Fantastic results for Leeds students in the Chinese Bridge competition

On 24th March 2018, the British regional final of the 17th 'Chinese Bridge’ Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students took place at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London.

30 candidates from 20 British universities competed in the contest sponsored by the Confucius Institute headquarters. The University of Leeds had two representatives in the competition:

• Alexia Daubresse 杜雅莉: 3rd year student from the University of Leeds East Asian Studies Department
• Nadine Golding 高娜娜: 3rd year student from the University of Leeds East Asian Studies Department

Competition format

This competition for non-Chinese university students has three components - a short speech, a demonstration of Chinese language proficiency and knowledge of China, and a three-minute artistic performance. Talented contestants from colleges and universities all over the country took to the stage to impress the audience with their passion for Chinese and knowledge of China.

Alexia Daubresse delivered a touching speech about her experiences studying abroad in Taiwan and performed a beautiful dance which combined ballet with the traditional Chinese fan dance. Nadine Golding described how she met her Chinese friends through frisbee and delivered a humorous 'crosstalk' performance (单口相声) full of funny stories about learning Chinese. Their performances impressed the judges and Alexia Daubresse progressed to the final stages of the competition, while Nadine Golding was invited to perform her talent show in the final as an outstanding semi-finalist.

The results

Alexia Daubresse was awarded Second Place.

See pictures from the event on our Flickr page.

Preparation

The contestants were trained by Huo Wenhui and Zhao Jingjing from the Business Confucius Institute (BCI). The tutors are extremely proud of the results that their students achieved.

More about the Chinese Bridge Competition

The "Chinese Bridge" language proficiency competition is a large-scale international contest organised by Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban). Since its launch in 2002, this annual event has attracted nearly 300,000 college students from over 80 countries to participate in the competition, of which more than 1,300 have been invited to China to attend the semi-final and finals. The ‘Chinese Bridge’ has become an important platform for international college students to learn more about Chinese language and culture. It is also a bridge of understanding that links China to young people worldwide.

If you are studying Chinese and would like to be considered to represent The Business Confucius Institute and The University of Leeds in future Chinese Bridge Competitions then let us know! Email Confucius@leeds.ac.uk.