Arts & Culture

China produces about two-thirds of the world's shoes, and its unofficial shoe-making capital is Wenzhou (Chen Wenyi makes a call at the Heyu Shoe Materials Company). Says one factory owner: "Wenzhounese work harder than anyone else in China."

A Tale of Two Chinas

As the red-hot Chinese economy feeds the world's appetite for consumer goods, the workers' republic is more than ever a nation of haves and have-nots

In 1919 Marcel Duchamp penciled a mustache and goatee on a print of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and inscribed the work "L.H.O.O.Q." Spelled out in French these letters form a risqué pun: Elle a chaud au cul, or "She has hot pants." Intentionally disrespectful, Duchamp's defacement was meant to express the Dadaists' rejection of both artistic and cultural authority.

Switzerland

A Brief History of Dada

The irreverent, rowdy revolution set the trajectory of 20th-century art

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Forging its Own Future

Dedicated metalsmiths help a Memphis museum revive a lost American art form

James McNeill Whistler's palette, c. 1888-90.

Refined Palette

Scholars say this 19th-century artifact could have belonged to the celebrated American painter

Beowulf face to face with fire-breathing dragon

Evildoer

The Beowolf monster is a thousand years old, but his bad old tricks continue to resonate in the modern world

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Young and Restless

Saudi Arabia's baby boomers, born after the 1973 oil embargo, are redefining the kingdom's relationship with the modern world

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Global Wording

If you can't say it in English, just borrow le mot juste

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Have Canine, Will Travel

Our fur-flung correspondents in dogged pursuit

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Review of 'The Worst Hard Time'

The untold story of those who survived the great American Dust Bowl

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Edvard Munch: Beyond The Scream

Though the Norwegian artist is known for a single image, he was one of the most prolific, innovative and influential figures in modern art

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The Power of Prayer

A news photographer in India captures a devotional moment that goes back a thousand years

Munich, Germany

Bone Voyage

On assignment with Europe's most peripatetic canine

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Austria

Mozart: In Search of the Roots of Genius

On the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth, the author scours Salzburg and Vienna for traces of the master's mischievous spirit

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Worlds Apart

Change and constance on sceptered isles

Hojaldres

Bilingual By Breakfast

Only one thing stood between the author and the hojaldras of her desire

The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World

Every Book Its Reader

The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World, by Nicholas A. Basbanes

The Overture to Tannhäuser: The Artist's Mother and Sister, 1868, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

Cézanne

The man who changed the landscape of art

A Mount Rushmore of stardom: Gable (left) cracks a joke at the photographers expense with friends Heflin, Cooper and Stewart.

Grab a Drink With Hollywood's Stars

To photographer Slim Aarons, the biggest stars were auld acquaintances

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Time Traveler

Smithsonian gets a new publisher

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Royal @

In a web-based monarchy, there are no bans on fox-hunting

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