontier. With the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China is eager to step up its game and the league is intrigued by the potential of a new nontraditional market with 1.4 billion people that might take to hockey like it did basketball. "It's a place that hasn't had that much of an opportunity to be introduced to what everybody acknowledges is a great game,"

A goal kick away from the Toa Payoh Stadium are reminders of the once-close ties between Myanmar and this Singapore neighborhood, home to the Burmese Buddhist Temple and streets named for the towns and rivers of the Golden Land. The arena hosts Balestier Khalsa Football Club, of Singapore's professional soccer league, and sits in the middle of a community which arrived from the country then known as Burma in the 1940s and 1950s.

World Theater Day, instituted by the International Theater Institute (ITI) on March 27, 1962, to mark the opening of the Theater of Nations in Paris, France, has since been annually celebrated on March 27 to focus on the importance of theater as a diverse and complex art form that taps the creative work of the playwright, director, actors, artists, and composers. In musical theater, acting is combined with music, song, and dance. 

Mr Low Sze Wee, Director, Curatorial, Collections & Education, National Gallery Singapore, shared with Rattana Lao (Modern Diplomacy) on the origin, expectation and reception of the Artist and Empire: (en) countering colonial legacy exhibition at the National Gallery Singapore. [...] "Through this, we hope the exhibition will generate greater discussion on the formation of national identities and their complex relationships with the colonial experience."

A leading Kenyan afro-pop band Sauti Sol, is set to make its first tour of China in May this year. The four-man band, that originally started as a cappella group, are set to sing in Swahili and Chinese. "We intend to promote Kenyan music in China and also invite Chinese musicians to come to Kenya and perform," the band's leader Bien-Aime Baraza told Xinhua in an interview in Nairobi on Saturday.

The cooperation plan includes the establishment of a joint Tunisia-Turkey university, promotion of collaboration among Turkish and Tunisian universities, and the enhancement of student and faculty exchanges. [...] The partnership with Turkey has also paved the way for the establishment of North African cross-border institutes or campuses in Turkey as part of a wider bid to position Turkey as a higher education hub for Arab students. 

The Thai Ambassador said: “The Royal Thai Embassy is very pleased to work with Serena Hotel to present authentic and Halal Thai food to Pakistani guests. Thailand is famous for excellence in food and for its wonderful cultural heritage as well as the amazing cultural performances. The Royal Thai Embassy in Islamabad hopes that everyone will enjoy authentic Thai cuisine and the very lively performances by the professional cultural troupe from Thailand.”

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