Chinese Bridge – Finals of Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College students conclude

Islamabad: The finals of Pakistan Competition Area of the 20th Chinese Bridge-Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students and the 14th Chinese Bridge-Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students have concluded here.

The competition was sponsored by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation, organized by Chinese Embassy in Pakistan and Consulate General in Karachi and jointly hosted by five Confucius Institutes and two Confucius Classrooms in Pakistan, said a news release issued here.

The competition was separately held in Islamabad and Karachi. After the preliminary round and the semifinals, 17 students from college group and secondary school group each entered their respective finals. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the competition was held in two ways, online and video submissions.

The theme of the competition for college and secondary school students is “One World, One Family” and “Fly high with Chinese” respectively. The competition mainly focused on two segments “Keynote Speech” and “Talent Competition”, showing the contestants’ comprehensive ability and proficiency to use Chinese language and their cognition of Chinese national conditions and Chinese culture. In “Keynote Speech” segment, speech of each group’s contestant was based on the competition’s theme, combined with the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan and China-Pakistan combined efforts to fight the novel corona outbreak. In their speeches, contestants also shared the stories of their efforts to learn Chinese language, elaborated their understanding of the “One World, One Family” the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, showing a higher level of Chinese language proficiency and its application ability.

The talent shows were rich in content and forms. Contestants showed their talents, including Chinese dance, Chinese song, musical instrument performance and monologue comic talk. There are also paper-cut, tea art, painting and Chinese calligraphy display, showing a certain cultural background and craft skills.

After the evaluation by the jury, Shamaiem Shahid from the Confucius Institute at the University of Sargodha and Maryam Khan from the Millennium Confucius Classroom won the first prizes in the Islamabad Division College Student Group and the Secondary School Student Group. Shah Alam(Lin Qingshuo) from the Confucius Institute at Karachi University and Shehriyar (Xie Rui) from Petro Confucius Classroom won the competition of the college and secondary school students in the Karachi Division.

Through the “Chinese Bridge” competition, the contestants demonstrated their strength and expressed the enthusiasm of young people to learn Chinese. At the same time, they also conveyed the good-neighborly friendship between China and Pakistan, sharing the joys and sorrows, and sharing the vision of the “One World, One Family”, a community with a shared future for mankind. With the deepening of China-Pakistan cultural exchanges and the continuous high-quality advancement of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the Chinese language boom in Pakistan continues to heat up, and the Chinese Bridge competition has also increased the influence of Chinese education in Pakistan.