Recently, the Global Final of the 14th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students was officially launched, with 100 contestants from 76 countries and 83 divisions participated. The Global Final will be held in the form of online "cloud arena" to determine the global champion through the three stages of the Global Finalist Competition, the Five Continents Championship, and the Global Final.
In the Global Finalist Competition just closed, the contestants competed in two parts: objective multiple choice and Vlog video presentation. The scores of the two parts were added up to make the total score of the contestants, which decided if they could enter Global Finalist Competition. The contestants from each continent will qualify into the Global Top 30 by a certain proportion.
Objective multiple choice was answered online, with one-to-one "cloud invigilation". The questions were divided into five parts: "Chinese Knowledge", "General Knowledge of Chinese Culture", "Basic Knowledge of China", "Chinese Literature and Arts" and "Science and Technology, Education and Career Development in China", including texts, pictures, audios and video clips.
The contestants from five continents across 11 time zones competed in the "cloud" competition for the first time, showing their Chinese proficiency and understanding of Chinese culture through questions related to Chinese pronunciation, poetry and allusions, sports knowledge and regional culture.
In the Vlog video presentation, the contestants not only talked about their love for Chinese language and culture, but also showed their versatile skills, bringing wonderful performances such as sword dance, Chinese Zither, Tai Chi Fan, long sleeve dance and poetry recitation.
"Language learning is the foundation of communication, and different languages help me understand different cultures." For American contestant Markworth Leah, learning Chinese language was a challenge, and an opportunity to learn something new. While studying Chinese language, she was also fond of Peking Opera, the quintessence of Chinese culture.
As the first student in Vanuatu to pass HSK level 3, Schueler Emanuelle introduced her school in her video. The bright and clean classroom was a good place to study, where she could prepare for the Chinese Bridge Competition at ease.
Gordieiev Daniil from Ukraine lives in a "Chinese speaking family", in which all four members of the family speak Chinese, and it is said that Chinese language has become the bridge of communication for the family.
A wonderful Tai Chi Fan performance was the result of the hard work of Kun Narypanhavorn, a Cambodian contestant whose learning Chinese language and understanding Chinese culture has opened up new horizons for him.
Ogbarebi Hassama Sara worked part-time as a children's program hostess on Eritrea's state-owned TV channel in her spare time. Four years of learning Chinese language has helped her a lot in understanding different cultures and customs, and has made her more confident.
The Global Top 30 will come out soon. Who will they be? Let's wait and see!
Editors' Note: Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students is one of the Chinese Bridge Chinese proficiency competitions. It was firstly held in 2008, with 87 contestants from 24 countries coming to China to participate in the competition. The number is increasing year by year ever after. By 2019, the number of participating countries has reached 105, with nearly 300 contestants coming to China. By now, more than 400 contestants have obtained the opportunity to learn Chinese language in China through Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students. (Information Sources：Center for Language Education and Cooperation)
