New China – Yang Shilong and Zhang Zhihuan 
Arabella and Joseph Kushner, grandchildren of U.S. President Donald Trump, endeared themselves to Chinese-speaking communities in early April when they performed a traditional folk song “Jasmine” in Mandarin for Chinese President Xi Jinping during the two leaders’ first meeting in Florida. The two young members of the U.S. first family are joining a growing list of American celebrities including Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and Malia Obama, former President Barack Obama’s daughter who take Chinese as their second language. The followers of the world’s oldest written language are not confined to key public figures. U.S. statistics show Chinese is the third most popular language in the country, only behind English, official language, and Spanish. Why are Americans so enthusiastic about Chinese?.(more)