With the purpose to promote the acknowledgement on Chinese culture, enhance the influence of Confucius Institute at the University of Malta, and to encourage local children to learn Chinese, on December 16, The First Quiz Contest on Chinese Culture was successfully held in two local schools by the Confucius Institute at the University of Malta.

Both the students and the teachers responded actively to the contest. The contesters, in a total of about 100, came from Marsaxlokk Primary School and Marsascala Primary school. In order to be fair and open, the contest was divided into senior section and junior section according to the age of contesters. The kids have all been learning Chinese for one semester. They can speak some simply daily language like “nihao”, “Zaijian” and “Xiexie”, and have also been introduced with some basic Chinese culture topics, such as Chinese food, Chinese paper-cuts and Beijing Opera. The contest was a challenge on their study during this semester. As for the format of the quiz, four types of questions were designed for the students – picture questions, common sense questions, snatching questions, and video questions. They ranged from basic information about China, Chinese festivals and customs, simple Chinese language to Chinese characters.

Children racing for picture snatching question

Team members discusssing for the answer

During the contest, the children have shown their team spirit very well. They discussed the question together before answering the question. There were several times that a certain groups won the same point, and the teacher had to add some extra questions to decide the final winner. The atmosphere in the contest room was very heated, the sound of cheer and applauds could be heard during the whole process. In the end, the winners of the first, second and third place were awarded with special prizes from China, such as Chinese knot, Chinese shadow puppet and silk handkerchief.

Winners of first place and second place

Members of top 3 groups

Through this activity, confidence of learning Chinese was built up among the local children. Their passion for Chinese culture was intrigued. It has formed a good foundation of cooperating relationship between the Confucius Institute at the University of Malta and the local schools.