Contest inspires speakers to explore global challenges
Young participants in this year’s China Daily 21st Century Coca-Cola Cup National English Speaking Competition offered deep insights into the themes of the Belt and Road Initiative and China’s new era.
Zang Yingjie from Qufu Normal University in Shandong province, for example, drew inspiration from his experience growing up with the scientific theories of Stephen Hawking, the British physicist who died recently, and how the changing landscape in China’s technological realm helped him understand these theories better.
“We’re all made of particles that have existed since the beginning of the universe,” Zang, 20, said in his speech. “I’d like to believe those particles traveled through countless eras to create us, so that we — the people, China and the world — can stand on the shoulders of giants, march into the new era with our head held high and make people like professor Hawking proud.”
Zang emerged from among 12 finalists to claim the championship in the college category at Hangzhou Normal University in Zhejiang province, while Wang Huichen from Shanghai Foreign Language School won first place in the senior high school category.
They received their prizes on Sunday with other winners at a ceremony held at the Hangzhou International Expo Center in Zhejiang province.
Zang and Wang also both received the China Daily 21st Century most-promising speaker award. Next month, they will travel to London to represent China in the annual International Public Speaking Competition.
Zhou Shuchun, China Daily’s editor-in-chief, said the theme of the contest “aimed to guide and inspire young students to think about the future of our country and the world”.
Zhang Jianmin, director of the Foreign Ministry’s Translation and Interpretation Department, said: “In this new era of exchanges between China and the world, the 21st Century Cup will have an even bigger role to play, especially in encouraging more Chinese students to commit themselves to both serving the country and meeting the challenges facing all humankind.”
Zhang has been involved with the 21st Century Cup English-speaking contest for many years.
Xiong Ziqin, runner-up in the college category, started his argument with a story about attending the same college as his mother and grandmother. The audience got to see how Chinese education has evolved from a time when “China had a literacy of merely over 50 percent” to an era where Xiong, as a college student, could stand on a national stage and “tell a Chinese story of the new era to all”.
Matthew Shean, the British Council’s director of English language services in East China, said that before students can articulate their culture to other people, they need to first acquire a thorough understanding of it.
“All of us grow up in our own cultures without really analyzing them,” he said. “This competition gives students the opportunity to actually look in detail at aspects of their own culture. From there, they’ll develop a firm and solid confidence and a foundation ... and can share it with the world.”
The annual national competition, sponsored by CocaCola China and New Oriental Education and Technology Group, has been successfully held for 23 years. This year, nearly 1 million students from across the country participated.