Chinese President Xi Jinping Thursday afternoon attended a signing ceremony for cooperation agreement on the development of the Hong Kong Palace Museum. The mainland and the Hong Hong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) will carry out cooperation in areas including relic display, personnel training and people-to-people exchange, according to the agreement.

Cultural exchanges between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong have developed well since Hong Kong returned to the motherland in 1997, Ding Wei, vice minister of culture, said Sunday.

A little bit crab apple, a little bit cherimoya, the ambitious atemoya hopes for soft power prowess and export success. When the atemoya (鳳梨釋迦)  was first exported from Taiwan in 2008, its sales quickly surpassed that of other Taiwanese staples, including mangoes and pineapples.

Now, an exhibition featuring more than 100 artworks and models of the museum has turned the spotlight on the institution itself. It illuminates the story of the Louvre and its transformation from a medieval fortress 800 years ago, to a grandiose palace and then a home to academies and studios before it became the world’s most visited museum and a cultural titan.

As for cultural exchange, Chan said that the Hong Kong Ballet toured four Canadian cities with the classic Sleeping Beauty last year in March, while the Young Academy Cantonese Opera Troupe of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts staged a Cantonese opera performance of Monkey King in Toronto in September.

As tensions over Hong Kong government's seizure of nine military vehicles from Singapore continues to escalate, Singaporean bloggers have turned the diplomatic incident into catchy ‘Singlish Songs’, humorously pleading Hong Kong and China to return their “Terrex Chia”. [...] YouTuber Alvin Oon's song, “Give Me Back My Terrex Chia”, went viral in the space of a few days. He introduced it on YouTube as “Song Diplomacy”.

Once again East Asian countries have dominated the global education tables. In recent weeks, both the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) published their rankings of education systems worldwide based on students’ skills and knowledge.