public diplomacy
On her graduation day at the prestigious Kennedy School at Harvard, Yang Jia’s dean called her “China’s soft power”. A decade later, Yang, 49, has probably become more than that — in a country which has the largest population of the disabled in the world, visually impaired Yang is now its symbol of hope.
Pew’s argument suffers from an implicit fallacy, not unusual in public diplomacy discourse. The primary purpose of humanitarian relief is not public diplomacy...We have a tendency to measure the international popularity rating of many U.S. government activities that may influence foreign publics, whereas their real purpose is something entirely different.
The Chinese Culture Year, which ran from Oct. 7, 2010 to Jan. 14, was a very important cultural exchange event in the time since the two countries established ties more than 40 years ago, the Chinese ambassador to Italy said. "The event has a profound impact on the Italian people and laid a solid foundation for the healthy development of bilateral ties."
A new study by the Pew Global Attitudes Project poses the question: Does humanitarian relief improve America’s image. The answer is “not much,” or “not as much as one might hope.” While this may seem unfair, given that the United States spends some $4 billion annually on humanitarian relief, it is perhaps not surprising.
China is planning to open more Confucius Institutes to teach traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) overseas in order to promote this age-old medical science, deemed the essence of Chinese culture, said Vice Minister of Health Wang Guoqiang...The Confucius Institutes are non-profit public institutions for promoting Chinese language and culture in foreign countries.
“She has made people all over the world more respect, appreciate and understand America,” says one of her predecessors, Madeleine Albright. “She has made very clear what American values are while at the same time understanding other countries’ national interests.”
There are so many stigmas attached to Israel at the moment. Without making this blog sound at all like a propaganda-fuelled promo piece for the nation, I was delighted to find out that Tel Aviv is nothing like most foreigners expect it to be.
As part of the American Music Abroad program, the Department of State and American Voices will create a series of international musical exchange tours. International touring activities will include public concerts, master classes, lecture-demonstrations, workshops, jam sessions with local musicians and media outreach.