Confucius Institute News

The second “Hanyu Qiao” (“Chinese bridge”)

Chinese Proficiency Competition for Australian high school students

18 high school students from SA, WA, QLD and ACT competed in these National preliminary finals of the Chinese speaking competition organized and hosted by the Confucius Institute. Out of a total of 18 contestants 8 came from South Australian schools (Walford Anglican School for Girls, Adelaide High School, St. Aloysius College, St Peters College and Trinity College Senior).

The competition consisted of three parts: a written knowledge test about China and Chinese language, a prepared speech of maximum 3 minutes and a cultural performance of maximum 5 minutes. One could discover a pool of young language talent as the contestants presented their respective speeches ranging from topics such as “All about me”, “Joys of learning Chinese” to “Australia is strange” and “Studying Chinese is the best choice of my life”. The best 8 contestants of the speech part of the competition were invited to compete again in the afternoon.

The official part of the competition started at 1:00 p.m. with an opening speech by Dr. Zhang Ning, Deputy-Director of the Confucius Institute and two key note speakers, Ms. Chloe Fox, Member of Bright and delegate of the Hon. Jane Lomax-Smith, Minister for Education (as well as for Tourism, Mental Health & Substance Abuse and for the City of Adelaide) and Professor John Taplin, Pro Vice Chancellor International of the University of Adelaide, who is a very valuable supporter of the Confucius Institute since its beginning. The program continued with an exciting final of the speech part and the very interesting and entertaining cultural performances of all contestants, who presented acts ranging from musical performances (Chinese tunes on the piano and clarinet, singing and reciting of classical Chinese poems or pieces by a famous Chinese author to demonstrations of martial arts, Chinese painting, calligraphy and even a life performance of how to cook Chinese dumplings, which were then served hot to the judging panel and the audience to taste! The judges and audience were again surprised and entertained by the varied and amazing pool of talented young high school students.

The afternoon program also included performances by external artists to allow the judges enough time to select the winning contestants and entertain the audience. Beautiful ‘guzheng” music (often referred to as the Chinese harp), a violin piece and a dance from Northern China were performed by young Ethinic Chinese artists.

The festive and exciting atmosphere ultimately culminated in the long awaited announcement of the final winners and the handing over of the prizes. The overall winners were two students from WA and one student from SA. They will continue their Chinese language journey by participating in the International semi-finals and finals to be held in Chongqing, China in October this year. The gold winners of the single categories “general knowledge”, “speech” and “cultural performance” (from ACT, SA and QLD respectively) will also go to Chongqing to experience the Hanyu Qiao International finals as observers.

The contestants were supported and applauded by an audience of about 100 people consisting of family members and friends, members of the broader community and guests of honour, such as Councilor Francis Wong, Adelaide City Council, Ms. Chloe Fox, Member of Bright and delegate of Hon. Jane Lomax-Smith, Ms. Irena Zhang, President of the Australian – Asian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Commerce, Mr. Simon Koh, Overseas Representative of The National Committee of The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (as well as Overseas Advisor for the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese and President of the South Australia)Council for the promotion of peaceful Reunification of China) and Prof. John Taplin and Pro Vice Chancellor International of our university.

The judging panel was formed by experts Ms. Sheng Lin, Visiting lecturer at the Centre for Asian Studies at the University of Adelaide and also working for the Confucius Institute, Ms. Marnie Foster, a very experienced second language background teacher at Loreto College and Dr. Jin Songping, Senior lecturer at the Centre for Asian Studies.

Ms. Georgina Day, third overall winner of the Adelaide 2008 Hanyu Qiao preliminary finals and student of Chinese at the University of Adelaide was the MC for the event and everybody agreed that she did a fantastic job!

The Hanyu Qiao was a real success and a demonstration of the Confucius Institute’s commitment and role in encouraging and promoting the teaching and learning of Chinese language and culture at school level.