Saltamaluna Sherille Gomme wins Chinese Bridge - Chinese Song Competition |07 July 2023
The annual Seychelles Chinese Bridge - Chinese Song Competition was held late last month and out of the 17 finalists, Saltamaluna Sherille Gomme was the winner.
‘Chinese Bridge’ is a bridge for Chinese and local cultural communication. Through this bridge, we meet friendship, cooperation, support and team work. It brings together people with different cultural backgrounds, nationalities, and beliefs to communicate with each other for the notion: One World, One Family.
One World, One Family is the concept of the Chinese Bridge. Today we are here like a big family. We wish Chinese Bridge in Seychelles is like a bridge to link and contact Chinese learners to meet and enjoy the learning journey together.
This year, Confucius Institute celebrated two festivals at the same time – traditional Chinese Festival and the Dragon Boat Festival. One of the traditional events of the Dragon Boat Festival is the dragon boat race and this year the race was a singing dragon race to celebrate and enjoy the joy and excellence brought to us today on this festival.
This year, Confucius Institute has extensively promoted its activities and the Chinese Bridge was present among different teaching sites and people who love Chinese learning.
Wang Dongxia, director of Confucius Institute at UniSey, noted that “the activity has attracted the participation of different Chinese learners, the UniSey, STA, SIAD, secondary schools, the alumni and so on. Through their participation in Chinese proficiency contest, Chinese cultural knowledge contest, recitation of Chinese poems, they were able to show their talents.
Charge d'affaires of the Chinese embassy, Mu Jianfeng, said that the performance of the contestants in this competition exceeded his expectations.
“It was a pleasant surprise to hear the Chinese songs with round accents, and even heard the performance of modern Peking opera singing. The Chinese teaching carried out by the Confucius Institute in Seychelles not only teaches Chinese, but also builds a bridge of communication between China and Seychelles in different aspects. The launch of the Chinese Bridge activity is a good example. I hope that the Chinese Bridge will become a bridge between Seychelles and China. A bridge of friendship, China welcomes young Seychellois students who love Chinese to study in China and have friendly exchanges.”
The charge d'affaires also highly appreciated the efforts and contributions made by the Confucius Institute at the University of Seychelles in teaching Chinese and holding activities in Seychelles.”
The event was attended by the vice-chancellor of UniSey, Joelle Perreau; PS from the Ministry of Education of Seychelles, John Lesperance and parents of the participants.
The first prize winner is Saltamaluna Sherille Gomme (Mont Fleuri secondary school)
Second prize: Senlinee Dayawansha (Independent school; Sean Joseph (Seychelles Tourism Academy - STA)
Third prize: Elaine Maria Hoareau (STA), Shania Talma (Seychelles Institute of Teacher Education) and Rose Morin (Ministry of Youth, Sports and Family).
Vidya Gappy
Photos: Contributed
