The 2003 Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students, also known as the "Chinese Bridge" Competition, which is sponsored by the China National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (NOCFL), lowered its curtain on December 22. On the morning before the final competition (December 21), China.org.cn reporter interviewed some of the contestants at Beijing Language and Culture University.

Before I got there, I thought about whether I should talk with them in English. But I soon found out their Chinese was far better than my English.

Chinese Kung Fu led me here

At first sight, I thought Fat Mihai Ionut, a contestant from Romania, was from China's Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). He wore his long hair in braids, dressed in a Chinese tunic suit and wore a string of beads, bought in Yonghe Lamasery (or the Lamasery of Harmony and Peace) in Beijing.

When I interviewed him, the semi-final competition had already finished. He didn't get to the final. He felt regret. He said it's the first time that Romania sent contestants to such a competition, so he represents the honor of his motherland -- he hoped Romania, more than himself, had entered the final.

He said when he was a boy, his father, a history professor, gave him many books on China and told him that Chinese culture was the best in the world. The little boy's head was filled with fantasies about China from then on. He thought Chinese characters were difficult but interesting. When in middle school, he even practiced writing Chinese characters at classes he didn't like.

He's very interested in three parts of Chinese culture, he said: -- Chinese Kung Fu (martial art), ancient philosophy and traditional Chinese medical treatment.

He began to practice Kung Fu at 16 because he thought it good for his health. His first coach, a Romanian, taught him that first year. His second coach was a Chinese and vice president of the Shanghai Martial Art Association. Fat Mihai Ionut said he had the chance to enter an international martial art competition, but fractured a bone. The illness deprived him the chance of entering the competition, but gave him the chance to understand traditional Chinese medicine, including acupuncture and pulse feeling.

He said western medical treatment works over every part of the body separately, whereas traditional Chinese medical treatment works over the body as a whole. He dreams of coming to China and studying traditional Chinese medicine in the future.

Under my request, he studied my pulse on the bumpy coach ride. Just after one minute, he pointed out that I always feel pain in my waist these days, which really surprised me, because I plan to see the doctor about this soon. He said it's not very serious and advised me to do more exercise and drink more water.

Fat also deeply loves ancient Chinese philosophy. He said he likes the doctrines of Zen Buddhism and Taoism best. He even went to the Shaolin Temple in Henan Province.

He said he's most interested in these three aspects, but not exclusively so as he wants to understand all aspects of China. He likes traditional Chinese music, and he can name more than ten traditional Chinese musical instruments. This time, he bought two xiao (vertical bamboo flute) and an erhu (two-stringed fiddle) in Beijing. He wants to play them. He said he likes these two instruments most -- the xiao calms him down and the erhu moves him and makes him sad.

He likes Zhang Yimou very much, especially his movie Hero. He said, "This movie represents the Confucian doctrine, as Mencius said it -- 'The root of the empire is in the state. The root of the state is in the family. The root of the family is in the person of its head.' Everybody can be a hero, but he must take the world as the most important thing."

At last Fat said he felt regret that many Chinese youngsters don't understand their own country, which has such a splendid culture and appeals to so many foreign students. He always tried to discuss traditional Chinese medicine with Chinese students, but he seldom met any who understood it, nor even the basic theory. As it's really a heritage of Chinese, he hopes more Chinese youngsters will become interested in it.

'Mom, I got the Chinese competitions top award'

"From my childhood, my mother taught me how to read Chinese and write Chinese characters step by step. She even taught me how to use the brushes to write and paint. She always tells me, just as many Chinese parents do, to learn basic cultural knowledge and pass it down to the offspring. So I learned calligraphy, painting, Chinese poems and talking stories." Chin Kah Ying, the Singapore girl who won the latest top award, said in her speech at the final "Chinese bridge" competition.

She said her mother is a Chinese Singaporean, but her father didn't even understand a single word of Chinese before he met her mother. When her father courted her mother, he was asked to speak Chinese. And all children in her family were requested to learn Chinese from childhood. So Chinese became the language of her family.

There are still traditional customs kept in the family. For example, they make pyramid-shaped dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival and sweet dumplings during the Lantern Festival.

"I dreamed about going to China from a very small age, because my mother told me, China's my homeland. This is my first visit to China. Surprisingly, I feel patriotic enthusiasm, each time I see something, especially when I went to the Great Wall and Tian'anmen Square. I thought Shanghai was an economic city and Beijing a cultural one. But now I think Shanghai also has a long cultural history and Beijing also a modern city."

When the anchorman announced Chin Kah Ying was one of the three top winners she couldn't help crying. She hugged the other two winners and then ran to her seat, dialed her cell phone and said with tears running out, "Mom, I got the Chinese competition top award!"

I like Chinese culture

Izutani Haruka, a Japanese girl from Osaka who also became one of the latest top winners, says she choose Chinese because she likes Chinese culture very much.

When she was a small child, she saw a Shanghai acrobatics team's performance in Osaka. Since then, she has fallen in love with Chinese culture.

In her teens, she began to like Chinese physical culture, including table tennis, gymnastics and volleyball. She also admires Li Ning, the Chinese gymnastic prince.

When she went to college in 1999, she decided to study Chinese as her second foreign language. As she saw China's economy had made world-famous progress by then, Izutani believed the language would be more and more useful.

She's interested in ancient cultural relationships and some tales between the two countries. She said, "It's said the Japanese traditional costume, kimono, originated in China. Culture exchanges like this interest me very much."

She also devotes much time studying the history of the relationship between the two countries since the World War II. "I think it's necessary for our youngsters to learn this period of history. Although we can't change what has gone, we can learn the lessons from the past and avoid doing wrong things. I hope I can be a bridge between China and Japan."

It's shadow play that interests me

Ha Gi Young, a girl from Republic of Korea (ROK), is fascinated with the Chinese shadow play. She knows the shadow play from Chinese movies like To Live, which was adapted from a novel of the same title by Yu Hua. In the movie there was scene from a shadow play. She began to study it from then on.

At first she studied it on the Internet. She always surfed on Chinese Shadow Play Net. And she wrote to the old couples that maintained the Chinese shadow play pages. Then she came to China in person, and found a teacher who could teach her all about it. "I like the old man very much. There were always peaceful and contented expressions on his face, which showed his deep love of his profession," she said. 

"I like shadow play very much, and I hope it can be widely accepted. Most foreign students don't know it. Chinese students also seldom see live performances," she added.

She also likes China and Chinese language. She thinks China's very broad, compared with ROK, and the Chinese language concise. The Chinese language is the carrier of Chinese history. So, there are still many aspects needing her study and attention.

She said there is now a tide of Chinese learning in ROK Korea because the country's  economy, or even that of whole Asia, has not been so good in recent years. But China's economy is gradually progressing. A lot of economists in ROK say that China is the last market in the world. So many people study Chinese. And now if a person still hasn't begun to study Chinese, others will think he's outdated. Ha Gi Young once taught Chinese in a Chinese language school. Her students were from primary school to old men who were already in their 50s.

She told me that she had a dream that one day she could translate Chinese novels, especially some modern Chinese literature, to Korean. She said most people in ROK studied Chinese because they were interested in the market of China, even though they don't understand real Chinese culture. There are a lot of novels from the United States and Europe in her country. All the Chinese novels there are about politics or classic literature from ancient times. She hopes that with her effort, she can help the Korean people really understand Chinese culture.

(China.org.cn by staff reporter Chen Lin and polished by Daragh Moller, December 31, 2003)