On July 14th, the Star Theatre in the Art Building was filled with extraordinary excitement and applause. Dressing in their traditional ethnic costumes, contestants from all over the world showed their Chinese and talents in the 16th “Chinese Bridge” -- the Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students.
According to the schedule, on July 14th and 15th, 144 contestants from 112 countries would be divided into five groups in the competition according to the continents, namely Group Asia, Group Europe, Group America, Group Oceana and Group Africa.
In the first round, the Chinese speech and impromptu Q & A, each contestant gave a 90-second speech on the theme “Dreams Enlighten the Future”. Some contestants were so passionate and eloquent in Chinese that the audiences were very amazed; some were very humorous and brought laughter to the whole crowd; while some were excellent storytellers who made the audiences touched. In the impromptu Q&A session, the wit and vivid response of the contestants showed their understanding of traditional Chinese culture and impressed the audiences and the judges deeply.
The second round, the Talent Show, is even more exciting. Jinliang, a contestant from Laos, performed Dai dance vividly; Liu Tiangui, an Indonesian contestant, sang the Henan Opera " Mu Guiying Takes Command" in a redcostume; Yu Lingxing, a Belarusian contestant, played as both roles in the cross talk "A New Version of Journey to the West"... They expressed their yearn and affection to traditional Chinese culture by well-known forms, including singing, dancing, traditional opera, recitation, calligraphy, Chinese kungfu and so on.
The judges of this competition, Hai Sa’ou, Foreign Dean of the Confucius Institute of Tashkent State Institute of Oriental Studies in Uzbekistan, Liu Jianli, Producer at Hunan TV, Zhang Jinjun, associate professor at the Service Center of Scholarly Exchange of Hunan University and Li Xiang, teacher of Hunan Mass Media Vocational and Technical College and chairman of Pop Singing Arts Council of Hunan Musicians’ Association, all expressed their appreciation of the contestants’ performance in the Chinese Bridge. The fluent Chinese and comprehensive understanding of Chinese culture shown by the contestants was a symbol of international students’ passion to learn Chinese.
