In the morning on May 23, 2020 Jamaica local time, the Jamaica Final of the 19th “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students concludes. The competition was hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Jamaica and organized by the Confucius Institute at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. TYUT is a joint sponsor of the Confucius Institute.
The competition has adopted a new mode this year, i.e. an online Chinese Bridge competition, with judges from the Chinese Embassy in Jamaica, the Mona Confucius Institute, Montego Bay Community College and National Police College of Jamaica, as well as some local teachers. The theme of the competition is “We Are One Family”. Contestants first submitted their recorded speeches and talent shows to the judging panel, and an online Q & A session was then organized by the panel. Contestants have passionately narrated their love of the Chinese language, shared their happiness in learning Chinese and expressed their longing for China. Contestants have also shown their artistic talents, such as singing Chinese songs, dancing popular Chinese dances and performing tea arts etc. Through fierce competition in three sessions, i.e. speech, knowledge and talent show, 6 contestants stood out with their excellent performances. Among them, Amanda Gooden from the Mona Confucius Institute at the University of the West Indies and Kimbrelee Golding from National Police College of Jamaica won the first prize in the final. The Chinese Embassy in Jamaica prepared awards to the winners.
The competition has demonstrated the excellency and influence of Chinese teaching in Jamaica, strengthened the exchange on the training of Chinese talents between various schools and universities in Jamaica, and displayed the enthusiasm of the Jamaican students in learning the Chinese language. After the competition, both the judges and coaches expressed the hope that greater support could be provided by Confucius Institutes Headquarters (Hanban) and the cooperating Chinese institutions, and more Chinese and cultural activities be organized in the future. The representative from the Chinese Embassy suggested that centering on Confucius Institutes, efforts should be made to gather advantageous resources to promote Chinese programs locally. Some judges and coaches also advised that a Chinese contestant group should be added to the Chinese Bridge competition next year so that local Chinese students could serve as a bridge in the promotion of Chinese language and culture.
