Recently, the press conference held by the Information Office of Henan Provincial People’s Government issued that the semi-finals and finals of the 12th Chinese Bridge - Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students will be staged in Beijing and Henan. The opening ceremony and the award ceremony for semi-finals and finals will be held in Henan. It is worth mentioning that, this is the first launch of the competition held in Henan.
Themed with “Learning Chinese, Creating Brighter Future”, this competition is organized by Confucius Institute Headquarters and Henan Provincial People’s Government, and sponsored by Henan Provincial Department of Education and Zhengzhou Municipal People’s Government. Focusing on the assessment of participants’ Chinese language ability, understanding on China’s national conditions, mastery of Chinese culture, and comprehensive competence of Chinese language and culture, the different assessment means are adopted such as keynote speech, talent show and FAQ. In this competition, there are 262 middle school student participants aged from 15 to 20, who are non-Chinese nationality and non-native speakers, from 119 regions of 105 countries. Generally, this competition has ranked the one with the largest number of participant countries unprecedentedly since the start of the Chinese Bridge competition.
It is reported that the Chinese Bridge competitions mainly consist of Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students, Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students, and Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreigners across the Globe. Comparing with the number of merely 49 participants from 21 countries and regions for the first Chinese Bridge competition in 2002, the competition participants’ number has increased to 1.4 million from more than 150 countries and regions to participate in the qualifiers, and over 6500 to participate in the finals. All these participants are the envoys for interpreting the charm of Chinese language and culture over the years in their own way, building up the bridges of international culture communication and friendly cooperation.