Organizers of the 10th Chinese Bridge Cup Contests for K-12 attend a news conference to announce the event in San Francisco. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

The 10th Chinese Bridge Cup Contests for K-12 will be held in San Francisco, California, in February of 2014, which is expected to involve more than 1,500 local students.

"The purpose of the contests is to provide more opportunities for local students to demonstrate their linguistic and cultural talents, and showcase their interests and achievements in learning Chinese language and culture with help from their teachers and parents, " Xu Zhenglong, a teacher at the Confucius Institute at San Francisco State, told China Daily on Tuesday.

Jointly organized by the Confucius Institute and San Francisco Unified School District, the contest plans to celebrate its 10th anniversary by offering "more exciting" events in "larger scales", he said.

It is sponsored by Confucius Institute Headquarters and the Consulate General of China in San Francisco.

"Through the contest, the organizers hope that the study of Chinese will not just connect American students with the language, but also with the culture, literature, and rich history of China, thus to promote understanding of the Chinese language and culture both in the classroom and beyond," said Xu Yongji, the education counsel at the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco.

On behalf of the San Francisco Unified School District, assistant superintendent David Wong also expressed his good wishes for the contest and promised more cooperation with the Confucius Institute in the future.

The contests will be held at Marina Middle School on Feb 15-16, 2014. Contestants will be divided into 5 groups (K / 1-2 / 3-5 / 6-8 / 9-12).

They will participate in six major contests: brush calligraphy, pen calligraphy, painting/drawing, composition, Chinese poetry recital, translation and common knowledge about China and the United States.

A grand award ceremony will be held on March 21 this year and nearly 200 students will have the chance to win awards.