The 15th “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for World College Students in the Southwest Division of the United States concluded.

The 15th “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for World College Students in the Southwest Division of the United States concluded. On April 30, hosted by the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles, Arizona...

On April 30, the 15th "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students in the United States Southwest Division, hosted by the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles and hosted by the Confucius Institute at the University of Arizona, concluded. Thirteen contestants were carefully selected from five Confucius Institutes in the Southwest region of the United States to participate in the competition. Consul Chai Haiying of the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles served as one of the judges and watched the competition with nearly a hundred Chinese enthusiasts.

Consul Chai Haiying delivered a speech

The competition kicked off with the erhu performance by Ma Maoxun, a teacher from the Confucius Institute at Asia University, and the Tai Chi performance by Jiang Peifeng. Chen Zhao, American Director of the Confucius Institute at Asia University, delivered a welcome speech. Consul Chai Haiying made a speech. She said that Chinese is a window to understand Chinese culture and Chinese people. Learning Chinese well means many development opportunities. She encouraged every contestant to achieve excellent results in the competition.

Contestants gave keynote speeches

The competition was divided into intermediate and advanced groups to compete respectively. The contestants competed in three aspects: Chinese language ability, Chinese national conditions and cultural knowledge, and personal talent display. Focusing on the theme of this year's competition, "Dreams Light Up the Future," contestants demonstrated their Chinese proficiency and expressed their love for Chinese culture through speeches, judges' questions, knowledge quizzes, and talent performances.

Contestants demonstrated calligraphy

During the competition, "Chinese daughter-in-law" Jazmine Song spoke passionately about how she integrated into Chinese culture and family. "Chinese parents are probably the best parents in the world. They love their children and care about their children." Jessica Gonzalez, who served as a soldier in the United States for five years, is now studying journalism and Chinese at the University of Arizona. She dreams of traveling across China's mountains and rivers, and opens her own travel blog to record China's beautiful scenery. As soon as Anthony Burtman came on stage, he said, "The teachers from the Confucius Institute told me that Chinese people pay attention to essence, energy, and spirit, but I think we still need to have dreams." His standard pronunciation and authentic Chinese won unanimous praise from the judges. And the talent show is even more amazing. He studied under Ma Maoxun, an erhu teacher at the Confucius Institute at Asia University, and performed the Erhu "Little Flower Drum" with superb skills and surpassed the rest. Contestant Booke Wenig of the University of California, Los Angeles, loves to drink Chinese tea. In her speech, she likened her understanding and affection for China to "from Longjing to Pu'er", from the previous superficial knowledge to the deep attachment now, from just superficial knowledge to deep understanding. "Looking at each other, there are ridges and peaks, with different heights and distances. No culture in the world is perfect. Different cultures need to be understood and integrated." When the judges asked her which Chinese philosopher she liked the most, she said, "I was deeply impressed by Mencius' theory of the goodness of nature. He said that people are born good, but the acquired environment makes them bad. I feel very inspired."

After more than 3 hours of fierce competition, Wen Meiqing ( Booke Wenig and Anthony Burtman won the senior and intermediate championships respectively. In a cheerful and friendly atmosphere, Consul Chai Haiying and the Chinese and foreign directors of the Confucius Institute at Asia University presented awards to the winners. "I'm glad to see more and more American students learning Chinese and loving Chinese culture. The players are all of high standard," said Consul Chai Haiying. Compared with last year, this year’s Chinese Bridge College Student Competition in the Southwest Division of the United States has significantly improved in terms of the number of applicants and the Chinese proficiency and cultural knowledge of the contestants. This shows the achievements of the Confucius Institute in Chinese language teaching and Chinese cultural dissemination.

>Erhu performance

Judges’ comments

Audience

A group photo of award presenters and winners