The number of students from China studying at universities across the United States has increased dramatically. According to some statistics, the number of undergraduate students from China in the U.S. has doubled in the last two years. Economists say the trend is due, in large part, to a growing middle class in China. VOA's Elizabeth Lee reports from Los Angeles county, with one of the largest Chinese student populations in the U.S. - totaling more than 4000 students.

Americans love football. So do the British. They are, of course, referring to two very different sports. Thanks to sports diplomacy, though, both sides of the Atlantic are starting to pay a little more attention to what the other side of the pond is watching.

Sub-titled "a guide to a truly great nation," it's a branded content marketing move to continue the celebratory year that 2012 represents for the United Kingdom, from the Queen's Diamond Jubilee to a successful Olympics and Paralympics (despite Mitt Romney’s concerns). Could there be a better year to be a Brit?

As part of its quest for soft power, Beijing has been obsessed for years about winning Nobel prizes, which in its view too often go to dissidents and emigres. Chinese authorities were especially stung by the peace prize awards to the Dalai Lama and most recently in 2010 to the dissident writer Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an 11-year prison term for subversion of state authority.

Each border control officer then reached under his desk and, with a practiced move, returned every passport with an unexpected object. It was a 200-milliliter bottle of red wine, packed in a crimson gift box and stamped: “Welcome to the Land of 8,000 Vintages.”

When I first started out in cultural diplomacy, I was surprised to learn that a very girly manga Kimi ni Todoke (From Me to You)--which is about a girl who doesn't realize she's fallen in love--was popular in Italy and Spain. But that's old news. Since then, I've learned that people's sensibilities and emotions are the same across all borders.

Cultural and linguistic boundaries blurred as Rabindranath Tagore's poetry was set to a dance and Hungarian poetry composed by national icons like Endre Ady was recited in Hindi and in Hungarian. All this when 15 poets and writers from the two countries assembled here under the "Poetry Across Cultures" to read and exchange over musings of love, cadence and friendship.