The overseas preliminary rounds of the 12th Chinese Bridge Chinese proficiency competition for foreign secondary school students kicked off at the Wellington Gallery here on Friday.

The competition was divided into Junior Group, Senior Group and Tertiary Group, and included two sections, the speech and displaying a talent.

The top key words mentioned in students' speech are Chinese food, travelling to China, making friends with the Chinese people.

Dressed in a traditional Chinese long gown, Jimah Ruland Umata used different Chinese local accents to speak Xiangsheng (Solo Talkshow), which amused the audience. Furthermore, he also annotated the meaning of Chinese character "he", originally from the different sounds of plants in a harmonious tune, to indicate that people from different culture and language backgrounds could live together in peace.

Lesieli Katoa and Neesha Dixon both stunted the audience by the fluent and humorous Chinese language and in-depth thinking on Chinese and Western culture gap. They both secured the first and second prize of the Junior group match.

Oliver Church from Scots college said "I chose to learn Chinese because of my father. He loves Chinese food but always feels nervous to read the menu. Now ordering meal in a Chinese restaurant is my job."

Rebecca Needham, head of the Confucius Institute of Victoria University of Wellington, said, "I am delighted this year to see a record number of students entering the Wellington Regional round of the Chinese Bridge Speech Competition. Not only do we have a greater number of contestants, but also a particularly high standard of Chinese language and cultural competence on display."

"It is great to see a growing number of young New Zealanders learning Chinese, a skill that will help them with making friends, job opportunities, travel, and more generally with cognitive development," She added.

The competitors impressed the judges and the audience with their fluent Chinese and authentic expressions. They demonstrated passion towards Chinese language and culture, and related their stories about learning Chinese and their Chinese friends very clearly.

The talent displays of the competitors were also brilliant. There were traditional Chinese dances, Chinese songs, Chinese calligraphy and Chinese Poetry recitation, etc. The wonderful exhibitions of talents won the warm applause of the audience.

Dr. Luo Hui, one of the judges of the competition, is a senior lecturer from the School of Languages and Cultures of Victoria University. He said that it was too difficult to score the contestants and in particular some younger students' performance was impressing.

This year's competition, co-sponsored by the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) and the Education Office of the Chinese Embassy in New Zealand, and organized by the Confucius Institute at Victoria University of Wellington, attracted 71 contestants selected from universities, secondary and primary schools.