With a population barely topping 28,000, Arxan would seem an unlikely player in regional politics. Yet this remote city in Inner Mongolia has reinvented itself from a timber hub into a cross-border showcase for China’s soft power — leveraging eco-tourism, wellness culture, and reforestation diplomacy to deepen ties with neighboring Mongolia. The transformation began when […]

Every August, the Philippines celebrates Buwan ng Wika, a month-long observance promoting the Filipino language and the linguistic heritage of the nation. Schools and institutions nationwide mount festivals and exhibitions honoring the power of language in shaping national identity. At the heart of the celebration is Filipino—a language based on Tagalog, designated the national language […]

What began as a cherished keepsake in a family’s possession is now a revived cultural gem, brought back to the spotlight by two remarkable women. Former tourism secretary Gemma Cruz-Araneta and her grandniece, Hannah Maxine Cruz—direct descendants of Dr. Jose Rizal’s sister Maria Mercado—have taken to social media to reintroduce Sibylla Cumana, a fortune-telling parlor […]

In the oasis city of Kashgar, once a vital crossroads of the ancient Silk Road, history is not confined to ruins—it breathes through alleyways, fragrances, and stories of new encounters. Located at the edge of China’s far west in Xinjiang, near the borders of Central and South Asia, Kashgar is reinventing its ancient cosmopolitan role, […]

Today, June 30, the country marks Philippine–Spanish Friendship Day, a commemoration of compassion, mutual respect, and an extraordinary chapter in shared history. The law behind this annual event—Republic Act No. 9187, authored by the late senator Edgardo J. Angara—was inspired by a wartime episode that quietly transformed enmity into empathy: the Siege of Baler, a […]

While South Korea turned long-term cultural investment into global soft power, the Philippines failed to match vision with infrastructure. In the late 1980s, as French cinema sparked late-night conversations among young artists in Seoul, a similar scene was unfolding in Manila. The Goethe-Institut was hosting film workshops that captured the social and political turbulence of […]

She was once a mystery—just a gaze, a dress, and a silence that lingered for over a century. Now, Juan Luna’s Una Bulaqueña, the so-called “Mona Lisa of the Philippines,” steps onto the global stage as it goes on view this week at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. The portrait, a luminous rendering of a Filipina […]

The National Museum of the Philippines has received a remarkable donation: 17 ancient earthenware pots, dating back 1,500 to 2,000 years, repatriated from Australia after more than five decades in private care. In a handover ceremony held on May 30 at the Philippine Consulate in Sydney, the collection—believed to have been excavated from sites in […]

Long before recorded history, a small island in the Philippine archipelago was already buzzing with maritime innovation. On the rugged shores of Mindoro, 35,000 years ago, early humans were not merely surviving—they were navigating open seas, forging tools from giant clamshells, and connecting with distant cultures across a vast oceanic frontier. In an astonishing reappraisal […]

Few art forms are as symbolic of the Filipino spirit as paghahabi—weaving. It is an act of preservation and creation, a living archive of culture, identity, and dreams. At Expo 2025 Osaka, that symbolism took center stage in Hinabing Hiraya (Woven Imagination), a three-part cultural performance that stitched together the nation’s past, present, and aspirations […]