April 20 is the United Nations Chinese Language Day. Hunan Mass Media Vocational and Technical College and the Base for International Promotion of Chinese Language and Culture responded to the "International Chinese Language Day" initiative of the Center for Language Education and Cooperation of the Ministry of Education and the Chinese Plus, by organising the Chinese Singing Video Competition of “Sing Chinese Songs Together” themed with “Chinese language: together for a bright future”. The event features media production and musical performances, attracting the active participation of music lovers from Malaysia, Nepal, Madagascar and other countries.
In the event, more than ten contestants came from the Modern Pop Music Speciality of HNMMC, including two international students who have returned to their home country after completion of study and international students who were newly enrolled in February this year. They all achieved good results in the competition.
Two children contestants in the competition that caught the judges’ attention - 9-year-old Zhong Cuiqi and 10-year-old Cao Zijian won the second prize for Hello Tomorrow and The Most Beautiful Sun respectively. It is worth mentioning that they are all students of the contestant Chen Yixing. 45-year-old Chen Yixing is a kindergarten teacher in Malaysia. In 2022, she became an international advanced student majoring in Modern Pop Music in the college and started her own music education journey, who also won the first prize in this competition.
After professional review, the work The World submitted by Xu Xiuqi from Malaysia won the special award for her outstanding performance in the aspects of music performance, video picture showing, and overall production effect. Besides, the competition set up 6 first prizes, 7 second prizes, 9 third prizes, and individual awards such as "Best Performance Award", "Best Production Award", "Best Creativity Award" and "Best Style Award".
Music lovers at different ages from different countries and various cultural backgrounds gathered here because of Chinese language, and found the intersection of resonating with each other between the two different forms of music and Chinese language. The beautiful Chinese singing weaved a vision of a bright future.
It is reported that in February 2010, the United Nations designated "Grain Rain" (April 20) in the traditional twenty-four solar terms in China as "United Nations Chinese Language Day" to commemorate Cangjie, the ancestor of Chinese characters. As a symbol of the excellent traditional Chinese culture going global, the "circle of friends" of Chinese language continues to expand. By the end of 2021, more than 180 countries and regions around the world have launched Chinese language education, 76 countries have incorporated Chinese into their national education systems, more than 25 million people are learning Chinese in foreign countries, and the cumulative number of people who have learned and use Chinese has approached 200 million. On April 20, 2022, the Center for Language Education and Cooperation of the Ministry of Education, together with the Chinese Education Network Platform, the Chinese Plus, and global partners, jointly launched the 2022 "International Chinese Language Day" activity, and set off an upsurge to celebrate the festival all over the world. In addition to hosting the "Singing Chinese Songs Together" - Chinese Singing Video Competition, HNMMC, the Base for International promotion of Chinese Language and Culture and Hunan Education Television jointly produced the "Chinese Bridge" 20th-anniversary documentary series Brige to and from, which was also officially launched online on "International Chinese Language Day".