Chinese knowledge put to the test at UQ

The University of Queensland's Confucius Institute hosted the heats of an international Chinese language and knowledge competition last week.

The Queensland Preliminary Competition for the ninth annual international “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition was held on Saturday, May 15.

Designed to test students’ Chinese language skills and cultural knowledge, the competition included three parts - a speech, a written test and a cultural performance.

Sixteen students from UQ, Bond University and QUT were selected to compete, and after five hours of competition first prize went to Rachel Rose from UQ.

Matthew Garratt from QUT took second prize, while UQ students Brooke Eason and Tomas Radovic tied for third.

The students’ cultural performance, which is often the highlight of the competition, includes singing, Tai Chi demonstrations, Chinese folk dancing, poetry recital, painting, calligraphy and paper cutting.

The top performance in this category was Tomas Radovic who shared three Chinese tongue twisters, and performed the popular Chinese folk song “In that Distant Place”.

The four winners will be recommended to the Hanban, to compete in the world semi-final and final competitions in Changsha, China, in July this year.

The “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition is the most important competition of its kind in the world.

Since its launch in 2002, more than 50,000 university students from over 50 countries have participated in the competition, which is organised by the Office of the Chinese Language Council International (Hanban), Beijing.

For more information on the event, go to www.uq.edu.au/confucius, www.chinesebridge.org, www.hanban.org, and www.confuciusinstitute.net.

Media: Lucy Li (07 3346 7898, weili@uq.edu.au)