From Chinaculture.org: Appraisers judge displayed food during the 20th China Chef Festival, which is also the 1st China Halal Food Culture Festival, in Urumqi, capital of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Sept. 11, 2010. The festival kicked off here on Saturday. (Xinhua/Wang Fei)

From People’s Daily: Students attend class of Arab culture at Tongxin School of Arabic Language in Tongxin County, northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Sept. 17, 2010. Founded in March 1985, Tongxin School of Arabic Language is the first of its kind in China. It has three specialties, namely Arabic language, commerce Arabic and tourism Arabic. Ninety percent of its students are of China’s Hui ethnic group, and the graduates’ employment rate always stands at more than 95 percent. Most of the graduates work as translators in cities like Yiwu, east China’s Zhejiang Province, and Guangzhou, capital of south China’s Guangdong Province, which are prosperous in foreign trade and commerce. Taking advantage of the growing demand for people proficient in Arabic language at home and abroad, Ningxia has been exerting efforts to cultivate Arabic translators, a new source of the region’s labor export which makes it China’s largest exporter of Arabic translators. Nowadays, more than 3,000 Arabic translators from Ningxia are working in foreign trade and commerce in Yiwu City, the seat of China’s largest small commodity distribution center. (Xinhua/Qin Haishi)

Pop Culture Spurs Activism

Pop culture has become the basis for a participatory approach to world activism – Harry Potter fans for gay rights in the U.S., defiant Palestinians protesting about Israeli occupation with their traditional keffiyahs over skins painted blue after Avatar’s Na’vi people (Getty Images)

From the Globe and Mail: Five Palestinian, Israeli and international activists painted themselves blue to resemble the Na’vi from James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar in February, and marched through the occupied village of Bil’in. The Israeli military used tear gas and sound bombs on the azure-skinned protesters, who wore traditional kaffiyehs with their Na’vi tails and pointy ears. The camcorder footage of the incident was juxtaposed with borrowed shots from the film and circulated on YouTube. We hear the movie characters proclaim: “We will show the Sky People that they cannot take whatever they want! This, this is our land!”

The event is a reminder of how people around the world are mobilizing icons and myths from popular culture as resources for political speech, which we can call “Avatar activism.” Even relatively apolitical critics for local newspapers recognized that Avatar spoke to contemporary political concerns. Conservative U.S. publications, such as National Review and The Weekly Standard, denounced Avatar as anti-American, anti-military and anti-capitalist. A Vatican film critic argued that it promoted “nature worship,” while some environmentalists embraced Avatar as “the most epic piece of environmental advocacy ever captured on celluloid.” Many on the left ridiculed the film’s contradictory critique of colonialism and embrace of white liberal guilt fantasies, calling it Dances with Smurfs (from the simplistic pro-native-American 1990 movie success Dances with Wolves). One of the most nuanced critiques came from Daniel Heath Justice, an activist from the Cherokee nation, who felt that Avatar was directing attention to the rights of indigenous people, even though Mr. Cameron oversimplified the evils of colonialism, creating embodiments of the military-industrial complex that are easy to hate and hard to understand.

Such critiques encourage a healthy skepticism toward the production of popular mythologies and are better than those of critics who see popular culture as trivial and meaningless, offering only distractions from our real-world problems. The meaning of a popular film such as Avatar lies at the intersection between what the author wants to say and how the audience deploys his creation for their own communicative purposes.

Read the rest here.

Pope’s Visit Softened with Art

From the BBC: In a carefully-judged piece of cultural diplomacy timed to coincide with the Pope’s visit this week, the Vatican has lent the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (of which I am a trustee) four of the huge tapestries from the series The Acts of the Apostles, commissioned by Pope Leo X at the beginning of the 16th Century.

They are displayed for the first time side by side with the full-size preparatory drawings (or cartoons) by the artist who created the Biblical scenes they depict, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino – better known simply as Raphael. The keen art-collector Charles I acquired the cartoons while he was still Prince of Wales in 1623, and they have been on loan to the V&A from the Royal Collection since 1865. Even Raphaël himself never saw his designs and the tapestries together, since the Acts of the Apostles series was not completed till after his death in 1520. Nor is this a juxtaposition we are ever likely to see repeated – both the tapestries and the cartoons are judged to be too fragile to be moved more than once in a lifetime.

In his account of the life of Raphael, his contemporary, the early art-historian Giorgio Vasari, vividly conveyed the reception of the finished product: “After they had been completed, the tapestries were sent back to Rome. The work was of such wonderful beauty that it astonished anyone who saw it to think that it could have been possible to weave the hair and the beards so finely and to have given such softness to the flesh merely by the use of threads.’”

Read the rest here.

Triumph of “Soft Power” Diplomacy in Iran-UK Relations

From The Hindu: In a refreshing break with the daily dose of gloomy headlines about the current state of British-Iranian relations, there was, at last, something to cheer about last week as the “soft” power of art and culture trumped hard-nosed diplomacy. In what the Financial Times called a “rare act of diplomatic accord between the U.K. and Iran”, the British Museum moved to end a long-simmering row with Tehran over one of its most prized possessions of Persian provenance — the Cyrus Cylinder, a terracotta document written by the Persian king, Cyrus the Great 2,500 years ago and often described as the “first charter of human rights”.

Last year, Iran asked to borrow it for an important exhibition and was miffed when the British Museum, after initially agreeing to it, put off the loan at the last minute citing academic reasons following the discovery of two related new objects. There was fury in Iran. The Iranian Government alleged that the decision was politically motivated and its Cultural Heritage Organisation reacted by snapping ties with the British Museum.

However, after some deft diplomatic footwork on both sides the dispute has been happily settled and the Cylinder is now in Tehran — and on show as the centrepiece of a four-month-long exhibition at the National Museum of Iran on great moments in the history of West Asia. The two museums have a history of cooperation and the row over the Cylinder appears to have embarrassed both.

The British Museum sought to smooth ruffled feathers in Tehran by showering praise on its Iranian counterpart for its “generous loans” in the past. It said the exchanges between the two institutions were independent of “political considerations”.

“The British Museum has a positive and ongoing exchange of skills and objects with colleagues at the National Museum of Iran which has played a key part in recent exhibitions. The Trustees have reaffirmed their view that exchanges of this sort are an essential part of the Museum’s international role, allowing valuable dialogues to develop independently of political considerations,” said its chairman Niall FitzGerald.

Neil MacGregor, director of the Museum, said the loan had an “extraordinary value”. “This is a document that speaks of respect for the rights of other peoples and of different ways of worshipping. It is very hard to look at the Cyrus Cylinder without being reminded of that view of government and human relationships,” he said.

Read the rest here.

Japanese Rock Culture Wins Fans Abroad

Takamasa Sakurai / Special to The Yomiuri Shimbun: Nearly three years have passed since I began my involvement in cultural diplomacy through Japan’s pop culture. During this time, I have come to understand how truly popular our country is around the world. A watershed moment during these three years was a performance by Japanese rock group Miyavi I saw at the Japan Expo in Paris in July 2008.

Anime is one of the key elements in bringing Japan’s entertainment to the world at large. The popularity elsewhere of anime such as Dragonball and Saint Seiya have made the genre something special. But interest in Japan now extends beyond anime and manga; this country’s music and fashion are attracting their own legions of fans. I was astounded, no, flabbergasted by the scene I saw at the Miyavi show: 15,000 young French Japanophiles had been driven into a frenzy.

I loved music when I was a boy, especially stuff from America and Europe. I listened to songs by the Beatles and Jackson Browne, among many others. I think a lot of people in the music industry felt the same way. But those blinders of common sense fell from eyes when I saw Miyavi, who was exploring the world with a guitar while I was traveling the world with pop culture. What Miyavi has done is significant for anybody trying to make it overseas. When I met him in Los Angeles in June for an interview during his North American tour, he said; “I’ve come to the United States many times; I even lived here. Now, I’m more interested in feeling how different I am now than I was then.”

It was moving to see how enthusiastically he was welcomed by Americans of all ages. There was even a woman who waited 19 hours in line to get a front-row ticket. Miyavi is far better known outside Japan. Perhaps people here at home should really look at why he has been so successful at capturing the attention of the world.

China’s Vogue “Soft Power”

“The Great Game” Educates, Challenges, and Entertains

From ForeignPolicy.com: Can theater inform our understanding of one of today’s most important foreign policy challenges? Britain’s Ministry of Defence certainly think so. That’s why they recently organized a private day-long viewing for members of the British military and others working in government to see the Tricycle Theatre’s The Great Game, a series of 12 contemporary British and American plays tracing 150 years of foreign engagement in Afghanistan.

Ahead of a U.S. tour opening this week in Washington, D.C. and supported by the British Council,The Great Game has caught the attention of top coalition force leaders because it unpacks Afghanistan’s past conflicts at a pivotal time in the war: almost ten years in, with a new troop surge in place and endless questioning from the U.S. media and electorate about how we got to this point.

The arts can play a pivotal role during war or conflict because they encourage understanding between different cultures, helping foster trust, prosperity and stability. In Iraq, for example, the British Council recently helped the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq bring together 42 young Arab, Kurdish and Christian musicians to play a packed auditorium in Erbil, Northern Iraq. The arts are incredibly powerful in uniting people from different backgrounds through a neutral interest or experience — and the benefit isn’t limited to the artists. The Great Game shows how the arts can also engage audiences with complicated contemporary issues.

General Sir David Richards, Britain’s top military commander, was interviewed for The Great Gameand his dramatized, edited words are delivered by an actor directly to the audience.  It’s unusual, to say the least, for a senior military commander to be so closely involved with a contemporary arts event. But the General’s experience was unique – in the British newspaper The Times he said the plays provide a powerful opportunity to understand the challenges we face in Afghanistan and urged all military commanders and policymakers to see The Great Game:

I found The Great Game a fascinating, entertaining and historically accurate account of Britain’s and latterly the wider international community’s involvement – good and bad – in Afghanistan since the 1840s. Nothing learnt in the classroom will have the same subliminal effect as this. It is crucial that all of us who work out there, or have responsibility in any way for our nation’s policies in the region, have a more nuanced understanding of the historical background that got us to this point. I hope plenty of people in Washington take time to see it.

Read the full article by Sharon Memis of the British Council here.

As a side note, I saw the opening play last night about Afghanistan’s early history (1842-1930) and highly recommend it. If you would like to go, you can get tickets for the DC performances here. It will also be touring around various locations in the United States. (Hailey Woldt)

California to Bid for 2020 World Expo

From Xinhuanet.com: California will bid to host the 2020 World Expo in Silicon Valley near San Franscisco, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Office said on Sunday. The announcement was made at the World Expo in Shanghai by the governor who is on a visit to China, the office said in a press release. World Expos typically occur every five years and attract exhibits from countries around the globe and bring as many as 70 million visitors.

The governor and Bay Area Council President and CEO Jim Wunderman will work together to bring this prominent international event to the Golden State, the release said. ”Shanghai has demonstrated that when you host the World Expo, the world comes to you, and I want the world to come to California, ” the release quoted Schwarzenegger as saying. ”Our state is a leader in entertainment, agriculture, the environment, high-tech, green-tech and bio-tech, and we are ready to showcase our innovation to the world. As the hub of innovation, Silicon Valley is the most natural place to hold the Expo, which will promote the international exchange of ideas, create jobs and increase revenues in our state.”

The proposed site is Moffett Field, next to the pristine San Francisco Bay, according to the release. The area is heavily served by international and local transportation and is surrounded by some of the largest and most respected companies in the world. The last Expo that was held in the United States was in 1984 in New Orleans.

“The World Expo is the Olympic Games of the economic, scientific and industrial world, and we think it is time for Silicon Valley to serve as an ambassador for the United States and host this event,” said Wunderman. “For 30 years, the Bay Area and Silicon Valley have been the pre-eminent hot spots for the innovation that drives the world’s technological advances. Imagine what a Silicon Valley Expo will look like when we put all of the region’s collective brainpower to work.”

The State of California and the United States will submit their formal Expo 2020 candidacy application in 2011 and the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) – the governing body of World Expositions – will likely announce the winning bid for Expo 2020 at the end of 2012. Currently, the United States is not a member of the BIE. The Bay Area Council plans to work with Congressional Representatives and the U.S. State Department over the next few months to reinstate the U.S. as a contributing member.

Bringing Reality of Iraq War Home to Americans

From the Art Newspaper: In March 2009 British artist Jeremy Deller took the shell of a burnt-out car to the New Museum in New York. The vehicle had been hit by a bomb attack in central Baghdad in which 35 people died. Members of the public were invited to ask veterans, journalists, scholars and Iraqi nationals about the situation in Iraq for a project entitled: “It Is What It Is”. Deller then took the remains of the vehicle on a three-week road trip from New York to Los Angeles in a project co-sponsored by the public art group Creative Time. He was joined by Jonathan Harvey, a US soldier who served in Iraq; an Iraqi artist, Esam Pasha who worked as a translator for the US army and now lives in the US; a curator from New York; a writer and a road manager. The Iraqi artist, Esam Pasha, sent us his account of the journey:

From the first day until the last day of the trip three weeks later, people had conversations and arguments with us about the whole Iraqi issue. Many ranted at us. There were a lot of good conversations on all levels. People asked me about everything big and small. Like how Iraqis spend their days and how they let their children go to school through streets full of shooting and car bombs. And even what kind of tea they drink. I was happy to talk about the things that people don’t hear about in the news.

One of the best and longest conversations we had was in Washington, DC. We met an Iraqi activist who was enthusiastic about the project but upset by the fact that we didn’t have a political agenda. It is this that made the journey successful: having no slogans for or against the war, just real conversations about what happened and is happening on the ground in the war zone.

This man said: “You have to put your cards on the table. Are you for the war or against it? I will put my cards on the table and tell you I am against the war.” Both Harvey and I explained that our project is not about making this kind of statement. It is just talking about Iraq through the experience of an Iraqi artist who lived his life there and an American solider who served there. That’s why the exhibition is called “It Is What It Is”. “There is more to Iraq than just war—the history, the culture and life in all its details,” I told him. Again he said: “The war in Iraq is immoral and has to stop. You have to stand against the war, it doesn’t make sense to talk about other issues in Iraq at this time.” It took more than 40 minutes until he said: “I understand the importance of what you are doing and I think it is good”.

Read the rest here.

Making Fiction into Museum Reality

From The Art Newspaper: Turkey’s most famous living novelist is holding a pair of dentures in a room packed with ephemera reflecting everyday Turkish life of the past three decades. Orhan Pamuk, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2006 and author of My Name is Red (1998) and Snow (2002), is standing among a sea of objects—sewing machines, clocks, soda-bottle tops, buttons, lottery tickets, china dogs, birdcages, cigarette lighters and false teeth—that will soon go on display in The Museum of Innocence, a four-storey building in the Çukurcuma neighbourhood, central Istanbul. This venue, not just a chamber of curiosities, is the real-life incarnation of the museum painstakingly assembled and detailed in his book The Museum of Innocence (2008). The institution, which is due to open “[before] next year” according to Pamuk, will house 83 wooden boxes related to the book’s 83 chapters. Each box will be filled with items—both ready-made pieces and commissioned works of art—that reflect each chapter, thereby covering a 30-year period in the history of modern Istanbul from 1975 when the novel begins.

…So is this a fetishisation, reminiscent of Flaubert’s veneration of objects, or simply an ode to collecting? “Museums legitimise our lives through objects, representing kings, communities, nations and institutions. This is a western invention, while the human heart is the same everywhere. The desire to collect is the same everywhere. A collection is a series of gathered objects with an ideology, a story. A rat or a dog can just gather bones and objects,” says Pamuk, whose views on the role, function and history of museums become more strident. “Museums are linked to the process of westernisation…museums, like novels are a western idea. Tokyo’s [national] museum is explicitly linked to the history of Japan, for example. There are strong parallels between the imposition of museums on nations and the rise of national states, both chronologically and culturally,” he says.

He declines, though, to elaborate on a statement given to the Huffington Post website in November last year when he said: “However, in the last 50 years, the non-western world is catching up with museums because it wants to represent its power. Most of the time such museums are about the power of the state. They are crude exercises, like waving a flag.” When pushed, he concludes, however, that “museums and novels are all about representing the upper middle classes,” as evinced in The Museum of Innocence.

As the novel draws to a close, Kemal’s priority is to visit hundreds of off-the-beaten-track museums, unsung institutional heroes such as New York’s Glove Museum or the Musée de Temps in Besançon, a clock museum in eastern France, with a special mention for Sir John Soane’s Museum in London and its “gorgeously cluttered, crowded rooms”. “I like small, neglected museums. I like their eclecticism, the idea that you produce something uncontrollable in them. The book honours museums that nobody goes to,” says Pamuk.

Read the full article here.

“Food is our common ground, a universal experience.” – James Beard, Gastrodiplomacy

From Huffington Post: One of the more delicious forms of public diplomacy has recently emerged in the global consciousness: gastrodiplomacy. Public diplomacy is a field predicated on the communication of culture and values to foreign publics; gastrodiplomacy, most plainly put, is the act of winning hearts and minds through stomachs. It is a public and cultural diplomacy endeavor that the governments of Korea and Taiwan have recently embarked on. There is an old American public diplomacy maxim, “to know us is to love us;” Taiwanese and Korean gastrodiplomacy posits it a little differently and declares “to taste us is to love us.”

Gastrodiplomacy was a technique perfected by Thailand, which first used its kitchens and restaurants as outposts of cultural diplomacy. Given the growing popularity of Thai restaurants around the globe, in 2002, the government of Thailand implemented the “Global Thai program” as a means to increase the number of Thai restaurants. The Thai government’s rationale, The Economist noted, was that the boom in restaurants, “will not only introduce delicious spicy Thai food to thousands of new tummies and persuade more people to visit Thailand, but it could subtly help deepen relations with other countries.”

More recently, both Korea (“Kimchi Diplomacy”) and Taiwan (“Dim Sum Diplomacy”) have been engaging in culinary diplomacy to help increase global recognition of their respective nation brands. Seoul initiated the “Korean Cuisine to the World” campaign in April 2009, with stated goals of increasing Korean restaurants abroad fourfold to nearly 40,000 by 2017. The ₩50 billion (US$40 million) fund will be used to promote Korean cooking classes an internationally-acclaimed cooking schools, help support Korean culinary students with grants and scholarships to attend culinary schools and international food fairs. Korean cuisine also got added attention with the local Los Angeles creation of the Korean-taco truck, which quickly gained a culinary cult status and has been popping up all over America.

Meanwhile, Taipei recently unveiled a plan to promote Taiwanese culinary diplomacy. The sad culinary reality is that most people associate Chinese food with the heavy, sauce-laden fare that is promoted as typical Middle Kingdom cuisine; meanwhile, for those not of the foodie bent, the notion of Taiwanese cuisine draws a blank. That creates a tremendous opportunity for Taiwan to conduct gastrodiplomacy in order to brand its own cuisine as a healthy, light alternative to the heavy image associated with Western versions of Chinese food. The lighter, healthier side of Taiwanese cuisine, with its unique flavors and textures could really tempt global tummies as it creates awareness of what Taiwanese food entails.

Read the rest here.

Photo: Media Asia Films/Enlight Pictures

From WSJ: Three Chinese movies holding their world premieres at this year’s Venice Film Festival represent the increasing potency of China’s movie industry, commercially and artistically. The three movies are “Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen,” “Reign of Assassins,” and “Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame.” All three movies have strong commercial elements of action, martial arts and comedic moments — the staple of Hong Kong’s movie industry. And all three were made by prominent Hong Kong directors with Hong Kong stars in the major roles.

After the run-away success of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” a decade ago, the U.S. held new promise for Chinese-language movies. But in recent years China itself has become a more lucrative movie market as the size of audiences grows and the number of movie screens expands at double-digit rates. As a result, experienced and established Hong Kong talent increasingly is drifting across the border into mainland China to make movies. They represent the blending of the two film industries: co-productions that don’t fall within China’s import quota of 20 foreign films a year. (Hong Kong is a part of China but it operates as a “special administrative region” with a separate set of laws from the rest of the country.)

Here’s a look at what audiences in Venice have been watching:

• “Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen” from director Andrew Lau stars Donnie Yen — Asia’s leading kung-fu actor — fighting against Japanese occupiers in 1920s Shanghai. Yen reprises the role that he took on for a 1995 Hong Kong television series, playing the iconic fictional character Chen Zhen that Bruce Lee first created in “Fist of Fury” (1972). U.S. distributor Well Go USA will release “Chen Zhen” in the U.S. next spring.

• “Reign of Assassins” stars Michelle Yeoh as a Ming Dynasty assassin who wants to leave that world behind. John Woo, who received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at Venice last week, co-directed (with Taiwanese director-writer Su Chao-pin) this martial-arts film that combines elements of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and his own “Face/Off.” The Weinstein Co. has the North American distribution rights; a U.S. release date is unclear.

• “Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame” is director Tsui Hark’s clever whodunit about a real-life Tang Dynasty-era judge investigating a series of murders during the rule of China’s only female emperor. The film stars two of Hong Kong’s leading actors: Andy Lau (unrelated to “Chen Zhen” director Andrew Lau) and Carina Lau. A U.S. release date isn’t yet set.

Audiences in North America can get early glimpses of “Chen Zhen” and “Detective Dee” at the Toronto International Film Festival, which kicked off Thursday.

Uzbek Designer Makes a Splash at New York Fashion Week

Photo: Getty Images

From WSJ: The 38-year-old Gulnara Karimova is a businesswoman, fashion designer and diplomat. She has sung under the stage name GooGoosha and once, apparently, performed a duet of “Besame Mucho” with Julio Iglesias. (Look for it on YouTube.) Ms. Karimova also happens to be the daughter of Islam Karimov, the president of Uzbekistan.

On Friday, Ms. Karimova debuted her very Uzbeki fashion collection, Guli, in New York at the tents in Lincoln Center. The runway show, which brought out the pop singer JoJo in the front row, featured traditional Uzbeki long coats repurposed as brightly hued coverups for bathing suits.

Backstage afterward, Ms. Karimova fielded questions from several fashion journalists. ”We’ve been showing in Milan and we had a lot of interest in Europe,” said Ms. Karimova. “I think in New York it’s interesting to come here because it’s a city or a capital that’s not—how do you say?—overbranded.” She added that she was meeting with Bergdorf Goodman about the line’s jewelry pieces. Ms. Karimova studied jewelry making 20 years ago at the Fashion Institute of Technology and, more recently, worked as a designer for Chopard.

As for the making the trans-Atlantic trip, “It was just an opportunity to show what’s living in our country,” Ms. Karimova said. “We hope in black and white New York we can bring some color.”

Photo: Getty Images

Japanese Music Still Influenced by West

From NY Times: The big news from Asia about Western classical music has been coming for a decade from China, where thesurge in education and performance has been explosive. The brash and hugely gifted pianist Lang Lang has been an apt symbol of that explosion, though new star Chinese performers and composers seem to emerge by the month. The Chinese classical scene was amply represented in New York last season, alongside indigenous traditions, in a Carnegie Hall festival, Ancient Paths, Modern Voices, that prominently featured Lang Lang.

In Japan, which is to receive the full Carnegie treatment this season with JapanNYC, a two-part festival starting in December, an intense fascination with Western classical music has a longer history. It is best symbolized in the public mind by the conductor Seiji Ozawa, who has maintained a booming career in the West over half a century.

Mr. Ozawa, who is the artistic director of JapanNYC, began an onstage comeback from cancer surgery last week here at the Saito Kinen Festival. But this festival and its location bring to mind other Japanese pioneers as well.

Matsumoto, a smallish city in the foothills of the Japanese Alps, about a four-hour drive northwest of Tokyo, is best known for its magnificently restored samurai castle. But it was also the postwar home of the violinist and teacher Shinichi Suzuki, the founder of the Suzuki method of introducing young children to instrumental performance, which has spread worldwide, especially to the United States. Modeled after the teaching of languages to children and often using miniature instruments and group performances, the method also aspires to foster a learning environment and develop personal character. For many it has proved an effective way to acquire musical technique.

Read the rest here.

Photo: NY Times

Four Female Students Preserve Emerati Heritage Through Stories

From The National: Some students might find a difficult question a reason to change the subject or stop trying. But for four female Emiratis at Zayed University, the challenges in finding the origins of many UAE customs just served as inspiration – the driving force behind publishing a book about the customs that reflect their national identity.  The four media students developed The Secrets Behind the UAE Identity as part of their graduating project. The manuscript was finished within two months.

As a part of their marketing strategy, they have used social networking websites, created radio advertisements and held mall events where the book was distributed for free. The project cost Dh60,000 and half of that money came from their own pockets. They won first place in the annual Tamaiaz and Falak Tayyeb awards in the marketing, communication and media category. The competition, sponsored by Mawarid Finance, is designed to encourage creativity and innovation in Emirati college graduates.

“Like most of my senior students, they were good planners and organisers and they achieved their goals,” said Badran A Badran, their professor at the college of communication and media sciences. “What we didn’t expect is the extent of the positive feedback from the public.

“Many [private and public organisations] requested copies of the publication to distribute to their employees and guests. That’s a clear sign that these students did something that the UAE clearly needs at this point and that is to tell its unique story to the world.”

The spark of the idea came when one of the students recalled a story told to her by her father. “We were sitting and thinking, then I remembered a story: why the a’gal [the band that holds a gutra headscarf in place] is black,” said Bushra Al Madani, 21. “My dad told us that story once on a Friday long time ago.”

While uncovering more tales about their past and their cultural norms, they visited different emirates, conducted interviews with the elderly as well as researchers who studied UAE’s heritage. Each story was documented and verified by several sources.

Photo: The National

Read the rest here.

From Washington Post: Some of the world’s best tennis players sailed through maddening wind Wednesday at the U.S. Open, including five-time champion Roger Federer, No. 1 seed Caroline Wozniacki, 2008 Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic and top Russian Vera Zvonareva.

But no victors were more elated than Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, who not only reached the doubles final of a Grand Slam event for the first time but were cheered on by their countries’ United Nations ambassadors. The display of unity and common purpose meant as much to Bopanna and Qureshi, natives of India and Pakistan who bill their on-court partnership as the Indo-Pak Express, as any winner’s check or silver-plated trophy.

Photo: Daylife.com

“To see the two countries’ ambassadors to the United Nations sitting together, clapping for the same cause and wanting us to win, it was a beautiful thing to see,” said Qureshi, after he and Bopanna defeated Argentines Eduardo Schwank and Horacio Zeballos, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, to earn a spot in Friday’s final against Americans Bob and Mike Bryan, also straight-sets victors on Wednesday. ”If me and Rohan can get along so well on and off the court, there’s no reason the Indians and Pakistanis can’t get along with each other.”

Bopanna and Qureshi have competed together off and on since 2003 despite the fact that the neighboring countries have been to war three times since becoming independent nations in 1947. Their pairing started drawing notice this year after they launched their “Stop War, Start Tennis” campaign, with the slogan printed on their warmup jackets.

Watch the video from the Times of India here. Read the rest from the Wash. Post here.

American Ballet-Bolshoi Summer Exchange

From America.gov: In the midst of this year’s sweltering Moscow summer, and notwithstanding the smoke from nearby peat fires, 10 young American ballet students were busy perfecting different dance positions at the Moscow State Academy of Choreography.  Now back home from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy Summer Intensive program organized by the Russian American Foundation (RAF) and the renowned Bolshoi Ballet Academy, they ponder their new understanding not only of various forms of dance but also of the Russian people and Russian culture.

“Russia is more than just what I expected,” said American student Sarah Wiese. “I think now that I have been so immersed in this culture, I can never leave it; it will always be a part of my life.”

The Bolshoi initiative had received funding from a U.S. Department of State scholarship program providing American secondary school students with the opportunity to study less commonly taught languages, such as Russian, in the countries where they are actually spoken. Wiese told America.gov she is now more committed than ever to continue her Russian-language studies.

Like Wiese, many of the students said the summer program made a huge impact on their lives and has inspired them to continue to pursue their passion for ballet. “I had such an extreme passion for ballet before I left for this program that I thought it wouldn’t be possible for my heart to expand more for ballet. But it has,” explained Seth Ives. He observed that ballet is so prominent in Russian culture because Russians “respect ballet dancers and have a group passion for the beauty of the body.”

“I think I turned into more of a ‘bunhead’ [female ballet dancer] there than before I came. I truly think this was my best summer in my life so far,” said student dancer Mable Yiu.

Read more here.

Basketball Diplomacy Between Greece and Turkey

From Common Ground News Service: At the time these lines are being written, a very important basketball event is taking place in Turkey: the 2010 World Championship held by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). As a basketball fan, I will risk making a prediction: this year there will be two winners, Greece and Turkey.

Don’t rush to correct me. I know on the court there can be only one winner, but off the court there can be more. This event could be the opportunity Greece and Turkey need to get closer to each other, not in terms of high-level politics, but in terms of initiatives coming from below, from the grassroots.

One example of this is a banner created by a dedicated group of Greek basketball fans who call themselves Pelargoi, or storks, named after the mascot for the 1987 European Basketball Championship that Greece won in Athens. The banner, which is displayed alongside the basketball courts of Turkey, reads in Turkish, Greek and English: “We are neighbours not enemies”.

Recently Turkey announced its intention to remove Greece from the top of its National Security Policy Document (MGSB), indicating that it no longer considers Greece its top threat. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also announced that Greece and Turkey are now in dialogue to put an end to the “dogfights” (short-range aerial combats) that have been ongoing over territories in the Aegean Sea, often at the cost of the pilots’ lives. Furthermore, the Orthodox Christian Sumela Monastery reopened for worship for the first time in 88 years this August after the government lifted a ban on holding religious services at the site. This is another sign of goodwill on behalf of Turkey.

Of course, these developments cannot be separated from the activities of the newly established Strategic Cooperation Council which was formed this year to accelerate the bilateral cooperation between the two countries. The council is comprised of ten Turkish and seven Greek Cabinet Ministers and held its first meeting in Athens in May 2010. There, the ministers signed 22 agreements and cooperation protocols on issues of environmental protection, including protection of biodiversity, exchange of good practices and know-how; education, involving change in enmity-breeding history textbooks; and tourism, with the promotion of joint travel packages and cooperation on cultural tourism.

On the other side of the Aegean, Greece – perhaps surprisingly – has become one of the most devoted supporters of Turkey’s EU bid. And it is has been working on a rapprochement between the two formerly hostile nations since the late Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem and Greek Prime Minister Georgios A. Papandreou led the 1999 “earthquake diplomacy” talks after two disastrous earthquakes hit Greece and Turkey that year and both countries rushed to assist one another by sending emergency aid groups. These talks resulted in a series of confidence-building measures, easing tensions between the two countries.

However far-reaching though, any Greek-Turkish rapprochement efforts have been orchestrated “from above” by the political elites of the two countries – and not by the people themselves.

Read the rest here.

Photo: AP

Inaugural White House Dance Series Performance a Success

From AP: In the end, it was a wonder the three massive chandeliers gracing the White House East Room remained intact, given the high-voltage expenditure of human energy taking place beneath them.

Tuesday’s inaugural performance of the new White House DanceSeries transformed the stately room into a stage for some of the world’s most talented dancers to strut their stuff: Endless pirouettes, gravity-defying leaps, and some crazy one-handed spinning handstands, too.

Hosting the event was Michelle Obama, who brought along daughters Sasha and Malia — just home from their first day of school — and mom Marian Robinson, too. The first lady clapped along to some of the dances but leaped to a standing ovation when Dayton Tavares, one of Broadway’s high-flying Billy Elliots, finished his song, “Electricity,” with a virtuoso set of turns.

The emotional highlight of the evening, though, was the performance of “Revelations” by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, probably the most beloved work of modern dance in existence. It was especially poignant because the evening was a tribute to Judith Jamison, the Ailey company’s artistic director and an iconic figure in the dance world who will step down in 2011 after two decades leading the company.

Mrs. Obama called Jamison, 67, “an amazing, phenomenal, ‘fly’ woman.”

A “Blockbuster Romance” Between China and Hollywood

From The Washington Post: When Scarlett Johansson strode across the screen in “Iron Man 2,” she was wearing a form-fitting outfit made by Semir, a Chinese brand and an official sponsor of the blockbuster movie this spring. That wasn’t the first example of Chinese firms getting in on the Hollywood product-placement game. In last year’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” a highway billboard featured another Chinese sportswear company, Metersbonwe. ”More and more Chinese brands would like to get their products placed” in Hollywood films, said Ben Ji, head of Angel Wings Entertainment and the man behind getting Semir clothes into “Iron Man 2.” His goal: to get a Chinese car in a James Bond film.

Product placement is just one example of China’s new love affair with Hollywood. Chinese production companies are looking to partner with Hollywood firms to make films and manage China’s growing number of theaters. Rumors persist that a Chinese company – spurred by the government, which wants to extend the country’s “soft power” into the cultural sphere – is on the prowl to buy a U.S. film studio.

The affection is not unrequited. Hollywood producers and directors are flocking to China, looking for scripts, locales and potential investors for the growing number of Chinese and Hollywood “co-productions.” ”I run into Hollywood executives here every week,” said Jonathan Landreth, the Beijing-based correspondent for the Hollywood Reporter.

After recent co-productions such as “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” China and Hollywood collaborated this year on the hugely successful “The Karate Kid,” starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith, and “Shanghai,” with John Cusack, Gong Li and Chow Yun-Fat (which premiered in Beijing in June to lackluster reviews).

Read the full article here.

Mint Tea in the Medina by Vidya Shah

Photo: Hailey Woldt

From The Hindu: The drive from Casablanca to Assilah is confusing; nothing to see on the way really except for occasional towns and hamlets. Also the monsoon hasn’t yet arrived so the landscape is very dry. Somewhat like a train ride from Jaipur to Sri Ganganagar. But after a four-hour drive you begin to feel the sea breeze and the coastline starts to appear. Assilah is a fortified town on the northwest tip of the Atlantic coast of Morocco, about 50 km from the better-known Tangier. It is now becoming a popular seaside resort with modern holiday apartment complexes on the coast road.

Story goes that this town was founded by the Phoenicians around 1500 B.C. It was a prosperous trading post until a group of pirates ransacked the place, turning it into a hideout in the early 1900s. The town suffered decades of decline and had fallen into disrepair. It wasn’t until the late 1970s when Mohamed Benaïssa, the Culture Minister of Morocco, who was later elected mayor of the town cleaned up Assilah, restoring many of its historic buildings, including the Raissouni Palace, now a concert hall, and the Al-Kamra Tower citadel in the Medina. He also brought together a group of artists, invited them to culturally refresh the town with their ideas and creative inputs. This was really the beginning of the Assilah festival, one that has emerged and established itself as a popular International festival for over thirty years now.

As in most towns in Northern Africa, life in Assilah revolves around the Medina. It is a bit of a maze, but since it is a small town it is difficult to really get lost in — one street eventually leads you to where you need to go. The shops sell everything from antique turquoise, coral and silver jewellery to hand woven Berber rugs. Hotels and vehicles aren’t allowed inside the rampart walls making it a lovely walk through its cobbled streets. And around this time of the year the town is particularly alive and buzzing because of the Festival.

This Assilah International Festival established in 1978, is an annual cultural extravaganza that takes place in the month of July/August. Both studio and performing artists from all over the world, journalists, writers, painters, musicians and dancers gather here imparting the setting with colour, exuberance and dynamism. Over the last three decades, the event has promoted cultural dialogue, exchange and solidarity. It hosts more than 100,000 visitors. There is a performance a day from across the world open for general public which included this year contemporary dance from Portugal, Jordanian trio on the Lute, an Andalusian Ensemble from Tangier and my music from India, making the spread vibrant.  Of course now every city in Morocco boasts of an annual Cultural festival, the most well known being the Fez Spiritual music Festival.

Read the rest here.

Gastrodiplomacy

From Livemint.com and the WSJ: One of the words in the news recently is gastrodiplomacy. During colonial times, the influence of Eastern cuisines began to spread. This has now given rise to a refinement in the appreciation of gustatory sensations. Western cuisines traditionally recognized only four distinct tastes—sweet, salty, sour and bitter. In the eastern hemisphere, two or three additional flavours were recognized. Ayurveda added piquant or spicy as the fifth taste, and astringent as the sixth.

It was from Japan that the officially recognized fifth taste emerged. In 1908, Tokyo chemist Kikunae Ikeda, while having the traditional Japanese soup dashi, realized that he was tasting something that did not fall into the four known categories. He identified this constituent as glutamic acid, and named it umami, which means delicious in Japanese.

It took 100 years for monosodium glutamate to move from Ikeda’s laboratory to the marketplace. Today, it is the signature product of Ajinomoto Co. of Japan. Some British supermarkets have agreed to sell tubes of Taste No. 5.

Gastrodiplomacy is more than the promotion of a new taste or dish abroad. It stands for a concerted effort to use cuisine as part of cultural diplomacy. For example, the Thai government in 2002 launched an ambitious programme to put Thailand among the top five exporters of food. A survey by Kellogg School of Business in 2003 placed Thai cuisine among the five most popular cuisines. The government’s aim was to increase the number of Thai restaurants worldwide to 20,000, a threefold increase.

In Taiwan, the ministry of economic affairs will invest $34.2 million to give a significant global presence to the national cuisine. One generation of Taiwanese chefs came from China when the Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan at the end of the civil war in 1949. A second wave emigrated during the Cultural Revolution, when the government closed restaurants as bourgeois symbols. Among the measures contemplated are hosting international gourmet festivals, and supporting the opening of Taiwanese restaurants in other countries.

Not to be left behind, the Republic of Korea has launched its own culinary diplomacy using the slogan “Korean cuisine to the world”. First lady Kim Yoon-ok and President Lee Myung-bak are both committed to this programme. On a visit to New York last year, Kim broke protocol and cooked pajeons (pancakes) for a group of US veterans of the Korean War, and hand-served the dish to them. In an interview to CNN, she also demonstrated Korean cooking and explained her mission to find a global presence for her cuisine. Many Westerners see Korean cuisine as conducive to good health.

Read the full article here.

Photo: Media Film/Slovak Television

Slovak Architect in Shanghai A Legend

From the WSJ: Shanghai architecture is framed by its French Concession, the Bund’s neoclassical edifices, and Pudong, China’s own interpretation of the future. Much of it draws reference from the architecture of Ladislav Hudec, a Slovak who arrived in Shanghai as a World War I refugee. Or was he Hungarian?The film “The Man Who Changed Shanghai” chronicles Hudec’s life and his impact on the cityscape during its most iconic period. In his 30-year career, all but one of Hudec’s 65 structures was in China.

Written and directed by Slovakia’s Ladislav Kabos for Media Film and Slovak Television, the film peers through Hudec’s own eyes. Rediscovered photos and 16mm film shot by Hudec document his travel between Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, the U.S., Japan and China.

We see Hudec’s new wife in 1922 posing on the snowy Great Wall, his two boys peddling a bicycle on the lawn of their Shanghai house and views of the buildings Hudec designed, like the flat-iron Normandie Apartments and American Club. The disadvantage is the subject himself is rarely in the picture.

For commentary, “The Man Who Changed Shanghai” relies on Hudec’s three children. Son Theodor, who lives in Canada, and daughter Alessa de Wet, from the U.S., return to Shanghai after six decades, their memories providing a narrative. The children, now in their 80s, don’t dwell on the obvious neglect and decay of the many old buildings — they celebrate the fact that so much remains.

Read the rest here.

India’s Multiculturalism A Soft Power Strength

From DNA India: Israel’s ambassador in India, Mark Sofer, visited the shrine of renowned Sufi saint Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer last Friday. Israel’s move to reach out to Muslims in India and Muslims in general is both shrewd and right.

That India should be the place for the conciliatory move is hugely significant. Sofer acknowledged the common heritage of Jews and Muslims as children of Abraham, and made a significant political statement that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a religious one. It is a political issue.

The senior caretaker of the shrine, Syed Sarwar Chishty, apparently told Sofer about the Sufi shrine being the real face of Islam, and Sofer responded by saying that Osama bin Laden is not Islam.

This is indeed the encounter of religions in the classical Indian sense where faiths jostle with each other and flourish. Representatives of the other Abrahamic tradition — various church leaders — also reached out to Muslims in Mumbai the other day to prevent any communal fallout if a lunatic pastor in America carries out his threat to burn the Koran on 9/11.

There is, of course, a need to understand this meeting of minds as one of limited impact. Sofer and Sarwar cannot hope to resolve long-standing disputes just by reference to Sufi and Indian traditions.

The talks between Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas in Washington will not be affected by the encounters in Ajmer or Mumbai. It is not going to restrain the fanatical Jewish settlers on West Bank from building new settlements or zealots in Hamas from attacking civilians.

India is perhaps best placed for every one to recognise that the coexistence of people with different beliefs need not spell irreconcilable differences or unending strife. India is not, to be sure, a paragon of virtue in this matter. It does, however, show more willingness than any other country in the world to accept that pluralism and diversity are facts of life and not merely constitutional credos. This is India’s unheralded soft power. Our multi-cultural society stands out as a beacon in a troubled world.

The Wisdom of the Real Charlie Chan

Action speak louder than French.

Door of opportunity swing both ways.

Smart fly keep out of gravy.

Tongue often hang man quicker than rope.

All gems of fortune-cookie-worthy wisdom spoken by Charlie Chan, the crafty, fictional Chinese detective. In a series of novels and movies, Chan captured American imaginations between the 1920s and the 1950s. But today, he’s considered a stereotypical relic from a less racially sensitive time. English professor Yunte Huang hopes to change that with his new book, Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History.

Huang was a student in Buffalo, N.Y., when he first stumbled onto Chan’s character. “I went to an estate sale, and I found these two Charlie Chan novels,” he tells NPR’s Linda Wertheimer. “I had never been to an estate sale before because they don’t really exist in China.” (In China, there is a stigma attached to buying items that belong to a person who has died, Huang explains.) ”I was literally terrified to buy these two books,” he admits. ” But I did anyway, and I took them home — and I was immediately hooked.” Huang subsequently left Buffalo to teach at Harvard, where he researched E.D. Biggers, the author who created the character of Charlie Chan. Huang was surprised to learn that Chan was based on a real Chinese policeman who “had been neglected in history,” he says.

Huang set out to give that honorable policeman, Chang Apana, the recognition he deserves. Apana “was a 5-foot-tall Cantonese cop in Honolulu in the early 20th century,” Huang explains. Originally, Apana had worked as a paniolo, or Hawaiian cowboy. In 1898 — the same year that the United States officially annexed Hawaii — he joined the police force.

Read the full story here and listen on NPR.

Book Review: Towards a New Public Diplomacy, Ed. Phillip Seib

From the Palestine Chronicle: Cultural diplomacy section: A bit too much U.S. hubris enters directly into the discussion “A Cultural Public Diplomacy Strategy,” as “There will be the unavoidable jealousies that come with being the global economic, military, and cultural colossus.” Jealous? Of an economy in decline, of an economy supported by massive government social assistance to banks and finance institutions, of an economy that operates on credit consumption that has created huge unimaginable debt loads that will probably never be paid off except for a period of hyperinflation? Jealous? Of a military that threatens to destroy the planet, that consumes huge economic resources adding greatly to the deficit and debt of the country, that kills civilians in order to win their hearts and minds…

…there, how is this image making process going so far…

…that has purportedly quit Iraq leaving ‘only’ 50,000 “non-combat” troops behind (now there is an image hard to work around), that has tortured detainees and citizens without juridical oversight of any kind, that fails to control countries even with overwhelming firepower? Jealous? Of a culture that is all about consumption and glitter and glitz and the shallow pursuit of self-interest at the expense of others, that will not heal the sick nor care for the poor. Okay, maybe a bit jealous of the influence of the Black culture and the Hispanic culture that has provided some amazing music synthesis.

The author follows with the statement, “the [U.S.] is on balance a strong force for good in the world.” Yes, its words and rhetoric about freedom and peace and justice and the goodwill of men are all just fine sounding, but the reality put into practice is largely underwhelming.

Other highly arguable statements enter the discussion, the most egregious stating, “There is no serious philosophical or ideological competitor to the model of liberal democracy that embraces some variant of capitalism,” followed by a comment indicating that this somehow “rehabilitates” Francis Fukuyama’s “…poorly understood “End of History” thesis.” Somehow the author does not seem to see the perhaps too subtle contradiction for himself when he says later, “Money talks, and what currently tells the world is that America is a militarized democracy.” If its militarized, is it a liberal democracy? Is it even a democracy? Is militarism a variant of capitalism…okay I can answer that one with a yes, all the way from Thomas Friedman’s hidden fist thesis right through to the not very subtle and rather exposed capitalism that seeks out the oil of Iraq and Saudi Arabia (good democratic states) and on into the strategic requirements of the geopolitical sphere in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China, and elsewhere.

We are nowhere near the end of history, liberal democracy is a nice sounding essentially unused sound-bite, and capitalism and democracy have very little in common – only an ‘image’ distilled through arrogance and ignorance. The author’s final statement about the “remaking of America’s image cannot be done without cultural diplomacy” sinks the whole argument. In a lesser way because the world is not ignorant of U.S. culture, it is already widespread and obvious, especially the part that you “do” as compared to the part that you “say.” Which leads to the greater way because it is still all about image, and again, the world is not as stupid as U.S. arrogance and ignorance deem it to be (pardon the repetition here, but it does fit) but is quite capable of seeing the contrast between ideals and actions.

Read the full review here.

Coen Brothers through Chinese Lens

From NPR: Chinese director Zhang Yimou makes films of epic sweep (Hero) and tragic depth (Raise the Red Lantern). He’s not known for laughs, so learning that Zhang might remake Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1984 debut film, Blood Simple, might strike some as a bit like reading that Martin Scorsese will direct the next Transformers flick.

Scorsese won’t be doing that, at least not that we’ve heard, but Zhang did take a stab at Blood Simple; his version is called A Woman, A Gun and a Noodle Shop, and it’s quite faithful to the Coens’ bloody comic noir.

It’s also quite different. Relocated from flat and empty Texas to hilly and vacant China, Zhang’s film has a lot of fun with the original material, along with some smiles at the expense of the director’s own style. But the pacing is too deliberate, and much of the humor doesn’t translate; the result is a would-be farce that’s more droll than uproarious.

While Zhang offers some of his trademark dazzling vistas, he emulatesBlood Simple‘s low-angle camera positions and claustrophobic interiors. He and scripters Xu Zhengchao and Shi Jianquan also retain much of the original plot, despite having moved it to the Chinese outback — in what seems to be the 17th century.

Read and listen to the full story here.

“Trip to Al-Qaida” Documentary Forthcoming

Photo courtesy of Lawrence Wright

From NPR: In 2007, Lawrence Wright won a Pulitzer Prize for The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, his nonfiction account of the formation of al-Qaida. The book, based on more than 600 interviews, examines the circumstances that led to the formation of al-Qaida — and the creation of Wright’s one-man off-Broadway show, My Trip to Al-Qaeda. The one-man play focused on the insights Wright gained and the moral dilemmas he faced as he tried to remain objective while researching and writing his book.

A new documentary based on his play premieres Sept. 7 on HBO at 9 p.m. EDT. The film combines footage from Wright’s interviews with his sources, many of whom have ties to al-Qaida, with scenes from his play — and raises several questions about the U.S. role in the “war on terror.”

In an interview on Fresh Air, Wright explains how difficult it was to maintain composure and objectivity while conducting interviews with his sources. ”The most interesting part to me is that [the research] takes you into deep water that you’re sometimes not prepared to be in,” he says. “You’re asked to sometimes get information from people who have the information. Well, the people who have the information oftentimes have blood on their hands or they have a completely different perspective on the way the world should be than you do. And sometimes that leads to real conflict: It wasn’t always possible for me to behave in the professional manner that I like to comport myself. Especially in those first months after 9/11, I found myself engaged in really acrimonious, angry discussions.”

Listen to and read the story here.

Photo: Bernie Saul

Commemorating Katrina with Culture

American Universities in a Global Market

From Inside Higher Ed: The status of the United States in the international higher education ecosystem — and, particularly, whether it is losing its longstanding place atop the global pecking order — is a topic of escalating discussion and, in some circles, hand-wringing. Government agencies, global rankings schemes, and authors and analysts of various stripes have all taken turns in recent years at assessing the state of global higher education and America’s declining standing within it (or not?).

Now it’s the economists’ turn. In American Universities in a Global Market (University of Chicago Press), which emerged from a National Bureau of Economic Research conference in 2008, a who’s who of higher ed economists examine varying aspects of the global higher education picture.

The situation was enough to prompt an ex-Ambassador of major standing – Alain Juppé – and ex-Foreign Minister Herbert Vedrine, who are nevertheless on different sides of the political divide, to join together recently for a stinging rebuke of current policies in Le Monde, saying that “We are worried about the consequences for France of this weakening of diplomatic and cultural networks, which is unprecedented.”

Current diplomats are keeping quiet in public, but privately it’s another matter. A major ambassador is said to have confided his sentiments to journalists under cover of anonymity. His judgment is severe. “We’d better be careful not to provoke the end of the policy of influence and promotion of our country. Each individual cut is not important in itself, but they all add up to have a serious impact. We’ll end up by not representing much in a few years. If this continues, we are going to close ourselves off from the world, and no-one is waiting for us to catch up.” He underlined that American-style “soft power” – using non-violent and cultural means of influencing countries, is fast disappearing in France, quoting examples such as international cultural initiatives and events, grants offered to foreign engineers to study and accepting foreign children into French schools around the world.

Despite recently announced spending measures on diplomacy by Prime Minister François Fillon, the €100 involved is derisory compared to cuts which have largely offset that sum, say ambassadors. The budget for diplomacy has been cut by over 20% over the last 25 years, say Juppé and Vedrine.

Read the full article here.

Chinese Universities Look to Increase Foreign Enrollment

From The Hindu: Tsinghua University, one of China’s top universities, said on Monday it will increase its number of foreign graduate students as Beijing steps up use of education and other “soft power” initiatives to promote its image abroad.

Tsinghua, alma mater of President Hu Jintao, said it will increase the proportion of foreign students in its graduate schools from seven percent to close to 10 percent by 2020. “Top universities around the world without an English—based curriculum have about 10 percent foreign students in their graduate programs, so we’re aiming for close to that number by 2020,” Wu Yunxin, director of the Foreign Student Affairs Office at Tsinghua, said at a news conference. Tsinghua will have about 1,000 foreign students enrolled in its master’s and doctoral programmes this year. In 2004 there were 205 foreign students.

Other Chinese universities including Peking University also are recruiting more foreign students both as a tuition—paying source of revenue and on scholarships. In 2009, 240,000 foreign students studied in universities across China, according to the Ministry of Education, a huge jump from 52,000 students in 2000.

China, which overtook Japan this year as the world’s second—largest economy, has stepped up efforts through media and education to boost its influence abroad. The government has set up Confucius Institutes to teach Chinese language and culture abroad. State media are in the middle of a multibillion—dollar effort to expand their reach to Western audiences and promote Beijing’s views. Mr. Wu credits the growth in foreign students to an improvement in the quality of English—language programs and better facilities and services. “We’ve done a lot to improve our facilities and programs to attract foreign students, but we still have room for improvement,” he said.

U.S. international graduate students enrolled at Tsinghua this year top the list for the first time, followed closely by South Korea, which by far has the most students at universities across China compared to other countries. When President Barack Obama visited China in 2009 he announced plans to send 100,000 Americans to study at Chinese universities over the next four years. About 18,000 U.S. students studied in Chinese universities in 2009. “That number is not so far fetched since we’re already close,” Mr. Wu said. “The biggest challenge for schools across China to attract foreign students will be improving their programmes and the schools’ facilities.

Sectarian Series Pulled from the Airwaves

From Layalina Review: Two Lebanese channels, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar and NBN, owned by the speaker of the Parliament Nahi Berry, canceled an Iranian-produced television series depicting the life of Jesus following protests by Lebanese Christian groups, reports The Associated Press. NBN is affiliated with the leader of the Amal movement in Lebanon.

According to the Malaysian national news agency Bernama, the controversial 17-episode program described the Qur’anic version of the story of Jesus Christ. Although Jesus is a revered prophet in Islam, the Qur’an claims that Jesus ascended to heaven while he was still alive. Muslims differ from Christians on the topic of the influential prophet, as Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.

The television series is based on “The Messiah,” a film directed by Iranian filmmaker Nader Talebzadeh. The film received an award from the Vatican, heralded for promoting dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

Christians across Lebanon protested against the airing of the series, offended at the content. Eman El-Ahmar for The Daily Star explains that protesters gathered at the Catholic Media Center in Jal Al-Dib in the Metn district on August 13. Maronite Bishop Beshara Rai held a news conference, which turned into a heated debate. The argument took a turn for the worst despite the channels announcement to stop airing the series, when members of different Christian sects began arguing about who had “defended Jesus” more fervently.

Rai met with Beirut MP Nadim Gemayel, with Information Minister Tarek Mitri joining the conference. Gemayel, a Christian Maronite, firmly asserted his position. “We will not leave this place before we get what we came here for. This intrusion upon Christianity and our religion threatens national peace, and we are more than capable of taking this to the streets,” he stated.

Read the full article here.

“Chinamania” Not a New Phenomenon

Photo: Freer Gallery of Art

From NPR: You know those little blue-and-white bowls some Chinese restaurants use for serving hot-and-sour soup — clanky, cheap little things? The objects on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer Gallery of Art, on the Mall in Washington, D.C., are nothing like that.

Yes, they’re blue and white, and yes, they were made in China. But the Freer’s objects are pieces of old porcelain, some made in the 17th century. In 1860s London, painter James McNeill Whistler started collecting this kind of porcelain; many other Victorians did as well, leading to a British craze one writer called “Chinamania.”

Freer curator Lee Glazer says the British bought the blue-and-white bowls, dishes and plates so feverishly that cartoonists of the day saw Chinamania as a disease, creeping into nurseries, living rooms, kitchens. But the porcelain they snapped up was actually not all that precious. It was mass-produced for export. “[The Chinese] kept the best for themselves. Of course they did,” says Glazer. “Who wouldn’t?”

Still, the blue-and-white exports were a huge hit in the marketplace. The never-before-seen items were viewed as foreign and exotic by British Victorians. Whistler had some 300 pieces in his collection, along with a Chinese robe, which he wore for a portrait in which he was surrounded by sober black-clad fellow artists.

Chinamania has an actual historical and sociological significance. It was one of the first instances in which an emerging middle class with a disposable income could buy things because they desired them — not because they needed them. Glazer says it marked the beginning of consumer culture. The people snatching up the blue-and-white china in Victorian England were making new money from 19th century revolutions in industry such as transportation, mass communication and the expansion of global trade.

Read and listen to the full story here.

Tibetan Art in Staten Island

Photo: Phil Borges

From WSJ: In Phil Borges’s photograph, the shaved heads of three Tibetan Buddhist nuns draw an arched silhouette against gray skies and mountains. The caption, printed on the protective glass, identifies them as Kalsang, Ngawang and Dechen, all in their 20s and survivors of two years of harsh imprisonment for protesting the Chinese occupation of Tibet. In other photographs, a 9-year-old girl carries her baby sister on her back, her unkempt hair reaching out like tentacles, and 81-year-old goatherd Tseten leans on his staff, his face as lined as the arid hills behind him.

They are part of “Tibetan Portrait: The Power of Compassion,” a collection of 32 hand-tinted works currently on display at the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art. In some respects, they are the perfect choice for this small, idiosyncratic museum, situated rather incongruously in Staten Island—New York City’s most suburban borough.

In constructing a Himalayan-inspired center—high windows with flared borders, a pagoda-like roof and transoms of protruding timbers—its founder hoped to foster an understanding of Tibetan culture and religion. Mr. Borges’s coupling of beautiful portraits with their subjects’ stories furthers that goal, generating empathy and quickening curiosity.

Yet the photographs also seem incongruous. Hanging on yellow panels, these almost monochromatic portraits contrast with the bronze hues of giant incense burners and temple statuary displayed against stone walls and in glass cases. Add to this mix some hands-on exhibits, one of which unleashes a loud Buddhist chant, and one begins to get a sense that the museum is not entirely sure what it wants to be.

Read the full article here.

Explosions in Palestine, but not the kind you think

By Cynthia Schneider

Excerpt from Common Ground: The explosions in Nablus, Palestine began in the evening on 21 July, and continued throughout the next day. Was it the beginning of the third Intifada? Absolutely not. The constant “Boom! Boom! Boom!” we heard were fireworks to celebrate the all-important announcement of the Tawjihi (high school final exam) results. Families gathered around their radios listening for the names and scores of sons and daughters. All over town people poured over lists in the newspaper to find the names of friends and family.

Khitam Salameh, the principal’s assistant at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) School in New Askar refugee camp, planned to host her extended family to listen to the scores and then celebrate the results of her daughter. My question about what would happen if the scores disappointed was met with incredulity which quickly gave way to confidence: “My daughter works very hard. She will get high marks.”

Across town in the New Askar refugee camp, a Palestinian community leader spoke eloquently of the value and importance of education, referring to schools and universities as “holy places” and the key to “freedom and a good life”. He insisted that his sons attend high school, unusual in New Askar where the UNWRA School stopped at eighth grade.

His sons were star pupils in the English classes taught by volunteers from Inspire Dreams Palestine, a non-governmental organisation started by three recent Georgetown graduates and which organises English classes and American-style summer day camps in refugee camps in Nablus, Bethlehem and Ramallah. In the classes, advanced students work hard on essays in English for a grant application, while younger students laugh and shriek with delight as they come up with the words to win at vocabulary games. At the camps, kids play soccer, learn photography, how to rap and how to build a flashlight from scratch.

Observing all this while visiting my son, Sam, an Inspire Dreams volunteer, I could not help but wonder who was listening to the dreams of these young Palestinians who want so desperately to learn. Without supporting young people aspiring to be doctors or engineers, how can Palestine ever hope to provide its people opportunities to lead productive lives?

I fear that the fireworks over Nablus, celebrating the results of the Tawjihi exam, are falling on deaf ears. And while on 8 August Prime Minister Salam Fayyad spoke about the need to improve education in Palestinian society not only for social and economic development, but also to provide Palestinians with the foundation for a viable state, the Palestinian Authority (PA), regional actors and the international community must also do more in support of education at all levels.

Specifically, the PA government should provide transparent, merit-based scholarships and reduce the tuition at state universities – $12,000 is impossibly high for residents of Nablus, or other cities such as Jenin, Jericho, and Hebron, which have not shared the economic boom in Ramallah. The status quo in education in the refugee camps – schools that accommodate only a fraction of the population and end in eighth grade or sooner – is unacceptable. No one benefits from another uneducated generation of Palestinian youth – not Palestinians, Israelis, Americans or the global community.

Read the full article here.

St. Petersburg, Russia’s Cultural Capital

Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images

From NPR: Russia’s “second city,” St. Petersburg, was built three centuries ago — which is recent, compared with most cities in Russia. Emperor Peter the Great imagined a luxurious playground for the ruling elite, a true window to Europe. Now there are some residents who think Russia’s current leaders are using the city for the same purpose.

Summer in St. Petersburg means incredible white nights. The sun never sets over the canals and cafes, and this cultural capital explodes with life. There’s a festival of boats on the river, fireworks and concerts. Who can blame Russian President Dmitri Medvedev for wanting to show off the city?

This summer, he used St. Petersburg as the backdrop to tell fellow leaders at an economic forum that Russia is modernizing, “changing for its own sake, as well as for the sake of the rest of the world.” This place was just a Swedish backwater until Russia claimed the territory three centuries ago, and Peter the Great built a grand Russian capital.

Vladimir Gelman, dean of political science and sociology at the European University in St. Petersburg, calls St. Petersburg the most European city in Russia. He describes how the Soviet government moved the capital to less glamorous but more functional Moscow after the revolutions of 1917. Hundreds of thousands of Soviets would later starve to death in St. Petersburg — then known as Leningrad — during the German siege in World War II. For a period of years, the city became dirty and crime-ridden. But through it all, Gelman says, Peter the Great’s European architecture remained. And today, two natives, Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, are leading a renaissance. “[They've brought] international events, more federal investments, infrastructural products,” he says.

The city’s a showcase again, Gelman says. But he adds this caveat: When it comes to politics, neither Putin nor Medvedev want Russia to be any more European. For tourists who are coming for a few days, he says, St. Petersburg “looks like the European face of Russia. If they go 100 kilometers out of city,” he says, “they will see an absolutely different landscape.”

Read the rest here.

WWE Goes to China

From WSJ: Guo Yinsheng was waiting expectantly in front of the Shanghai Expo World Culture Center in the sweltering heat late Sunday afternoon for a glimpse of his favorite American professional wrestler, John Cena. The 24-year-old native of Xian had traveled nearly 1,200 kilometers (nearly 750 miles) to Shanghai, and braved temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) since 6 a.m., all because the World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. was bringing a bevy of its spandex-clad, muscle-bound behemoths to perform in China for the first time.

Throngs of kids from across mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau traveled into Shanghai — with all the wrestling merchandise they could carry in tow — for a chance to watch some of wrestling’s biggest name battle it out. “There’s a whole bunch of fans” in China, said a 22-year old from Beijing who called himself Johnny “Cash” Zhao. He sported an orange T-shirt from the Chinese WWE fan website, 19977.com. Members on the site from Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and other cities had even organized buses to travel to the Expo event.

Turnout was so strong that all of the 8,000 tickets the WWE was giving away were snatched up within an hour of the box-office’s 9:30 a.m. opening, the company says. The crowd was predominantly young and predominantly male, drawn by the company’s combination of hyper-stylized fake combat, over-the-top characters, and plotlines about honor, betrayal and revenge that appealed the most.

But it’s not just males who appreciate the peculiarly American pop confection of beefcake and cheesecake. “I love the story lines,” said Stephanie Wang, a 28-year old Shanghai resident who had worked to help promote the WWE exhibition and who was one of a handful of women in the crowd. Wang’s attire showed she was WWE diva: a promotional T-shirt from WWE, and a white terry-cloth towel emblazoned with the WWE logo and tucked into her skirt. She brushed off charges that the elaborate plot arcs in pro wrestling reveal too much of the fake competition behind its genuine athleticism. “We don’t take it too seriously,” she said.

Read the full story here.

U.S. Mosque Restoration Projects Around the World

From Daily Caller: While much attention has been focused on questions surrounding the Ground Zero mosque and the appropriateness of the State Department funding Ground Zero mosque imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s trip to the Middle East, little attention has been given to the fact that U.S. taxpayer money is funding mosque development around the world.

Just a cursory search of the term “mosque” on the State Department’s list of “projects” reveals 26 examples of federal funds going to fund construction, renovation, and rehabilitation of various mosques abroad. The benefiting countries include Bulgaria, Pakistan, Mali, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Benin, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Egypt, Tunisia, the Maldives, Yemen, Turkmenistan, Tanzania, Uganda, Azerbaijan, Sudan, Serbia and Montenegro.

The U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) — which is putting millions toward “heritage preservation” projects in the developing world — financed mosque-related projects in all the aforementioned countries. In Montenegro, for example, the State Department has funded an effort to restore and conserve the Shadrvan (Fountain) of the Old Mosque in Pljevlja. According to the State Department’s website, without needed repairs there would not be a sufficient place for ritual washing before prayer.

“To support the restoration of a fountain at a 16th-century mosque concurrent with the restoration of the mosque itself. Used for ritual ablutions before prayer, the fountain has deteriorated over time and needs a new wooden octagonal roof, pipes, water-taps, and pavement,” the description of the project reads.

Nicole Thompson, a State Department spokeswoman, told The Daily Caller that the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation is a type of diplomatic effort and outreach, what she says Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls “soft power. It is helping to preserve our cultural heritage. It is not just to preserve religious structures,” Thompson said. “It is not to preserve a religion. It is to help us as global inhabitants preserve cultures.”

In a document provided on Monday to Indiana Republican Sen. Richard G. Lugar, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the State Department explained that the practice of funding such projects became acceptable in 2003 when the Justice Department declared that the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause did not preclude federal funds from going to preserve religious structures if they had cultural importance.

The DOJ wrote: “That advice is provided in the following paragraph that appears in every AFCP request for grant proposals… ‘The establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution permits the government to include religious objects and sites within an aid program under certain conditions. For example, an item with a religious connection (including a place of worship) may be the subject of a cultural preservation grant if the item derives its primary significance and is nominated solely on the basis of architectural, artistic, historical or other cultural (not religious) criteria.’”

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has also spent millions reconstructing and financing multiple mosques in Cairo and Cyprus, as well as providing computers for imams in Tajikistan and Mali. Interestingly, however, according to the Code of Federal Regulations, “USAID funds may not be used for the acquisition, construction, or rehabilitation of structures to the extent that those structures are used for inherently religious activities.”

Record Number of Iranians Seek Out News from RFE

From Radio Free Europe: More than a million people inside Iran circumvented aggressive censorship and logged on to RFE/RL’s Persian-language website in July through a proxy server, a system ensuring the anonymity of its users. It was the first time Radio Farda’s proxy server recorded a million visits since it was put in place in April 2009. In addition, the site received 40,000 visits on Sunday, August 15 – a record high for a day without breaking news.

“The more Tehran starves Iranians of accurate news, the hungrier the people become for reliable information,” says Radio Farda Director Armand Mostofi. “These are the latest milestones for Radio Farda in a year of unprecedented growth, reflecting the commitment we made to step up our programming following the disputed presidential election.”

Every Friday at 6pm Tehran time, a new live call-in program called The Sixth Hour takes questions and comments from dozens of listeners on hot-button topics such as capital punishment, the student protest movement, and the role of Persian-language media based outside of Iran.

Read the full article here.

]]> http://dailyculturaldiplomacynews.wordpress.com/2010/08/26/news-for-august-26-2010/feed/ 0 haileywoldt Inspire Dreams Today A Russian woman paints on banks of the Neva River. Beyond Katrina http://dailyculturaldiplomacynews.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/news-for-august-23-2010/ http://dailyculturaldiplomacynews.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/news-for-august-23-2010/#comments Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:30:09 +0000 haileywoldt http://dailyculturaldiplomacynews.wordpress.com/?p=1148 ]]> China’s “Going International”

From China Daily: A Chinese company bought the White House? No, it’s not in Washington DC, but in Branson, Missouri.

Last December the Beijing-based China Heaven Creation International Performing Arts Company purchased the White House Theater in Branson, a small town in the US Midwest and a popular destination for American vacationers. The theater opened on July 1 with a show titled Chun Yi: The Legend of Kungfu, which still regularly runs.

It is a small example of Chinese culture going international but there could be many more to come. China Heaven Creation is one of the 211 companies listed by the Ministry of Culture as key export-oriented culture enterprises. Other fronts where progress has been made in introducing Chinese culture overseas are film and TV exports, said Zhao Shi, vice-minister of the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT), at a news conference on Thursday.

The volume of these exports and related services hit $86.13 million last year, and the overseas revenue generated by Chinese films exceeded $400 million. Both figures marked increases on previous years, she said. Other officials present at the briefing were: Sun Zhijun, deputy chief of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Ouyang Jian, vice-minister of culture, and Jiang Jianguo, deputy chief of the General Administration of Press and Publication.

In 2009, SARFT hosted 99 Chinese film festivals in 47 foreign countries as well as in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, during which 647 domestic films were screened. On top of this, 315 Chinese mainland films participated in 119 international film festivals, among which 68 won 80 awards in 26 festivals, according to official figures.

“Going international” has been part of the Chinese government’s efforts to restructure the cultural system in recent years.

Last year, with the approval of the State Council, the System for the Inter-ministerial Meeting on External Cultural Work, led by the Ministry of Culture, was drafted to integrate resources to launch a platform for Chinese culture, businesses and products to access the international market. Apart from the 211 national companies and 225 projects awarded by the Ministry of Culture, local cultural sectors also have strived to facilitate the implementation of the “Chinese Culture Going International” strategy.

Read the full article here.

Novelist Explores History of Dutch-Japanese Trading

Novelist David Mitchell is considered a virtuoso of complex plot and intricate language, wry humor, dense history and indelible characters.  His latest book, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, is a historical novel set in Japan in 1799 — at a time when a few Dutch traders were allowed to briefly and lightly attach themselves to isolated feudal Japanese society.

Mitchell was first inspired to write the book during a teaching stint in Nagasaki in 1994. He was backpacking through the west of Japan and was looking for a cheap lunch when he stumbled upon the Dejima museum.

Dejima, a small artificial island, was where the Dutch East India Company was permitted to establish a very limited trading post. A small handful of Europeans, mostly Dutch, lived on the island — and weren’t allowed off. Only three types of people — merchants, translators and very expensive prostitutes — were allowed access to the Europeans on the island, Mitchell explains.

“I never did get the lunch that day,” Mitchell says of his time at the Dejima museum. “But I filled a notebook with information about this place I’d never heard of and resolved one day to write about it.”

The novel’s main character is Jacob de Zoet, an accountant who discovers that not everyone is as honest as he is. De Zoet falls in love with Orito, a midwife, who is spirited away to a sinister nunnery in order to settle her father’s debts. “Everyone has their own agenda,” Mitchell says. “[De Zoet] finds himself an honest man in a nest of vipers.”

Listen to the story here.

Read an excerpt.

Multicultural Soul Kitchen

From NPR: Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin isn’t exactly known for slapstick, so Soul Kitchen has the feel of a palate cleanser. After the hard-edged drama of Head-On (2004) and The Edge of Heaven (2007), this boisterous comedy milling with scruffy misfits goes down more easily than an oyster on the half shell.

Adopting an aesthetic of multicultural grunge, Akin sets the film in a cavernous blue-collar restaurant in a scruffy neighborhood in his native Hamburg. The slap-happy Greek-immigrant owner, Zinos (Adam Bousdoukos, who also co-wrote the screenplay), is having a very bad week: His back is killing him; the tax inspector is on his tail; the health department wants to close him down; and his ambitious girlfriend, Nadine (Pheline Roggan), has accepted a job in Shanghai.

To make matters worse, the restaurant’s operatic new chef (Birol Unel) is producing cuisine that’s way too haute for the burgers-and-meatballs clientele, who have grumpily taken their business elsewhere. Of no help at all is Zinos’ hapless brother, Illias (the marvelous German actor Moritz Bleibtreu), on day-release while doing time for robbery and more worried about dodging his creditors than helping his family.

Photo: Corazon International

Exhausted, Zinos decides to flee to Shanghai to reclaim his Skype-happy lover, making the ill-advised decision to leave Illias with power of attorney — which would be fine were there not a shady realtor (Wotan Wilke Moehring) waiting in the wings to snatch the rundown property for a wealthy investor.

Generous of spirit and big of heart, Soul Kitchen revels in sitcom humor, dovetailing coincidences and an arms-around-the-world embrace of eccentric misfits. A salty old seaman, an ebullient bunch of rock musicians, a strong-willed waitress (the terrific Anna Bederke) and a dreamy physiotherapist (the lovely Hungarian actress Dorka Gryllus) wander through its scenes, characters united by culture rather than country. Drawing inspiration from the restaurant that Bousdoukos himself once owned in the Ottensen neighborhood of Hamburg (where patrons could enjoy traditional Greek food), the filmmakers achieve an authentically scrappy melting-pot vibe that’s enormously appealing.

Listen to and read the full story and see some clips here.

New Details Emerge in Theft of Van Gough

From the WSJ: None of the alarms and only seven out of 43 surveillance cameras were working at a Cairo museum where a Vincent van Gogh painting was stolen, Egypt’s top prosecutor said Sunday. Thieves made off with the canvas, known by the titles of “Poppy Flowers” and “Vase with Flowers,” on Saturday from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in the Egyptian capital.

Prosecutor general Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud told Egypt’s state news agency Sunday that the thieves used a box cutter to remove the painting from its frame. He blamed the heist on the museum’s lax security measures, calling them “for the most part feeble and superficial.” The museum guards’ daily rounds at closing time were inadequate and didn’t meet minimum security requirements to protect internationally renowned works of art, he said. Mr. Mahmoud added that his office had warned Egypt’s museums to implement stricter security controls after nine paintings were stolen last year from another Cairo institute, the Mohammed Ali Museum. Similar security lapses were to blame in that theft.

Fifteen Egyptian officials, including the director of the Khalil museum, Reem Bahir, and the head of the fine arts department at the Ministry of Culture, have been barred from leaving Egypt until the investigation into the painting’s theft is complete, Mr. Mahmoud said. He didn’t elaborate. The Khalil museum declined to comment on the prosecutor general’s statements, saying only that the investigation was still under way.

Read the full story here.

Nigerian Actor Pushes for Government Funding for Film Industry

From Modern Ghana: Popular actor and Nollywood star, Kanayo O. Kanayo recently proposed a way forward for government to launder Nigeria’s image. The actor who reacted to claims that Nigerian producers cannot provide enough content to replace the banned foreign soap opera by the NBC said only films can effectively rebrand the country.

Said Kanayo told us at a recent function in Ikeja area of Lagos “Films and television sectors are the best tools for the Nigerian government to use to drive the campaign, if it is serious about rebranding Nigeria, though I always prefer to say re-orienting Nigerians, not re-branding.”

The actor who recalled how America used motion picture to launder the country’s image said “After the infamous 9/11 incident, former US President George Bush called on Hollywood producers. He intimated them with government’s intention of projecting an image that would show that no country or group of persons can start a war of terrorism against America and go free.”

The message was supported and Hollywood went on to make films that projected this idea. That is what I call cultural diplomacy.” On what the Nigerian government should do on re-orientation, Kanayo proposed that either through the National Orientation Agency or through the Ministry of Information and Culture, relevant public servants should call moviemakers and independent producers to a round table for a meeting. He however cautioned that such a meeting must not be publicized, as “ Certain things we plan as a nation should be our strategy to surprise the world.”

Explained Kanayo “Government must call us to a meeting and tell us that, in re-orienting Nigeria (because I believe the right word is not re-branding), some provision from government would be provided for a period of time such as five years, that would help us drive this vision of reorientation. Government can in the process, give our producers tools to work with.

It is going to be a gradual process. These producers would return home and write befitting scripts that can make the vision a reality. Remember, these scripts are meant to give us a push above where we are now. People would watch these films or television programmes and believe that government is truly working in the interest of the masses.”

Kanayo made this statement to support an earlier statement by Professor Dora Akunyili, minister of Informational and Communication, that government’s plan to re-brand Nigeria would not be complete without involving the Nigerian movie industry.

His words “Why I say Nigerians should be re-orientated before the nation is re-branded is because if things were working well, Nigerians will be proud to represent their country well anywhere they go or find themselves. A lot of strategies have been put in place to improve film distribution in Nigeria, but another core aspect that has not received equal attention is film funding.

Aside this, there is no effective network of distribution. Distribution is a tentacle; how well you spread it determines how well you make money. We do not have good distribution network is because we lack the structures, both economically and culturally, to get it right.”

Read the full article here.

From the World: Pakistan sent famous Sufi musicians to the United States. The idea is to portray the “true face of Sufi Islam” to an audience that often sees Pakistan as a haven for terrorists. Madiha Tahir has today’s Global Hit. Download MP3

Musicians Help Each Other Find Outlets and Creativity

From the WSJ: ‘I hope one day I come to see you because, every day here, it’s worse and worse.” The young man’s guarded, disconsolate voice comes distantly from Iran on a bad Skype line. He’s a well-known figure in that country’s burgeoning but relentlessly suppressed underground rock music scene. Supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei recently declared music to be “incompatible” with the values of the Islamic Republic—a declaration that effectively carries the force of a decree throughout the country. For the young Iranian caller, alias “Natch,” the implications are clear, particularly for his kind of Western-style rock with lyrics in English. He has already been jailed for his musical enthusiasms and is looking to get out of Iran.

Natch’s interlocutor is Austin Dacey, a spare, handsome, 30-something Minnesotan now living in Brooklyn, N.Y. He sits in his monastic walk-up apartment, his walls decorated with shining 1970s album covers. You might call Mr. Dacey a human-rights music activist, among other things. (He also writes about philosophy, composes music and plays the accordion in a tango nuevo group.) Through his foundation, Impossible Music, Mr. Dacey seeks out persecuted and muzzled musicians around the world. He then finds American counterparts to perform their work and stages live shows where the persecuted can watch the performers rescue their music, even participate a little via live Internet connection.

Read the full article here.

Photo: Maureen Grisot

North Korea Joins Twitter and YouTube

Hear the story on NPR here.

Eat, Pray, Love: What Images Do We Still Hold of the East?

From NPR: In Eat Pray Love, Bali serves as Elizabeth Gilbert’s hallowed sanctuary. It’s an enchanted land where she finds emotional healing. But if her journey may in fact have been life-changing, the film version of the story she told in her best-selling book is filled with stereotypes about the East. Ketut, the Balinese medicine man she seeks out for wisdom and fortune-telling? You want to believe in their friendship, but his character is a caricature. At one point, she even jokingly refers to him as Yoda.

Eat Pray Love is just one of the recent movies to romanticize travel along the Silk Road. This year, movies about women awakening to their true passions while traveling to the Middle East include Cairo Time and Sex and the City 2.

The trope isn’t limited to recent movies, or to stories about 40-something female travelers. There are epic dramas, explosive thrillers and lighthearted comedies, old and new, that don’t teach you anything new about Asia or the Middle East. They rely instead on the stereotype that the East is someplace timeless, otherworldly, incomprehensible, waiting to be discovered by Westerners in search of self.

Photo: Francois Duhamel/Columbia Pictures

Read more about the Hollywood films of the East and listen to the story.

Bollywood Begins Tackling Serious Issues

From NPR: Natha, a farmer in central India, is in danger of losing his land because he can’t repay a loan. But all of his problems could be solved through a government program that would award his relatives with a staggering 100,000 rupees — about $2,000. The catch? Natha will have to commit suicide for his family to get the money.

This is the premise of Peepli Live, a Bollywood satire that had its American premiere in mid-August. The movie’s story is fictional — as is the village, Peepli, where it takes place — but the phenomenon it examines is all too real: In recent years, hundreds of thousands of Indian farmers have killed themselves because they’re unable to pay their debts. And India’s government really does compensate their families.

“It’s like an epidemic,” says Aamir Khan, the Bollywood veteran who produced Peepli Live. Between 1991 and 2001 alone, 200,000 farmers took their own lives, he says. “That’s really a scary and heartbreaking thought.”

Despite the widespread nature of the phenomenon, farmer suicide isn’t the sort of thing that a Bollywood movie would normally depict. “Mainstream films in India don’t usually tackle such serious topics,” Khan — one of the biggest names in that business — tells NPR’s Linda Wertheimer. “But I just loved it, so I wanted to do it.”

Read the rest here.

Photo: Falco Ink Publicity

Muslim Matchmaking

From NPR: Egyptian writer Ghada Abdul-Aal chronicles the nightmares of Egypt’s matchmaking culture based on her own experiences. She sees herself as Carrie Bradshaw in a headscarf. The witty 31-year-old writer turned her popular blog, I Want To Get Married, into a best-selling book and now a television satire, also expected to be a hit.

She is a fan of the American program Sex and the City, which defined the dilemma for American singletons. Abdul-Aal speaks for a new generation of young, professional Arab women under intense pressure to get married in a conservative Muslim society. “Some people call my show Sex and the City, but without the sex. It’s just the city,” she says with a hearty laugh.

She attributes her widespread appeal to a sense of humor that she displays in abundance. “Everything started in 2006 when I had a crazy idea about starting a blog. It was the first time a female blogger made fun of herself in public. It’s a popular way of dealing with our problems in Egypt,” she says.

The problem that she tackles is the marriage crisis across the Middle East. Getting hitched is getting more expensive at a time when youth unemployment is at an all-time high. Unemployment among college graduates in Egypt is 25 percent, and 48 percent among vocational school graduates, according to Egypt’s Population Council.

Photo: Amr Nabil/AP

Read and listen to more here.

South African Film: White Wedding

From NPR: Hollywood wedding movies are about as predictable as a white dress: Take two pretty young people, throw in a few wacky family members, and cap everything off with a big dance party. But change the film’s setting to Cape Town and Johannesburg, and cast it with all the colors of the South African rainbow, and familiar film tropes take on new shades of meaning.

That’s what Jann Turner and Kenneth Nkosi do in their film White Wedding, which premiered in South Africa last year and opens in the U.S. this September. The pair co-wrote the movie, along with Rapulana Seiphemo; Turner directed, while Nkosi and Seiphemo co-starred respectively as Elvis, the groom-to-be, and his best friend and best man, Tumi.

Elvis and Tumi spend much of the movie racing to Cape Town, where Elvis is scheduled to marry his sweetheart, Ayanda (Zandie Msutwana). Along the way, they pick up a British tourist named Rose (Jodie Whittaker), who has come to South Africa to forget about a broken engagement.

Two black men driving across South Africa with a white woman in tow raises a few eyebrows. But according to Nkosi, not all South Africans would have the same reaction to this sight. “Things are different in different provinces,” he tells NPR’s Michele Norris. In Johannesburg, for example, he could easily “walk around here holding hands with Jann, black and white, no problems. But you get deeper [into] rural South Africa, and people look at you very strangely.”

Nkosi and his partners didn’t want to sugarcoat this reality: “We thought to ourselves, we have a problem like this in South Africa. It is there. And we want to make it part of this movie.” The trick, though, was incorporating racial conflict into White Wedding “without having to [make] it preachy, and talk about apartheid and how horrible it is,” Nkosi says.

Read and listen to the story here.