“Keeping a Ten-year Promise, Lightening up the Champions’ Night”
Finals of the 10th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students Successfully Concludes

On the evening of October 28th, 2017, the finals and the closing ceremony of the 10th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students themed “Learn Chinese Double Your World” was held in Yunnan Grand Theater, which was sponsored by the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) and the People's Government of Yunnan Province, and organized by Yunnan Provincial Department of Education, Yunnan Normal University, Yunnan Radio and Television Station, Yunnan University. After fierce competition, the third team of the United States (Jiang Mingxi and Huang Qiuyue) eventually won the championship. A total number of 320 teachers and students from 96 countries and 110 overseas preliminaries witnessed a global multicultural bloom on the grand stage of “Chinese Bridge” via a bridge of friendship and culture.

Distinguished guests presenting awards for the championship team

Distinguished guests present at the final competition were Li Pei, Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of the Yunnan Provincial People's Congress, Zhao Guocheng, Deputy Chief Executive of the Confucius Institute Headquarters and Deputy Director-General of Hanban, Luo Lihui, Vice Chairman of CPPCC Yunnan Provincial Committee, Yang Jie, Deputy Secretary-General of the People's Government of Yunnan Province and Director of Yunnan Provincial General Office, Zhao Ruijun, Deputy Secretary-General of the People's Government of Yunnan Province, Zhou Rong, Director of Yunnan Provincial Department of Education, Rao Wei, Party Secretary of Yunnan Normal University, Jiang Yongwen, President of Yunnan Normal University, Yang Lin, Party Secretary of Yunnan University, and Lin Siying, Director of Yunnan Radio and Television Station and others. The competition was chaired by Han Jia, a CCTV host, and Wang Yizhou, a host of Yunnan Radio and Television Station. The excellent judges were Ju Ping, a famous hostess of CCTV, Wang Mingjun, an associate professor of School of Broadcast and Art in Communication University of China, and Basile Zimmermann, Director of the Confucius Institute in Geneva, Switzerland.

Warming-up show

The popping music lit up the audience and contestants dressed in miscellaneous national costumes all participated in the cheerful warming-up dance “Happy Chinese”. 5 top teams on behalf of five continents make a debut in turn and then the game kicked off. The first round of the competition was the scenario performance test Funny Three Kingdoms—We Are the Heroes, in which the contestants should play different roles based on the prototype of the famous characters in the Three Kingdoms by combining with the background of a heroic entrepreneurship era in the twenty-first century. All players showed the audience some new hotspots and concepts of “Made in China” and “Global Sharing” with their fluent Chinese. The competition has bestowed the players with an opportunity of “time-travel” and they have completed this round by playing different roles in the Chinese historical scroll. After a professional jury review, the first team of Russia, the Kyrgyz team, and the third team of the United States successfully entered the second round.

Scenario performance test: Three Kingdoms— We Are the Heroes

In the second round—speech contest, the contestants were required to tell a story of “Chinese Bridge and I” in two minutes. When the first team of Russia recalled the details of competition, they held what they have missed most was the touching moments in the family experience of living with the Chinese families; the most memorable part of the Kyrgyz team was all the wonderful shots in the preliminaries and the semi-finals and they hoped the flower of friendship between China and Kyrgyzstan can be always flourishing; the two team members of the third team of the United States said that they have made some new friends in the “Chinese Bridge” competition and thanked the friends who accompanied them along the way as well as the staff working behind the curtain. Eventually, after the judges certified their scores, the third team of the United States came to the fore, and won the championship of the 10th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students.

Keynote speech: Chinese Bridge and I

The former champions were also invited to the Chinese Bridge stage for a ten-year promise and witnessed the outcome of the Champion of the 10th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students together with the audience. They returned to China in spite of the long distance and expressed their affection and loving stories with China in the Chinese Bridge Competition. Moreover, they presented their gifts for the Chinese Bridge, and also sang the song Come on, Champions along with the new champions.

Come on, Champions

50 summer campers of the Silk Road and 50 Chinese children in the finals brought us a wonderful performance of Tai Chi performance Once Upon a Time in China. Chinese middle school students have ingeniously integrated the traditional dance of Chinese ethnic Hani people’s clog with the tap dance in the West, showing the audience to a youthful and energetic Oriental Tap Dance. Contestants were not overshadowed at all for they brought the show Arts and Charm of China, in which some typical scenes were combined in the realm of reading, Chinese folk music, classical sleeves, calligraphy, painting, etc. Contestants’ “Chinese style” has been fully displayed on the brilliant stage and received a thunderous applause.

TaiChi Performance

Oriental Tap Dance

Arts and Charm in China

The closing ceremony successfully concluded with the slogan of “Learn Chinese Double Your World” and all contestants took a group photo on the stage, leaving them an unforgettable memory. In this competition, the contestants demonstrated their skillful Chinese language skills and profound understanding of Chinese culture. Meanwhile, they have grown up in the cultural collision. The 10th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students was folded up amidst the enthusiastic cheering of the audience and the lingering reluctance of the contestants and Chinese volunteers. We are looking forward to the next “Chinese Bridge” and more colorful flowers bloomed by the bridge of friendship among the youths in this world.

The award-presenting ceremony