On June 7, 2023 (Czech time), the final round of the 22nd "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students in the Czech Republic hosted by Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Czech Republic, and organized by University of Finance and Administration (VSFS) was successfully held at VSFS. Feng Biao, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the Czech Republic; Jiang Yupeng, Head of Education Affairs Department, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Czech Republic; Emil Šenkýř, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, VSFS; Petr Budinský, Vice-rector of VSFS; Lucie Finová, Director of International Office, VSFS, etc. were invited as guests. Jiang Hui, Chinese Director of Confucius Institute at VSFS; Chen Zhong, Chinese Director of Confucius Institute at Palacký University Olomouc; Hao Wenjun, Chinese Director of Confucius Classroom at Institute of Technology and Business in České Budějovice; Dai Bo, President of Chinese International School of Prague were judges. Over 50 people including teachers and students from VSFS and journalists from GuangMing Daily, CHINA-EUROPE Culture & Arts, Prague Chinese Times, etc. watched the competition. The competition was chaired by Petra Maršálková, project leader of Confucius Institute at VSFS and Di Xiaoqian, cultural attaché of Confucius Institute at VSFS.
In his speech, Ambassador Feng Biao first thanked the teachers and students for their enthusiastic participation and hard work in this competition, and especially thanked VSFS and Confucius Institute at VSFS for their careful preparation and thoughtful arrangements for this competition. He pointed out that the "Chinese Bridge" competition is one of the most influential competitions at the highest level for Chinese language learners in the world. Since 2002, the "Chinese Bridge" competition has attracted more than 1.5 million young students from more than 120 countries and regions around the world, and has become an important platform for Chinese language learners around the world to communicate and display their learning achievements. It provides an important platform for young people from different cultural backgrounds to exchange ideas, enhance understanding and friendship, and is an important brand for international cultural exchanges. Young people are the future of the country and the hope of the nation, and the future of China-Czech relations depends on the young people of the two countries. China always attaches great importance to and actively promotes exchanges and cooperation between the two countries in the fields of culture and youth. The Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Czech Republic will, as always, actively support the promotion of the Chinese language in the Czech Republic, support young Czech students to study in China, and support educational exchanges between the two countries. He hopes that more young Czech friends will learn Chinese language. He also hopes that through the competition students will learn more about China, become ambassadors of China-Czech friendship and practitioners of “One World, One Family”, and make contributions to the development of China-Czech relations. Finally, he wished the competition a great success and also wished the students excellent results.
Petr Budinský, Vice-rector of VSFS, first thanked the Embassy for entrusting the “Chinese Bridge” competition to the Confucius Institute at VSFS. He said that since 2018, the Confucius Institute has become an inseparable part of VSFS, and with the joint efforts of VSFS and China Jiliang University, the Confucius Institute has been running smoothly for nearly five years, and the two universities will continue to deepen cooperation in the future. He introduced that the activities of the Confucius Institute are mainly concentrated in three aspects: first, organizing Chinese language teaching and Chinese proficiency tests; second, carrying out a series of Chinese cultural activities; and third, organizing seminars on Chinese language teaching, translation and Chinese language related topics. In addition, the Confucius Institute also publishes a periodical cooperating with the economics and business think tank of VSFS.
At the beginning of the competition, 9 contestants from the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Russia, Armenia, Italy, Vietnam and Ukraine showed demeanour of Chinese language learners. The competition consists of three parts: keynote speech, knowledge Q&A and Chinese cultural skills performance. The contestants told their own stories with Chinese sincerely, vividly interpreting the theme of “One World, One Family”. In the Q&A part, the contestants showed their knowledge and strong interest in China's national conditions, geography and history.
After a fierce competition, A-Mi Kim from the Czech Republic won the first prize and will represent the Czech Republic in the global final of the 22nd "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students.
Schindlerová Anna from the Slovak Republic and Thao Ha from Vietnam won the second prizes.
Panenková Johana, Schloszmann Kristian, and Štráberger Jiří, who are from the Czech Republic won the third prizes.
Belotti Michela from Italy, Kishinevskaya Iren from Armenia, and Koobas Fedor from Russia won special prizes.
After the competition, the competition organizing committee arranged performances of violin solo, guitar solo and Tai chi double fan.
The "Chinese Bridge" competition provides a stage for Czech students to show their Chinese language and talents, deepens their understanding of Chinese language and culture, further stimulates their enthusiasm and interests in learning Chinese, and contributes to promoting cultural exchanges and educational cooperation between China and the Czech Republic.
