The “Chinese Bridge” language competition that is part China’s efforts to share its culture around the world, has come to Guyana.
The Chinese Embassy in Guyana in a release yesterday stated that on June 3, the 22nd Chinese Bridge – World University Students Chinese Competition Guyana Final and the First “CNOOC Cup – Chinese Bridge” competition in Guyana was held at the University of Guyana.
Attendees at this inaugural event included Chinese Ambassador to Guyana, Guo Haiyan; Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Professor Paloma Mohamed-Martin; Guyanese Director of UG’s Confucius Institute, at UG, Al Creighton; and the Director of UG’s Confucius Institute, Li Kuo.
The Chinese Bridge competition is a contest whose main objective is to increase the dissemination of Mandarin Chinese, awaken the interest for the teaching of Confucius language worldwide among students and consolidate the knowledge of Chinese language and culture. In this contest, the students can show their level of Chinese, as well as the knowledge of Chinese culture, etc. The contestants will participate at the beginning in the local phase, the winners will enter the final phase and the finalists of national phase will enter world phase, which will take place in China.
According to the release, the World University Students Chinese Competition was established in 2002, and subsequently competitions for secondary school and primary school students were also established. So far, the competition has attracted over 1.5 million students from more than 160 countries to participate.
In her remarks at the event, Ambassador Guo stated that language serves as the “carrier of culture” and a link to promote cross-cultural exchanges and mutual learning. She reminded that China and Guyana have been constantly promoting cultural exchanges while noting that the “People-to-People bond” has become an important component of the “Belt and Road” initiative. The Ambassador spoke of the Global Civilization Initiative as proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, and encouraged more young Guyanese to learn Chinese, seize opportunities for bilateral cooperation, and promote people-to-people exchanges.
This is the first time that the “Chinese Bridge” competition was held in Guyana. It was hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Guyana, organised by the Confucius Institute at UG, sponsored by CNOOC Guyana, and assisted by the Chinese Association of Guyana, the release added.
