On May 30th, the preliminary contest of East Japan Division of the 14th Chinese Bridge International Students’ Chinese Proficiency Competition was held in Tokyo It was host by the Confucius Institute of J. F. Oberlin University. Mr. Chen Taowei from the Education Division of Chinese Embassy in Japan, directors of Confucius Institutes in several Japanese universities attended the event, together with nearly 100 audience members.

Ten contestants from five Japanese universities competed fiercely through three rounds. The competition included a speech using “My Chinese Dream” as the topic, a quiz on knowledge about China and a talent show. In the end, Yuka Naito from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies won the first prize; Hiroshi Asai and Momoka Kanno from J.F. University won the second prize; Anna Suzuki from J.F. University, Daiki Taguchi from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and Sakae Azuma from Hokuriku University won the third prize. Hiroshi Asai and Yuka Naito respectively won Best Eloquence Speech Award and Best Talent Award.

The first-prize-winner, Yuka Naito delivered a speech titled The Charm of Working Hard. She said, “What does the phrase “to work hard” mean? According to the Chinese classic The Origin of Words and Phrases, it was first coined in Eastern Han Dynasty, meaning to strive and to try one’s best. That is to say, over 2,000 years ago, ancient Chinese had already realized it is not easy to work hard. However, despite of such knowledge, we are all sparing no effort--why? Actually, working hard goes together with delight, and the sweat shed when working hard is enormously charming…” Many of the contestants told their own stories on how they worked very hard to learn Chinese language and culture, and to finally realize their Chinese Dreams. All of the stories were simple, but touching. For the second-prize winner Hiroshi Asai, in order to pursue his dream with traditional Chinese music, he started teaching himself Chinese and the traditional Chinese musical instrument—the Erhu when he was in 3rd grade. The third-prize winner Daiki Tagu delivered an encouraging speech titled,Why Didn’t I Give Up,and moved the audience deeply with the songMy Chinese Heart.

It is reported that the first- and second-prize winners of this contest will come to China for further competition and visit as representatives of East Japan.

Translated by May Language Studio based upon

http://news.tongji.edu.cn/classid-10-newsid-47456-t-show.html