The 2018 Wellington Regional “Chinese Bridge” Speech Competition Take Place

The 2018 Wellington Regional “Chinese Bridge” Speech Competition took place on May 26th at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

This year's competition, co-sponsored by the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) and the Education Office of the Chinese Embassy in New Zealand, and organized by the Confucius Institute at Victoria University of Wellington, attracted nearly 70 students selected from universities, secondary and primary schools. Nearly 150 people, including teachers and parents of students watched the competition which was held in Kelburn Campus, Victoria University.

The competition was divided into Junior Group, Senior Group and Tertiary Group, and included two sections; the speech and displaying a talent.

The competitors impressed the judges and the audience with their fluent Chinese and authentic expression. They demonstrated passion towards Chinese language and Chinese culture, and related their stories about learning Chinese and their Chinese friends very clearly.

The talent displays of the competitors were also brilliant. There were traditional Chinese dances, Chinese songs, Chinese calligraphy and Chinese Poetry recitation, etc. The wonderful exhibitions of talents won the warm applause of the audience.

View of the competition scene

View of the competition scene

Audience watching the competition tentatively

The winner students in each category of the 2017 Wellington Regional “Chinese Bridge” Speech Competition are:

Junior Group: Lesieli Katoa (from Wellington East Grils College, first prize), Aaric Prasitdamrong (from Carncot Independent School, second prize), Rose Vachon (from Wellington East Girls’ College, third prize) and Jiya Bothra (from Carncot Independent School, third prize).

Senior Group: Neesha Dixon (from Wellington East Girls’ College, first prize), Sameed Khan (from Rotorua Boys’ High School, second prize), Michael Stanley (from Rotorua Boys’ High School, third prize), Seth Robertson (from Wellington High School, third prize) , Phuvapat Niracha Sribunwongsa (from Wellington East Girls’ College, third prize) .

The nine winners from secondary school will participate in the National “Chinese Bridge” Speech Competition, which will be held on Saturday August 4th in Auckland.

The top three students in the Tertiary Group are all from Victoria University of Wellington. They are Grant Randell (first prize), Anna De Boer (second prize), Annabelle Jessop (third prize) .

After competition

Counsellor Chen Yue of Chinese Embassy in New Zealand, Director of Rebecca Needham of Confucius Institute at Victoria University of Wellington attended the prize-awarding ceremony.