On May 27, the Confucius Institute in Edmonton successfully hosted the 10th Alberta Chinese Bridge Competition for School Students. This year the number of the participants reached a new high of 139 who registered for the competition. They are from many cities across Alberta, Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer as well as Fort McMurray who sent students to participate for the first time. Due to the large number of the participants, the competition was scheduled at two locations: CIE and Dovercourt School.
The competition was very intensive and after that, the award ceremony was held. About 400 people attended the ceremony, students, parents and teachers, principals, judges and volunteers. Among there were some special guests, Trustee Nathan Ip, Executive Director Dr. Parker, Acting Executive Director Nancy Petersen, Consul Chief Yu and Consul Xiao from Chinese Consulate in Vancouver, Mr. Waldemar Riemer, Director of International Education Services of Alberta Education. Mr. Stephen Tsang, the president of ECBEA, was also invited to the ceremony. All of the special guests brought a greeting to congratulate all the participants for their excellent performance during the competition. Dr. Tian Liang also provided the comments and feedback on behalf of all the judges.
All the competition participants were very excited about this opportunity to show their Chinese language learning and talents. Their performances impressed all the audiences. The Confucius Institute will provide a free summer camp to the winners from the elementary schools.
The annual Chinese Bridge Competition has become a very important opportunity for students to share their Chinese language and culture learning experience.