A Bite of China, a hit documentary focused on Chinese cuisine, is reaching out across the ocean and attracting fans in Japan.

Going global is an ambition pursued by Chinese film makers for decades. Yet the reality is Chinese movies make their fame on the world stage largely through Kongfu films. At the ongoing 15th Shanghai International Film Festival, Chinese film makers are trying to tell the world they have more to offer.

China’s ruling Communist party has long lamented that its “soft” power falls far short of that of the US. Efforts to improve matters, however, have been hampered by an overeager propaganda agenda. Mr Wang said this would change. “Our country puts too much emphasis on ‘going out’”...The harder you strive to do that, the less you will succeed."

The action film Ranh Gioi Trang Den (Boundary of Black and White), which marks the first co-operation between the Vietnamese and Indonesian film industries, will hit screens on July 6.

Although London has staged an annual Palestinian film festival since 1999, it has yet to hold an Israeli film festival. But June 14 sees the launch of Seret, a festival of Israeli film and television. The festival’s sponsors include the Israeli Embassy, the British Council and Bi-Arts, a joint initiative of the Israeli and British governments.

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.

Romania ranks 15th in a world top on soft power, an indicator measuring the ability of a state to influence the actions of others through persuasion or attraction, rather than coercion, by means of values like culture, personalities, institutions and policies, according to a study made by the audit and consulting company Ernst&Young

The purchase might invigorate a campaign by the Chinese government to boost the country’s “soft power,” or cultural influence, in the U.S. and other countries...According to Xinhua, the Party’s Central Committee said “China is facing a difficult task in protecting ‘cultural security’ and feeling the urgency of enhancing its soft power and the international influence of its own culture.”