On May 12, 2018, the Confucius Institute at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University successfully hosted the final of the 17th Chinese Bridge-Chinese Proficiency Competition of World University in Macedonia. Mao Qingwen, counselor of Chinese Embassy in Macedonia; Professor Biljana Angleova, vice president of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University; Professor Vlatko Stoilkov, dean of the Confucius Institute; Professor Liao Wei, the Chinese dean; local overseas Chinese, folks from Skopje community, teachers and students of Confucius Institute attended the event.
The theme of the Chinese Bridge competition is ‘One world, one family’. After the pre-registration and written test, 20 students successfully entered the final. At 10 am, Liao Wei and Vlatko Stoilkov delivered speeches respectively. The two deans reviewed the achievements and educational purpose of the Confucius Institute and thanked everyone for coming to participate in this event and wished them all have a good result. Then the competition officially began. The competitors came to stage one by one, and each of them made a three-minute speech before they performed a talent show. In order to bring out the best of them, they played all their cards. One of them was dressed in Chinese costume of Han Dynasty and performed a charming sleeve dance. One of them was dressed in cheongsam to perform a drama. Some competitors chose to sing Chinese songs. Magdalena Dorovska impressed the audience by the melodious songs Praise of Plum blossom and I love you China. Besides, some students also performed calligraphy writing while accompanied by ancient Chinese music, painted Dunhuang flying apsaras or recited self-composed Chinese poems. Their splendid performance won the applause of the judges and audience at the scene.
After a fierce 3-hour competition, and given the written scores before, eventually Ana Manova, Maja Stojkovska and Ivana Ivanova won the first, second and third place. According to the charter, the first and second contestant will go to China to rival in the final in July.
At 1pm, the awarding session began. Mao Qingwen first delivered a speech. He said that the success of this event should be attributed to the strong support of Macedonia. China and Macedonia both have a long history and splendid culture, and learning language can be the best way to understand each other and the bridge of cooperation. Biljana Angleova said that it is a pleasure to see the Confucius Institute to get better and recruit more students. The theme of the competition expressed the will of peaceful development and it is also a specific model of exchanges and cooperation under the Belt and Road strategic concept. After the speech, awards and certificates were given out to the excellent competitors. A number of media outlets in Macedonia reported on the competition.
This is the third time that the Confucius Institute at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University held the Chinese bridge competition since its establishment. The number of competitiors this year nearly doubled from last year and plenty of students were attracted to learn Chinese after watching the competition.
(By Jiahui)