Fixing cultural public diplomacy: the public responds

Slate has now published Fred Kaplan's promised follow-up article to the piece he wrote last week calling for readers' ideas for future cultural diplomacy. There are some fascinating responses. Very well worth reading, and passing on. This passage should have resonance for most of us.

"Eric Henry, a doctoral student at Cornell who has spent much time in Shenyang, China, recalls that the U.S. Consulate used to open its libraries, film screenings, and Fourth of July celebrations. Now, he says, the consulate is a "razor-wired compound"; an American friend of his was recently arrested for taking pictures of the front gate. "Expats and Chinese who used to visit the consulate quite regularly now only grouse about the things that used to go on there," he writes."

Here is the URL for the full article:

http://www.slate.com/id/2177970/pagenum/all/#page_start