Confucius Institutes in Egypt are seeing a huge surge in popularity. According to the manager at the Institute at Cairo University, they are gradually moving away from targeting students of the Chinese language, and are beginning to attract interest from different faculties, and educational establishments in other cities across Egypt.

The Belarusian Society of Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries organized over a hundred literature, music, history and geography events, themed evenings, exhibitions and roundtables in 2016, Nina Ivanova, the head of the Belarusian Friendship Society, said during the meeting of the board of the organization on 27 December, BelTA has learned.

The Pakistan Embassy in Washington has announced to launch Experience Pakistan project in the United States to engage Pakistani-American youth as well as Pakistani professional and community organizations to realize the potential of overseas Pakistanis. Under the project, the Embassy of Pakistan would arrange group visits of Pakistani-American youth to Pakistan at frequent intervals.

Connecting China and Western Europe, Poland has been tapped as a key link in the Chinese government's "Belt and Road" initiative. Chinese President Xi Jinping made a stop in Poland back in June, overseeing the signing of around 40 different trade and partnership agreements.

Nine Iranian artists will join 200 Indian artisans to participate in the 32nd Annual Dastkari Haat Craft Bazaar at Dilli Haat during the first fortnight of January. The expo will include an interaction between Indian and Iranian artisans in a workshop. [...] The event will seek to revive the civilizational and creative links between the two countries by not just providing an exhibition of products for sale, but also educating visitors about the creative process.

Fans who attended Wham!'s 1985 concert in Beijing have been recalling the historic show following the death of George Michael on Sunday. Michael -- together with his music partner Andrew Ridgeley -- became the first western pop act to perform in China after 18-months of successful negotiations between the Chinese government and Wham's agent, Simon Napier-Bell.

As part of the government's efforts to promote its "New Southbound Policy," the Ministry of Culture has earmarked a budget of US$600 million to attract international filmmakers and TV crews to produce their future projects with counterparts in Taiwan. Mulan, a musical that made its global debut this month in Singapore, is a great example of collaboration between performers from Taiwan and abroad.

Young people in some countries in Europe believe that the UK is less attractive since its decision to leave the European Union, [...] a new poll has found. Initial results of the survey of nearly 40,000 people aged between 18 and 34 years carried out for the British Council by Ipsos MORI show some significant negative shifts in the EU countries towards the UK’s attractiveness