The University of Johannesburg Confucius Institute (UJCI) is hosting the 15th Chinese-Bridge Competition for South African College Students, in collaboration with the Confucius Institute Headquarters/Hanban and the Chinese Embassy.
This was announced at a prestigious dinner attended by strategic players in higher education and government officials on Thursday, 26 May 2016.
The Chinese-Bridge competition promotes interaction among regional Confucius Institutes, and sees select top students from the five Confucius Institutes in South Africa traveling to China in July, 2016, to compete with other international students demonstrating their Chinese language skills and special talents.
This would be the third time that UJCI is leading its students on a cultural-experience to China in the past year.
Dr David Monyae, Co-Director of UJCI, says the Chinese bridge competition taking place on Friday, 27 May 2016, is an important event on their calendar. “UJCI is looking forward to this year’s event. Our students and staff have worked hard to compete with their counterparts from other Confucius Institutes in South Africa. We are confident they will do well in these competitions.”
The competition brings together the UJ community with the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Republic of South Africa, Consulate-General of the People’s Republic of China in Johannesburg, representatives from Confucius Institutes and Confucius classrooms in South Africa, SA’s Ministry of Higher Education, Basic Education, the Gauteng Department of Education and local high schools.
Prof Lyu Jiangao, Co-Director of UJCI says, “We make full preparation with students’ speech in Chinese and talent show as required in the competition. We also organized a rehearsal for them to practice. Now I am glad to see the ability to speak, write and read Chinese language for all our UJCI contestants has been greatly improved.”
The “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students Program is a large-scale international competition organised by Confucius Institute Headquarters/Hanban. Since its launch in 2002, this annual event has been held 14 times and attracted more than 600,000 college students from over 110 countries to participate in the competition. This Competition is now an important platform for international college students to learn Chinese language and understand more about China. It also serves to help young people in the world to better communicate with each other.
Under the leadership of Co-Directors, Dr David Monyae and Prof Lyu Jiangao, the UJCI started to develop quickly in 2016 and currently has a growing number of more than 200 students.
