Victoria University successfully hosted the 22nd Chinese Bridge Chinese Language Competition

On behalf of Victoria University, Chief International Officer Mr Monty Singh provided an opening speech in Mandarin to wish all contestants good luck.

The Melbourne Region competition was organised by the Chinese Consulate General in Melbourne and hosted by the Australian Tertiary Chinese Teachers Association and the Victoria Business Confucius Institute.

The keynote speeches were presented by:

• Mr Jianhua Zeng, Acting Consul-General of the Chinese Consulate General in Melbourne
• Professor Junjie Hong, Vice President of the University of International Business and Economics
• Mr Monty Singh, Chief International Officer of the Victoria University.

A total of fourteen participants from the University of Melbourne, Monash University, Deakin University, La Trobe University, and RMIT competed in the competition. The competition was held in person for the first time in four years and was also broadcast live through Facebook and WeChat.

Mr Jianhua Zeng said in his speech that the theme of this year's Chinese Bridge competition, "One World, One Family", represents the cultural connotation of beauty in all and unity in all. With the growing China Australia trade relationship, it presents more and more job opportunities and global exchange opportunities. He hoped that the new generation of Chinese and Australian youths will make greater contributions to the mutual appreciation of civilizations, cultural interactions and friendship and cooperation between the two countries and create a bright future together.

In his speech, Professor Junjie Hong, Vice President of UIBE, said that with the development of China-Australia economic and trade relations, there is an increasing demand for bilingual talents, especially those who understand China and Chinese culture. He also hoped that young Australians will learn Chinese well, tell Chinese stories well, visit China more often after the epidemic, and study at the University of International Business and Economics when they have the opportunity to do so.

Mr Monty Singh, Chief International Officer of VU, on behalf of the Vice Chancelor, Professor Adam Shoemaker, said that Victoria University sees cultural diversity as one of its core values, and its staff and students are a mix of more than 90 cultures and 200 languages, with Chinese being one of the largest non-English background languages.

Being a Chinese language student with the VBCI, Mr. Singh delivered his keynote speech in Mandarin too. Furthermore, he also expressed his appreciation to Professor Colin Clark, the Director of VBCI, for his positive contribution to the exchange and cooperation between the two universities.

The competition was divided into two parts: a Chinese language speech and a talent show, in which the contestants demonstrated their Chinese language skills and performed traditional Chinese cultural talent shows to express their understanding and knowledge of the theme of "One World, One Family" and Chinese culture. The cultural performance included Chinese song singing, traditional paper cutting, calligraphy writing, and etc.

With a tough judging panel review, Mina Al-Khafaji from Monash University won the first prize, with Ace Buck and Patrick Day from the University of Melbourne taking second and third place respectively. Their Chinese language teachers, Hailan Paulsen and Tracy Hong were awarded the Excellence Mentor Award.