The culture that teaches that a king could become a slave and a slave could become a king in their midst and that the way a child is born is the same way a slave is born put the Yoruba culture up front amongst world cultures, East, West, North and South. In Western Nigeria it is not so much where you come from but how willing to assimilate and be accommodated as one of theirs, never had ethnic roundup. Always survive by their wish for others sometime to a fault.

In cooperation with Fredrikstad municipality in Norway, the Hong Kong based Theatre Studio and the Norwegian theatre lab Studium Actoris have initiated a three-year long cultural exchange program which is to culminate in a theatre production celebrating the 150 years jubilee of Norway and China’s most famous painters, Edward Munch and Qi Bashi.

In the current political climate, overt Chinese-ness is simply a competitive disadvantage for Chinese brands overseas, according to Jerry Clode, associate director of cultural insight for Added Value. Perhaps Chinese brands with global aspirations can look to post-war Japan for role models.

SHANGHAI --- Zhao Qizeng, China’s leading proponent of public diplomacy, wrote, “Culture is the soul and life of a nation.” That concept is the driving force behind much of China’s exercise of soft power, and other countries that deal with this superpower need to understand the value the Chinese place on their language, traditions, and other cultural elements of their national life.

SHANGHAI --- Zhao Qizeng, China’s leading proponent of public diplomacy, wrote, “Culture is the soul and life of a nation.” That concept is the driving force behind much of China’s exercise of soft power, and other countries that deal with this superpower need to understand the value the Chinese place on their language, traditions, and other cultural elements of their national life.

As people in Santa Lucija, a village in the small island nation of Malta, look forward to its annual Chinese Film Festival this summer, the China Cultural Center in Malta has pledged to organize more cultural events this year to mark the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Santa Lucija, the only Maltese village with a partnership with Jinchang district of Suzhou city in east China, began to offer its citizens a feast for their eyes in 2007 when it organized a Chinese film festival at the end of the summer.

Most of the YES Academy took place at Chulalongkorn University in central Bangkok including strings and orchestra, piano, dance, hip hop and the Broadway program. Thankfully, the U.S. Department of State is still budgeting for this kind of cultural diplomacy to demonstrate what we all have in common and how we can all learn to work together.

Three hundred Taiwanese students will travel to 30-plus countries this summer to promote cultural exchanges and enhance bilateral ties in what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs described Tuesday as the largest scale youth ambassador program in years.