On Sunday 12th June, the Confucius Institute at the University of Canterbury had the privilege of hosting the South Island Finals for the 15th “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for secondary school students, the 21st “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for tertiary students and the 2nd Chinese Show for junior/primary school students. 12 Junior, 11 Senior and 4 Tertiary braved the wintry weather, travelling from Dunedin and across Canterbury to each deliver an outstanding speech and display their Chinese culture talent to a room full of judges, teachers and supporters.
(Ryan Mansbridge-Croy, a secondary school student demonstrating his TaiChi Fan performance.)
To begin the competition both the Junior and Senior divisions were first split into two groups. Group 1 delivered their speech, then talent performance, before the competition moved on to Group 2. For the Senior division, students were also asked to undertake a brief Q and A at the completion of their speech. These questions were asked by judge Dr DAI Lan, allowing judges to better understand the contestant’s competency levels in Chinese. Judges for the Junior and Senior divisions included Dr DAI Lan (National Chinese Languages Advisor from Tui Tuia Learning Circle), Ms Nancy Chu (CIUC Local Teacher and UC Chinese Programme Lecturer) and Dr SONG Zhifang (Director of CIUC).
Taking First Place in the Junior division and qualifying for the International Competition (to be held online later this year), was Samuel Frame of Christchurch Boy’s High School. CBHS also picked up First Place in the Senior Division, with Ryan Mansbridge-Croy coming in first place and qualifying for the International Competition also. William Allott from CBHS will likewise join his classmate later on in the year, also qualifying for the International Competition. Senior students who have also qualified and will move through to the New Zealand National Competition in Auckland later in 2022 included William Allott, Rahil Krishna, Ryan-Mansbridge-Croy and Harrison Thomas of CBHS, and Elijah Grieve of Lincoln High School.
The talent displayed was inspiring, with a number of fantastic performances of calligraphy, taichi fan, musical renditions, songs and Chinese tea ceremonies amongst others. In the end, Elliot Aitchison (in conjunction with Max Wan) from the Junior Division and Ryan Mansbridge-Croy from the Senior Division won the Best Talent Awards for their display of the Chinese rendition of “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands” and Chinese Kungfu Fan respectively.
(UC Student Harriet Stock completing her speech in the Tertiary Competition.)
With the competition all wrapped it, it was time to move through to the prize-giving ceremony. CIUC Project-Coordinator Kate Maxwell, and UC Chinese Language Student and CIUC intern Izaac Wilson worked together as MC to welcome distinguished guests, Mr Jimmy CHEN (CHCH City Councilor), Ms HE Ying (Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Christchurch), Mr ZHAI Jianjun (Education-Consul of Chinese Consulate-General), Professor Mark Menzies (Head of the UC Performance Programme), Dr DAI Lan (National Chinese Language Advisor from Tui Tuia Learning Circle), Ms FENG Huili (Chair Person of NZ Chinese Language Teachers Association Canterbury Branch), Dr SONG Zhifang (Director of CIUC), and Ms Qianhua Yu (Deputy Director of CIUC) to the ceremony.
Highlighting how the “Chinese Bridge” Competition aims to stimulate the enthusiasm of students in various countries for learning Chinese and to strengthen the world’s understanding of Chinese language and culture, the prize-giving ceremony began with a welcome speech from Dr SONG Zhifang, who presented on behalf of Kevin Watson – UC Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts, who was unfortunately unable to attend. Following Dr SONG, Ms HE Ying, and Jimmy CHEN also delivered brief speeches, congratulating contestants on their job well done and showing the importance and opportunities to be gained from being involved in such a competition and continuing their studies of Chinese. Before commencing the handing out of prizes, guests were also treated to an outstanding Erhu solo performance by Jeffrey Zhao (Principal Advisor on Chinese Music for UC School of Music) and a second recital of Elliot Aitchison’s and Max Wan’s Chinese rendition of “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands” – much to the crowd’s delight.
Following a similar structure to the Senior competition, the Tertiary division saw students similarly present a speech, answer Q and A, before finishing with a presentation of their talent performance. Judges in the Tertiary division included Ms FENG Huili (CBHS Chinese Teacher), Ms CHEN Jian (St. Margaret’s Chinese Teacher) and Ms Terina Yee (Lincoln High School Chinese Teacher). In the Tertiary category, it was Harriet Stock of University of Canterbury with a clean sweep victory – taking First Place in the speech, Best Talent and qualifying for the International Competition.
