The 19^th “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition UK Final was held online on 19^th September. H. E. Mr. LIU Xiaoming, Ambassador of China to the UK, gave the opening speech. Other special guests who graced the grand opening included leaders of UK universities and local businesses. Directors and teachers of Confucius Institutes across the UK were also in attendance to offer their support, together with about 1000 viewers via Zoom, Facebook and Youtube, etc.

Pic-1 Ambassador LIU Xiaoming gives the opening speech

Sacha Christopher, a student of USTB-DMU Confucius Institute (CI), was awarded Third Prize for her excellent performance. She was commended by Pro Vice Chancellor Simon Bradbury of De Montfort University, who also graced the event. As one of the ten shortlisted Mandarin learners of various nationalities representing universities across the UK, Sacha demonstrated her Chinese language skills, cultural knowledge, and artistic performance through a webcam at home.

Pic-2 DMU Pro Vice Chancellor Simon Bradbury graces the event

The most impressive part of Sacha’s performance was her speech and its delivery. Based on her personal experiences, the speech made it clear that the mastery of Chinese language serves not only as a bridge to facilitate cross-cultural communication, but also a road to connect civilizations.

Pic-3 Sacha delivers her three-minute speech

For the artistic performance, Sacha presented a Tai Chi Fan dance to the music of “Blue and White Porcelain” (青花瓷) by Jay Chou, highlighting unique Chinese characteristics. She expressed special thanks to CI volunteer teachers LAI Wenjing from USTB and YU Jie who kept tutoring her online from China beyond their contracted term of service at the CI.

Pic-4 The two-minute video Sacha prepared for the competition

The two-minute video that Sacha prepared for the competition focused on her life in Leicester: learning Chinese, making Chinese friends, cooking Chinese food, and practicing Tai Chi. All done in Chinese!

Pic-5 Sacha gets shortlisted for the UK Final

The competition was originally scheduled to take place in April but postponed till September owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. From February to September, the CI team made great efforts to prepare Sacha for the competition, on-site or online. The CI’s joint efforts paid off when Sacha was announced to have won the third place.

The CI will make every effort to improve its Chinese teaching in DMU as well as schools across Leicestershire. Hopefully, we can do better in the 20^th“Chinese Bridge” Competition next year.

Draft: Wei Zhiping

Revision: Yang Yingjun