t the convention another hot topic that was discussed was the diffusion of South Korean culture throughout Asia...and the growing popularity of Korean entertainment and culture. Korean dramas and pop music have grown quite popular among the youth in the region and abroad.

Seoul is exploring whether the Korean Wave culture that has captured the hearts and minds of the young generation across the globe, Asia in particular, could be the newest powerful diplomatic tool in community building within East Asia.

Popular Japanese culture has often baffled the western world. But now local authorities are taking lessons from Japan on how to use popular culture, regional history and local produce to promote regions across the country. The Japan Local Government Centre, which boasts an office in central London, is working to share the lessons of Japanese local authority projects with their counterparts in the UK.

China plans a theme park to celebrate Hello Kitty, the cutesy cat with no mouth but a cult-like following…Hello Kitty’s popularity in China can be seen as a counterpoint to Sino-Japanese political tensions by demonstrating the population’s embrace of Japanese style...

South Korea will use its "soft power" as an instrument of cultural diplomacy to promote exchanges in various areas between countries, the parliamentary speaker said Thursday, as he prepared to host a conference of his counterparts from the Group of 20 countries next week.

Liquid Comics and Open Hands Initiative, a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to public diplomacy efforts, announced Saturday the launch of a new comic book that will introduce children around the world to The Silver Scorpion...[whose] powers include the ability to “help build bridges between the youth of America and the Arab world, starting with Syria.”

If you're wondering whether this a joke -- it indeed is. But it also isn't. The Global Times is not in the business of emulating The Onion, the popular online spoof newspaper, but in the serious business of exercising Chinese soft power by providing its take on news around the world.

If I were able to travel back in time and tell my teenage self that I would one day be enthusiastically welcomed in Manhattan as a lecturer on Japanese anime, fashion and music, the younger me--a fan of films set in the Big Apple--would never believe it. But in October I did indeed speak as an invited guest at the New York Anime Festival.