What comes to mind when you think of Hangzhou? It is renowned as a “Paradise on Earth”. The Liangzhu culture, is hailed as the “dawn of civilization”, witnessing the development and continuation of Chinese civilization to this day. On the other hand, it also has a modern urban side. The Hangzhou Asian Games attracted global attention, and the common prosperity demonstration zone leads a vigorous development.

What is the story of Hangzhou in your mind? On December 19, NZUWI held “Chinese Impressions, Poetic Life” Presentation Contest: Telling Chinese Stories Well in English. 19 students brought their answers.

He Min, Executive Dean of NZUWI, and Wang Liuying, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of NZUWI, attended the event. Representatives of English Foundation Program team of NZUWI, teacher representatives from the School of Foreign Languages, Hangzhou City University, and international student representatives of NZUWI served as judges.

Living and learning in Hangzhou, a famous historical and cultural city, the contestants have focused their eyes on this, from their own unique perspective, telling the story of Hangzhou in their eyes, and what happened on them in this city. Some presentations were affectionate and graceful; others lively and interesting.

The judges were divided into two groups, Group A and Group B, and they scored contestants’ presentations according to four criteria: speech content, language expression, image & manner, and delivery skills. The final score of each contestant was based on the average of all judges scores.

Contest Result

The First Prize:

Du Kexin-BDM2402

The Second Prize:

Song Xinhaoze-BBF2404

Chen Jie-BDM2402

The Third Prize:

Hu Ruofei-BBF2403

Zhang Xinyi-BDM2401

Chen Tianzheng-BBF2403

He Min summarized the contest , praised the students’ active participation in the contest and their serious preparation, while also fully affirming the students’ performances.

She pointed out that it is a matter of pride that the students were able to expertly use the English language to narrate their stories into public speeches. This activity is not only a competition, but also an opportunity for language learning and cultural exchange, which promotes the connection and communication between teachers and students of NZUWI by using English language and Chinese culture as a bridge.

She also thanked the English Foundation Program team for their innovative use of the coursework as a competition selection process, which ensured high participation in the contest. It provided students with a practical and engaging way to learn and apply their language skills. Definitely, the guidance and support of EFP teachers played a key role in the success of the event.

She said that NZUWI will choose more themes on which to organize such activities in the future, hoping that the students can tell the Chinese story well and show the cultural connotation in fluent English, so that the unique style of Chinese culture can be highlighted broadly.

Finally, she thanked the judges, teachers, staff and student volunteers for their hard work in the contest.

“Connecting North and South, integrating Eastern and Western learning” has always been the philosophy of NZUWI. As part of the university’s International Exchange Cultural Festival, this contest aims to promote cultural exchanges and integration between China and foreign countries, and to enhance students’ cross-cultural communication skills and English expression abilities. Through this platform, we hope that students from NZUWI can showcase the unique charm of Hangzhou in English, and carry forward the excellence of traditional Chinese culture.