An annual language competition for non-native Chinese speakers held in Changsha, Hunan province is proving to be a good way to facilitate cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world, local officials said.
It has provided opportunities for young people from across the world to better understand China by getting closer to the profound culture, said organizers.
The Chinese Bridge competition for foreign college students is organized by the Confucius Institute Headquarters, the Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language－also known as Hanban－and the Hunan provincial government. It has attracted some 400,000 participants since its launch in 2002.
This year 126 contestants from 87 countries who already prevailed over thousands of competitors in preliminary rounds have gathered in the provincial capital of Hunan province to compete in the semifinals and finals of the ongoing competition from July 6 to August 5.
The organizing committee added that competition is not the only highlight. Cultural experiences for contestants include visits to the iconic tourist spots Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and the Great Wall in or near Beijing.
Some also toured Hunan's Orange Isle and historic Yueyang Tower, as well as Jingdezhen, a city in Jiangxi province nicknamed "the capital of porcelain" and Xi'an in Shaanxi province, famous for its centuries-old relics.
In addition, all contestants watched qin performances－a traditional Chinese musical instrument－and joined in writing calligraphy as they replicated the "first writing ceremony" used for students admitted to the school for the first time.
It was held earlier this month at Yuelu Academy in Changsha, one of the four most prestigious academies in ancient China and still a functioning institution today.
A reality show broadcast on the final round will be an innovation of this year's competition, the organizing committee said.
Reporters from many overseas newspapers have arrived to cover the competition.
Increasing influence
Since language is one of the most representative elements of a country's culture, China has established nearly 360 Confucius Institutes and started 500 Confucius classes at primary and middle schools in 105 countries to teach the Chinese language.
Zharmuhametova Zhanara Arsulanovna from Kazakhstan studied in the Confucius Institute in her home country for two years.
She said local markets are badly in need of employees who can speak Chinese due to more frequent exchanges between the two countries in recent years and an increasing number of Chinese companies are locating in Kazakhstan.
"The Chinese language has becoming increasingly important in my country, and I also like Chinese music, so I started to learn Chinese," she said.
After graduation from the Confucius Institute, she took part in the regional preliminary competition of the Chinese Bridge, winning a third prize and a scholarship.
She then continued her education at Beijing Language and Culture University.
Due to her open-minded character and fluent oral Chinese, Zhanara was nominated to be a class monitor. She organized her classmates to participate in a range of activities such as singing contests.
Zhanara and her classmates also rehearsed a drama called What Is the Most Precious Thing? at the end of their first year of college.
It told the story of a Chinese man who traveled around the world to find the most precious thing and finally found that family was the most important when he came back home.
The classmates wore tradition clothes from their different countries.
'Hot' city
Visiting Changsha, Zhanara used the word "hot" to describe her first impression of the city－both for the "hot weather" and the "fashionable, beautiful girls".
Zhanara will be a post-graduate student in a program for teaching Chinese as a foreign language at Xi'an International Studies University this year, and plans to visit some cities in southern China to experience more cuisines and dialects.
Australian contestant Caleb Rostedt became a missionary at the age of 20 in Taiwan, where he was exposed to the Chinese language for the first time.
"People there are very kind and warm-hearted, which impressed me a lot. With their help I started to learn Chinese," he said.
"Every night I would play guitar and sing Chinese love songs that I wrote to my Australian girlfriend over the phone. She could not understand the language, but said my voice was very magnetic and charming when singing in Chinese that could bring her to another world," he recalled.
It encouraged Rostedt to learn music in China, and he wants to sing love songs to every couple.
Rostedt and his girlfriend were married this year. "My wife also began to learn Chinese and we want to set up a band," he said.
In April, Rostedt was invited by Shanghai Jiaotong University to perform at its music festival.
Finnish contestant Lauri Tammi has been to many Chinese places, and hosted last year's Chinese National Day evening gala held for Chinese students and scholars in Finland.
Tammi became fascinated with Chinese culture in 2007 after a drama director introduced it to him.
He then paid attention to it, watched Chinese martial arts TV series and the films by Zhang Yimou and Ang Lee, two of the most famous Chinese movie directors.
In 2011, he began to learn the Chinese language.
Tammi said Chinese culture is like a treasure chest with a group of masters in different fields in ancient times, such as the great poet Su Dongpo and Zhuge Liang, the greatest strategist of his era, the Three Kingdoms period (AD220-280).
In this year's competition, Tammi read a poem by Su Dongpo.
His dream is to be a messenger of Sino-Western cultural exchanges.
"China is a significant country in the 21st century, and understanding its culture will promote the international cooperation," he said.
His idol is renowned Italian missionary Matteo Ricci, who lived in China in the 16th century.
"Stable and beautiful China will contribute to a more peaceful and better world, and I hope to make some contributions to both China and the world by facilitating the cultural communication and transmission," he said.
Tammi wants to work at the Embassy of Finland in China or at a theater in his home country to promote Chinese culture.
"I want more Finnish people to know about the profound Chinese culture accumulated over its 5,000 years of history," he said.
