Dr Zhou Bo, the awardee of “Teaching Excellence Award” (left), and Pun Hok-lam, a second-year student of Department of History of the Faculty of Arts of Lingnan University (right).
Lingnan University in Hong Kong (LU) has won three awards in The 22nd Qi Yue Recitation Arts Festival and National College Students Recitation Conference. LU is the only winning team from Hong Kong this year, and also the first local university to have received awards in this competition. Lee Wenxin, a second-year undergraduate student of the LEO Dr David P. Chan Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Data Science Programme of the Faculty of Business, won the “Young Talent Special Award” with her work “Jia Wen”; Dr Zhou Bo, Senior Lecturer of the Chinese Language Education and Assessment Centre (CLEAC) received the “Teaching Excellence Award”. LU also won the “Outstanding Organisation Award”.
Organised by the Communication University of China (CUC), the conference was directed by the Ministry of Education and the National Language Commission of the People’s Republic of China with the theme “Demonstration of the power of recitation in preserving history”. 291 universities from 33 provinces, autonomous regions, centrally administered municipalities, and special administrative regions submitted 654 works to the competition. Two LU students were shortlisted in the national preliminary selection and then made it to the finals: Li Wenxin with “Jia Wen” and Pun Hok-lam, a second-year student of Department of History of the Faculty of Arts for the rendition of “Be a Fighter”. Apart from the CUC, LU was the only participating university whose entries all got through to the finals.
During the one-month national screening session, a panel of experts, faculty members and representatives followed a stringent judging procedure, and LU finally won three awards.
“I am a student from Malaysia and I have not taken any courses in broadcasting and hosting. As a non-native Putonghua speaker, I am particularly honoured and surprised to have received this award,” said Lee Wenxin after receiving the “Young Talent Special Award”. “The biggest challenge I faced was that I had no idea how to prepare for the contest due to my lack of experience in recitation, and I was not familiar with the correct Putonghua pronunciation. I am grateful for the extra lessons and guidance Dr Zhou gave me, which helped me understand the meaning of the words and how to pronounce them properly. I kept reminding myself to pay attention to my pronunciation. After a lot of practice, I was surprised and amazed by my progress. I am very glad to have achieved this result and particularly appreciate the training and support provided by LU.”
Dr Zhou Bo, the awardee of “Teaching Excellence Award”, said: “Previously, students majoring in broadcasting and hosting won most of the awards in this competition. LU students have benefited from the University’s commitment to enhancing students’ language proficiency and its ‘biliterate and trilingual’ policy. Both teachers and students profit more from educating students according to their aptitude, and from providing a vibrant campus life for everyone. These essential factors contribute to the breakthrough achieved by LU.”
