Swine Flu Grounds Chinese Orchestra

A 49-member high school orchestra from China has canceled a two-concert visit to the Atlanta area because of a travel ban imposed by a provincial government to deal with the swine flu outbreak. The Hangzhou Zhongee Wenlan High School orchestra was scheduled to perform July 25 at the Rialto Theatre in Atlanta and the next day at the Centre for Performing & Visual Arts in Newnan. In Newnan, organizers had lined up host families, cultural exchanges, sightseeing trips, a group dinner and celebrations. The Chinese schools principal sent a letter last week saying his provincial education department had banned students from going abroad. The decree followed the death of a 34-year-old woman in Hangzhou, who was infected with the flu virus and had just returned from the U.S.

(Associated Press)

More GA schools teach Chinese

The number of Georgia public schools teaching Chinese has gone from two to 20 in the last five years. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages says that’s in line with the national trend. The Council says about 5,000 public schools in the U.S. taught Chinese in 2000. Now, 50,000 schools do.