Take your children - for US First Emperor tour dates read more...

USA First Emperor Exhibition Tour dates and Location

Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, Santa Ana, CA, USA (May 18-October 12, 2008);
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, USA (November 15, 2008-April 26, 2009);
Houston Museum of Natural Science, TX, USA (May 18-September 25, 2009); and
National Geographic Museum, Washington, D.C., USA (November 19, 2009-March 31, 2010).

Bronze Age China's first emperor, and his funereal statuary are freshly reassessed in a new special exhibition.

Source suite101.com

A parent's view of Chinese immersion schools for children

Why do we need a Chinese language immersion school in the Eugene School District?

What country is said to be destined to become the largest English-speaking nation in the world? Hint: It’s the same country that has bought $1 trillion of American debt and boasts a trade surplus of hundreds of billions of dollars with us year after year. Yes, China!

While America confronts record national debt and trade deficits, a too thinly stretched military, a battered middle class and plummeting world prestige, China enjoys an exploding economy, a modernizing military, a burgeoning middle class and growing world prestige.

"[At] no time in the history of Chinese international schools has there been such a dynamic and explosive growth

of international schools as what’s happening here in China right now," Frerking said.Students enrolled in these facilities receive educations equivalent to elite private schools in the United States and Europe in part because they are modeled on predominately British and American curriculums, offering both International Baccalaureate (IB) and Advanced Placement (AP) programs. Students also generally come from affluent families who emphasize the importance of education.

International schools in Asia mostly began as small facilities intended for the children of diplomats or missionaries. However, as economic expansion attracted multinational businesses to Asia, the number of students in international schools rose dramatically. These facilities have now evolved into centers for expatriate communities and are vital tools for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI).

The number of foreign Chinese children adopted by Americans has dropped for the third year in a row ...

..... a consequence of tougher policies in the two countries -- China and Russia -- that over the past decade have supplied the most children to U.S. families.

Figures for the 2007 fiscal year showed that adoptions from abroad have fallen to 19,411, down about 15 percent in just the past two years.

It's a dramatic change. The number of foreign adoptions had more than tripled since the early 1990s, reaching a peak of 22,884 in 2004 before dipping slightly in 2005, then falling to 20,679 in 2006.

"A drop in international adoptions is sad for children," said Thomas Atwood, president of the National Council for Adoption. "National boundaries and national pride shouldn't get in the way of children having families."

Adoptions from China, the No. 1 source country since 2000, fell to 5,453. That's down by 1,040 from last year and well off the peak of 7,906 in 2005. Two main factors lie behind this: an increase in domestic adoptions as China prospers and tighter restrictions on foreign adoptions that give priority to stable married couples between 30 and 50 and exclude single people, the obese and others with financial or health problems.

One consequence, adoption agencies say, is that the waiting time to complete an adoption from China has more than doubled to 24 months or more.

More schools offer Chinese to children.

More schools teach Chinese

MASON - China's expanding global reach is taking hold in the classrooms of Greater Cincinnati as more schools are offering courses to teach Chinese.

And some schools are reaching halfway around the world to learn more about Chinese language and culture - and to recruit teachers.

Next school year, the Mason school district will join a small but growing list of area schools adding Chinese to the traditional menu of Spanish, French and German offered at most public schools.

"We are very excited to be able to offer this," said Nicole Huelsman, an assistant principal at Mason High School. "With China accounting for about 21 percent of the world's population, it is necessary to look in this direction."

'If China sharply revalued the yuan, as American politicians are demanding....

...., it could actually hurt the US and help China.'

Myth 1 - that there is overwhelming evidence that the yuan is grossly undervalued
Myth 2 - a re-evaluation ... would greatly reduce America's trade deficit

China needs to cool its asset markets with higher interest rates. To regain control over its monetary policy China needs to let the yuan rise. A revalutation could also help the government succeed in shifting the balance away from growth to investment and net exports towards consumption.

America is right that China needs to revalue, but for the wrong reasons. And arguing that a revaluation helps America's economy makes it less likely that Beijing will act. Likewise China is foolish to resist a more flexible exchange rate partly because it does not want to be seen to be caving into America's demand, when it is in its own interest. If the two world's engines of growth remain at loggerheads, everyone will pay the price.'