The Confucius Institute in Auckland is delighted to announce the winners of the 16th Chinese Essay Competition (2022). Congratulations to all the winners, especially Colden Sapir from ACG Parnell College, who claimed the top prize — Chinese Ambassador’s Trophy. Amazingly, it is the second time that Colden has had his name engraved on the trophy. Chinese Ambassador to New Zealand, Wang Xiaolong, presented the trophy to Colden at the National School Chinese Celebration on Sept 24 in Auckland.

The Chinese Essay Competition was started in 2007 when the Confucius Institute was launched in New Zealand. It has been receiving continuous participation from thousands of young Kiwi Chinese learners, also support from their teachers and families. In the past sixteen years, the competition has been kindly endorsed by the Chinese ambassadors to New Zealand and is titled the “Chinese Ambassador’s Trophy”.

Again, after 2021, the competition received generous sponsorship from the Bank of New Zealand. Mr Franky Wang, head of BNZ’s Asia Business Activation, attended the event and presented the prize.

The certificates of the winners will be posted to their schools when the new term starts next week.

Winners’ List 获奖名单

Ambassador’s Trophy

Junior Secondary Category

First Prize

Second Prize

Third Prize

WILLIAM SOK Student Rotorua Boys High School “We’re able to practice our Chinese speaking abilities in more ways than one, you know, because we have to engage with an audience, make sure that they laugh, which is pretty hard to do in a language that we’re not completely familiar with, right?”

Among the audience was China’s Ambassador to New Zealand who was suitably impressed by the various performances.

DR. WANG XIAOLONG Chinese Ambassador to New Zealand “I was so amazed by the level of proficiency achieved by some of the boys and girls.”

And for many students it’s an opportunity to build the foundation for a future career.

JOSHUA SMITH Student Rotorua Boys High School “I definitely want to work overseas as a businessman, so Chinese will be a very useful skill to have, especially with talking to more people.”

And as New Zealand celebrates 50 years of diplomatic relations with China in 2022, the Ambassador says Chinese Language Week lays a foundation for the next fifty years.

DR. WANG XIAOLONG Chinese Ambassador to New Zealand “With the knowledge about the language and the culture with the friends they make, I think they will make wonderful ambassadors of the people between the two countries.”

The popular Chinese Bridge speech competition is coming back. This year, in the secondary school category of Auckland’s regional final, we received nearly 80 registrations from 25 schools in Auckland, Hamilton and Whangarei. 63 of them submitted their recorded speech video.

According to the judges’ feedback, watching all the videos is a delightful experience. “The overall quality of the speeches is impressive. I see crouching tigers and hidden dragons in the Mandarin teaching and learning field in the Auckland area.”

However, making the decision is not easy. Twelve students from 11 schools have been selected as the finalists for the Auckland regional final, which will be held virtually on June 19. We congratulate the finalists and all the participants.

More news about the Chinese Bridge will be updated.