The youngsters on stage were Indians but their chatter was entirely in Chinese. The finals of Chinese Bridge, a Chinese proficiency competition for foreign college and school students, was under way at The Stadel last Sunday.
It was the 24th edition of the competition for Indian college students while Indian school students are competing for the 18th year now. It was being held in Calcutta for the first time in recent memory after previous editions in Delhi and Mumbai, according to sources at the EC Block-based Chinese consulate general, which had organised the event.
The preliminary round had taken place online, on May 18. “The virtual meet featured about 70 participants across both categories. Each contestant delivered a speech on the topic ‘One world one family. They also had to send a pre-recorded video for the talent round, in which they had to demonstrate their proficiency in any activity related to Chinese culture,” a consulate official explained. Seven college students and three high school students from across the country advanced to the finals.
Chinese consul general Xu Wei (right) and principal of St. Joan's School Debjani Ghosh hand over prizes to the winners.
The contestants appeared in three rounds. In one, they had to deliver a speech. In the talent round, the audience got to see a variety of performances — dance, paper cutting, calligraphy, tai chi, bamboo clappers... The last-named is a set of small bamboo boards or bones, which the performer rattles to produce an accompanying beat for their storytelling performance.
The third round was a quiz on Chinese language and culture.
Rahul Pandit, who has just graduated in Chinese from the Central University of Jharkhand, did Chinese paper-cutting in his talent round and came joint second.
Ongme Lepcha, a fourth year student of Cheena Bhavana at Visva Bharati, performed douli wudao, or hat dance. “I had performed san wudao, or umbrella dance, at the prelims. Chinese dances are unlike Indian dance as our steps work with gravity, hitting the floor to the beat. In Chinese styles, the dancer seems to be floating, ignoring gravity,” said the Kalimpong girl, who had first picked up the language from apps like Duolingo and Hello Chinese. She got the third prize jointly with two others.
One of them was Yana Wadhawan. Unlike the others, who had either never been to China or had visited just once, she was born in China. “My parents are yoga teachers. I studied in an international school in China till Class V, after which we returned to India.” Asked whether she had an advantage over the others, she disagreed. “I lost touch since 2018. The last month is when I have dabbled in Mandarin the most in a long time,” said the Delhi girl, a graduate in animation.
Once the results were announced, Amit Arun Mali, a Lonavala boy doing post-graduation in Chinese at Visva Bharati, was named the champion and called to the mic. “Wo de tian a! Wo zhen de yingle zhe ge bisai? (Oh my god, did I actually win?) he muttered audibly in Mandarin, causing the Chinese-speaking audience, including the Chinese ambassador seated in the front row, to laugh.
“I want to be a bridge of love between India and China. There is just this border issue between us. Otherwise, there is so much to learn from each other in terms of culture,” said the youth, who will be representing India at the Chinese Bridge contest finals in China.
Ambassador Xu Feihong, who handed him the prize, also announced a Chinese embassy-sponsored youth exchange delegation to China, leaving later in the month, in which several contestants would join. “This will open a window to understand China and promote people-to-people exchanges between the two countries,” the ambassador said, adding that the China trip would help improve the students’ linguistic ability and teach them about an “ancient yet modern neighbour of India”. “This will be a valuable opportunity for you,” he emphasised.
Referring to the links between the two countries, he cited common words like kshana and she na, meaning an instant, which the Chinese learnt from Sanskrit, and cha, or tea, which entered the Bengali vocabulary from the Chinese word.
Among the school students, Adrija Vijay Sutar of Yin Yang Centre for Chinese Language was named the champion.
Students of St. Joan’s School presented the Rabindrasangeet Alo amar alo, along with a Chinese translation, followed by a Chinese song Wo renshi ni renshi (Together for a shared future), dressed in colourful, China-inspired attire.