CineAsia is upon us already, the last major cinema conference of the year and a time to take stock. This show has taken on new significance in recent years as it highlights the growth of Asia as a film market and the increasing importance of the region to global cinema. The Asia-Pacific region will account for 40.4% of global box office in 2016.

Soon after coming to power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi prudently decided to emphasise India’s rich tradition of Buddhism in a soft-power approach to Asian geopolitics. Apart from countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Japan, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Mongolia and others, he even struck a direct chord with China to revive India-China ties. 

Sitting on both ends of Asia, China and Turkey have voiced their readiness to revive the ancient Silk Road, along which the links are expected to extend from China to Central Asia and the Middle East, and then on to Europe via Turkey. In China, President Xi Jinping put forth the Belt and Road initiative three years ago, seeking to connect trading partners along the ancient Silk Road through land and sea routes.

A popular Taiwanese television drama, "The Way We Were (16 個夏天)," will be broadcast in Spanish in El Salvador, starting on Dec. 4, according to Taiwan's embassy in the Central American country. Airing the series abroad is part of the government's efforts to promote Taiwan's TV industry and introduce Taiwanese culture and people to foreign allies, said Florencia Hsieh (謝妙宏) while unveiling the series in San Salvador on Nov. 24.

Indians — especially the youth — are learning Korean, eating kimchi and travelling to Seoul to sample the life shown on their favourite TV dramas, and films [...] Over the last decade, K-pop and K-dramas, as well as their movies, have unleashed a tsunami of growth and popularity in India, and the numbers of avid fans continue to grow exponentially.

Visiting Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong agreed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel here Friday to set up a high-level cultural exchange mechanism at the earliest possible date. [...] Establishing such a mechanism will promote the Sino-German exchanges and cooperation in the fields of education, science, culture and sports, she added.