Preliminaries in Australia for the 6th Chinese Bridge─Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College launched

On May 5th 2007, the preliminaries in Australia for the 6th Chinese Bridge─Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College was held in The University of Western Australia, which is located in Perth, the capital of Western Australia. The topic of this competition is “China Welcomes the Olympic”. Thirty contestants from Western Australia, Southern Australia, Queensland and Perth participated in the preliminaries.

The preliminaries attracted widespread attention, especially in Western Australian where college students from major universities such as The University of Western Australia, Curtin University of Technology and Murdoch University came to take part in the competition. In addition, The University of Adelaide in Southern Australia, The Australian National University and The University of Queensland also sent their selected competitors to the competition. There were even competitors who made a special 4,000 miles trip for the contest.

After 3 hours of intense competition, Longford a college student from The University of Adelaide scored the highest marks to win the first prize. The second prize winner is Willis from The University of Queensland. They are recommended to participate in the Semi-finals to be held in China this August. The third and the fourth prize winners are Li Dewang and Wang Yiying from The University of Western Australia. As winners at the preliminaries, they are recommended for the short-term study “Chinese Bridge” Scholarship in China.

Zhu Xiaoyu, Minister counsellor of Education Office of the Embassy of PRC in Australia, was there to present the awards to the winners. At the same time, she thanked the Western Australia Chinese Scientists Association Inc. (WACSA) for their help and she hoped that competitors for the semi-finals will achieve outstanding results. She also declared that next year’s Chinese Bridge Australian preliminaries will be held in Adelaide, the capital of Southern Australia.

Alan Robson, President of The University of Western Australia (UWA), spoke at the competition. He said that the first Confucius Institute in Australia was founded at UWA. China is now one of Australia’s most important trade partners so learning Chinese is bound to improve the friendship and cooperation between the people of both countries. Gary Martin, Vice-President of Murdoch University, congratulated on the success of this competition on behalf of Murdoch University and Perth’s Education Bureau while Li Shugang, Consul of the Consulate General of People’s Republic of China in Perth, in his speech also encouraged Australian youth to learn Chinese well in order to contribute to the cultural exchanges and the trade & economic development of both countries.