Adriel Cendric, the runner-up of the Malaysia Zone Chinese Bridge Competition with his Chinese calligraphy.
KOTA KINABALU: Four non-Chinese students of SJK (C) St Peter, Telipok representing the Confucius Institute at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) have shone in the First Malaysia Zone International Primary School Mastery of Chinese Language Competition, which is known as “The Chinese Bridge”.
The organizer of this competition is the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Malaysia, whereas Confucius Institute at UMS is one of the co-organizers. The competition is opened to non-Chinese Malaysians only.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been conducted via Zoom online platform.
After the first round of competition for the under-13 contestants from all over Malaysia, four of the SJK (C) St Peter students were selected to enter the final together with 15 other contestants from various primary schools in Malaysia.
They were Adriel Cendric bin Jonlit, Rex Dexter Sulani, Ivy Amberley and Nick Ritchie. They made up the most numbers of the selected contestants from the primary schools from all over Malaysia.
All the contestants were tested on their Chinese language proficiency, public speaking skills, question and answering and Chinese-related culture talent.
The prizes of the competition were for the first, second and third placings, with another six excellent awards.
In the just concluded competition, Adriel had won the second placing. He will represent Malaysia together with the champion, Khanyalitta Manichorte A/P Sirichai Manichorte of SJK(C) Kampung Baru Mambau to the International Chinese Bridge Competition, which will be organized by the Confucius Institute Headquarters of China next month.
Meanwhile, Rex, Ivy and Nick have won the excellent awards.
Professor Dr Low Kok On and Associate Professor Deng Rongs, both the directors of Confucius Institute at UMS thanked Chong Shau Lun, the Senior Assistant of SJK (C) St Peter, Zhang Chen (CI professional teacher), Denise Goh and Jin Xuan (coaches) for their efforts and time to guide and coach the representatives.
“Such competition will further improve the interaction between the people of China and Malaysia and at the same time encourage the primary non-Chinese school children to learn or improve the proficiency of their Chinese language. This competition is in line with the China-Malaysia close relationship too,” said Zhang
Zhen, the Culture Counselor of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Malaysia.