The glittering World Cultural Festival [...] had the country agog for days. The colorful three-day extravaganza, featuring yoga and meditation sessions, peace prayers and cultural performances by Indian and foreign artists, also boasted a VIP audience in attendance: top Indian politicos including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, corporate honchos and guests from across the world.

As crowds gathered on Nov. 4, 1972, to catch a glimpse of two adorably rare creatures making their debut at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo, an orangutan named Miyo unfurled a welcome banner. A curtain was then pulled aside to reveal two anxious giant pandas — Kang Kang and Lan Lan — and Japan fell head over heels in love, both with the bears and what they represented: Sino-Japanese friendship.

Seventeen-year-old Muslim student Usman Nawaz was nervous about coming to the United States. [...] Usman is a high-school student ambassador from Pakistan who arrived in Winona last August through a grant from the U.S. Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs youth exchange and study program. 

The secret to successful public diplomacy for a state may sound like a surreptitious potion whose recipe lies with the magicians. However, it is the art of devising and executing strategies, just in the accurate proportion, to transform the way the local and international public perceives a certain state. So, where does this recipe come from? It comes from the human mind.

No denying that sports and games do great branding for a country. When Mabia Akter Simanta, a weightlifter from Bangladesh won the first gold for her country at the 2016th South Asian games and stood on the victory stand, tears rolled down her cheek. It was tears of joy and happiness. 

Omar Souleyman, a 49-year-old farmer-turned-wedding-singer from north-eastern Syria and a father of 9, is an unlikely electronic music star. This month he drew big crowds to KOKO, one of London’s most iconic music venues. Donning the jalabiya andkeffiyeh, traditional Arab garments, along with his signature aviator shades, he performed to a packed out venue full of white middle-class youth. 

Kuwait is one of the masters of soft power in the Middle East. As I was having dinner with two Emiratis, two non- Kuwaiti Arabs were having dinner at a table beside ours; the two non-Kuwaiti Arabs were stuck to one phone watching the second episode of “Swar Shuaib,” Kuwait’s Shuaib Rashed’s popular talk show. 

At the invitation of President Milos Zeman, I will be paying my first state visit to the Czech Republic as the Chinese President. I look forward to having in-depth exchange of views with President Zeman and other Czech leaders on boosting bilateral ties and on major international and regional issues.