On May 28, the Confucius Institute of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje successfully held the 2022 “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition North Macedonia Finals at the National Library under the patronage of H.E. Zhang Zuo, the Chinese Ambassador, and prof. Valentina Gechevska, Vice-Rector of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, together with Confucius Institute faculty and students, overseas Chinese, representatives of Chinese enterprises and local people of North Macedonia.
The event kicked off at 10 a.m.. The Confucius Institute Directors, prof. Dr. Vlatko Stoilkov and prof. Dr. Liao Wei delivered speeches. They briefly introduced the progress of the Confucius Institute over the past year and reviewed the “Chinese Bridge” competition held in recent years, before announcing the start of the competition.
Three groups, college group, secondary school group and primary school group, were set up in this competition, which consisted of three parts, including knowledge quiz about China, Chinese talent performance, and keynote speech. After the preliminary round, 20 players entered their finals. In the Chinese talent competition, the contestants gave full play to their own strengths, presenting their understanding about and love for Chinese culture through various ways ranging from singing, Chinese calligraphy, playing piano, dancing, poetry recitation, to painting, paper cutting, Chinese knots, and Chinese martial arts.
In the keynote speech part, contestants of each group shared their Chinese learning experiences themed on “One Family One World”, “Pursuing Chinese Dreams” and “Happy Chinese, Happy Childhood” respectively. Some of them expressed their desire to go to China, some narrated their stories with Chinese learning, and some shared interesting experiences about Chinese culture, fully interpreting the theme of the competition of “Chinese as a bridge, the world as one”. Their fluent Chinese expressions were highly praised by the audience and judges and won warm applauses.
After more than three-hour fierce competition, Kristina Nikolova, Tatiana Yovanovska and Jana Aleksova won the first place in the college group, secondary school group and primary school group respectively.
The Awards Ceremony of the “Chinese Bridge” competition started at 1 p.m.. The Chinese Ambassador, H.E. Zhang Zuo, in his speech spoke highly of the “Chinese Bridge” competition, which provides a platform for worldwide Chinses learners to show their Chinese skills, and serves as a bridge for international cultural exchanges. The “Chinese Bridge” has played an active role in promoting the teaching of Chinese in North Macedonia and enhancing people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. Over the past nine years, the Confucius Institute has explored and created a variety of teaching methods and courses, attracting more and more students to learn Chinese, despite of the impact of the epidemic. He hoped that Chinese can work as a “golden key” to promoting exchanges and cooperation between people in the two countries.
Vice-Rector of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Prof. Gechevska said that the “Chinese Bridge” competition has been a platform for educational and cultural cooperation between the two countries, and she was impressed by the contestants’ Chinese and talents. She also highly praised the Confucius Institute for adopting an innovative teaching model and expanding the scale of Chinese teaching in North Macedonia, so that students in different cities across the country have the opportunity to learn about Chinese Culture. She hoped to deepen the partnerships and cooperation with Chinese universities through more activities, and has proposed joint courses and exchange initiatives. After their speech, H.E. Zhang Zuo, Vice-Rector Gchevska, prof. Dr. Liao Wei and prof. Dr. Vlatko Stoilkov presented certificates and prizes to the winners of the competition.
This was the seventh time that the Confucius Institute at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University held the “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition in North Macedonia, and it was also a new attempt to demonstrate teaching outcomes in Chinese under the epidemic. According to the local epidemic situation, the competition adopted a combination of online and offline forms. More than a dozen students participated online, including four contestants. The Zoom live form was convenient for students in other places to participate, and the offline form allowed students to fully and freely express themselves on the spot. This competition stimulated the interest of local students in learning Chinese, enhanced the cultural understanding and exchanges between the two countries, and expanded the influence of Confucius Institutes in the local area.