In April 2005, a Japanese junior high textbook set off protests across China. The book was an updated version of the one which triggered violent scenes four years earlier when it was first released. Approved by the Education Ministry, the text refers to the 1937 Nanjing (formerly Nanking) Massacre – in which some historians say at least 300,000 people were killed by Japanese troops in the then Chinese capital – as an “incident”.

There was a lot more at play, though, than simply a revisionist textbook compiled by nationalist historians which critics say whitewashes Japan’s wartime atrocities. The spring 2005 protests were also directed at Tokyo’s bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat. Forty-four million Chinese signed an online petition in opposition to their East Asian neighbour joining the P5 at the top table of international relations. This particular illustration of historical memory shaping a postconflict interstate relationship worried Japanese Minister of...

Jacopo della Quercia was unique among Siena’s artists of his time in achieving fame throughout Italy and beyond. And, as a 19th-century French art historian observed: “Jacopo had only one pupil, and for him there was a century to wait: he was Michelangelo.”

The sculptor was born here in around 1374 and died in his native city in 1438. A succession of his lyrical statues and reliefs in marble and wood, which combine grace and vigor to an extraordinary degree, open “From Jacopo della Quercia to Donatello: The Arts in Siena in the Early Renaissance” at Siena's ancient hospital Santa Maria della Scala and at other venues, including the Duomo and Baptistery directly opposite.

Six years in the making, this exhibition of sculpture, painting, gold- and silver-work, textile and codices contains more than 300 pieces from more than 100 collections around the world. While providing a panoramic view of the Sienese arts of the late 14th and first half of the 15th century,...

“The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. He is not interested in, nor capable of, a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage.”

So declared Mike Wallace in authoritative voice-of-God tones in “The Homosexuals,” a tawdry, sensationalist 1966 “CBS Reports,” excerpted in Kate Davis and David Heilbroner’s valuable film, “Stonewall Uprising.” Funny how yesterday’s conventional wisdom can become today’s embarrassment.

The most thorough documentary exploration of the three days of unrest beginning June 28, 1969, when patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a seedy Mafia-operated gay bar in Greenwich Village, turned on the police after a routine raid, “Stonewall Uprising” methodically ticks off the forms of oppression visited on gays and lesbians in the days before the gay rights movement....

Some countries overthrow their politicians. Some endure them. In Britain, they just laugh at them.

The renowned British sense of humor is on display in a new London exhibition that charts 300 years of the anarchic artistic spirit that produced the political satire of William Hogarth and "Spitting Image" -- as well as the sheer silliness of Benny Hill.

"Rude Britannia," which opened Wednesday at the Tate Britain gallery, is a feast of irreverence and bad taste that asks whether there is a distinctively British sense of humor, and examines how humor is intertwined with the country's cultural and political history....

The exhibition begins in the 17th century, when printing technology first allowed the mass production of cartoons and political broadsides. Then, as now, cartoonists took aim at politics, the economy and social ills.

One of the earliest works shows Oliver Cromwell, who overthrew the monarchy, donning the...

Much has been written about Ridley Scott’s new Robin Hood: Andrew O’Hagan says it “has little going for it” (London Evening Standard); Tom Huddleston believes the $130m blockbuster to be an “overblown disaster” (Time Out); and Joe Morgenstern points out that the 140-minute film is an “absence of fun” (Wall Street Journal). “When you call a movie ‘Robin Hood,’ you set up expectations,” Kenneth Turan, the Los Angeles Times film critic, writes. Indeed, the same could be said for its showpiece exhibition: Robin Hood – The Movie. And yet, it too, has little going for it given that it is an overblown disaster and one with an absence of fun.

The official movie exhibition has been put together especially for Nottingham Castle by the film’s set designer, Sonja Klaus, and features costumes, props and behind the scene materials. Scott was also involved in the selection of which items would be displayed. Its uniqueness, however, does not make up for the lack of exhibits. Granted,...

SEGA has announced that Shogun 2: Total War, will be released in 2011, ten years after the release of the original Shogun: Total War. This marks the sixth instalment from the multi award-winning Total War strategy franchise on PC, which includes the highly popular Medieval: Total War games.

Shogun 2 is set in the middle of the 16th Century Japan. The country, once ruled by a unified government, is now split into many warring clans. Players take on the role of one Daimyo, the clan leader, and will use military engagements, economics and diplomacy to achieve the ultimate goal, re-unite Japan under his supreme command and become the new Shogun – the undisputed ruler of a pacified nation.

Shogun 2: Total War will feature enhanced full 3D battles via land and sea, which made a name for the series, as well as the tactical campaign map that many refer to as the heart and soul of Total War. Featuring a brand new AI system inspired by the scriptures that influenced...

Stars of “The Special Relationship”, a HBO movie focusing on the relationship between Bill Clinton and then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, have come to blows about the deletion of the quarrel scene centered on the Monica Lewinsky controversy.

The quarrel scene though included in the preview version of the movie was edited out in the final review. Dennis Quaid, who plays Bill Clinton, felt that scene should have remained in the final cut.

His co-star Hope Davis, who plays Hilary Clinton, on the other hand, was glad it was axed. She said “We shot a really good scene but I'm happy it was left out."...