Uniting the world through Chinese
- By Chris Parker
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E-mail China.org.cn, August 6, 2014
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A Chinese kung fu performance during the final of the 13th Chinese Bridge -- Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students on Aug. 3. [Photo provided to China.org.cn] |
In an emotional reunion, she was joined by her former teacher on the stage. "There are many volunteers from the Confucius Institute, working quietly to promote Chinese all over the world… I want to thank the Confucius Institute for allowing so many students to learn Chinese. I loved my work promoting Chinese in Madagascar and I hope I can go back there for a visit," he said.
Xu Shousheng, chairman of the Hunan Province People's Congress Standing Committee, and Xu Lin, director general of Hanban and chief executive of the Confucius Institute, attended the final. The awards were presented by Du Jiahao, Governor of Hunan Province.
The competition was the brainchild of Xu Jialu, former vice chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, who proposed the idea in 1999. Speaking at the final, Xu said "There was a popular idea in Europe from the 1970s to the 1990s, that conflicts between people are inevitable in international relations, but to communicate, we have to understand what others have that we do not, and learn from each other."
"There is a Bible story that says that God created different languages for the city of Babel, and then people in different areas were unable to communicate with each other. Chinese Bridge is connecting people of different cultures, allowing communication between different peoples, languages and cultures."
"The competition is in its 13th year, and it has exceeded my expectations. The level of the candidates has increased, and the level of the judges' comments has increased and so has the determination of the participants… I hope that in the future the content of the competition will be even more profound, and that it will integrate Chinese culture and the cultures of the countries that the students come from," he said.
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