Jiangsu University (JSU) international students Josephine Naa Norkor Dowuona from Nigeria and Michael Lordmark Mubaiwa from Zimbabwe took part in 2021 Chinese Bridge Global Chinese Speech Contest for Foreigners, and the results were declared recently with Josephine winning Second Prize and Michael won the “Best Literary Talent Award” among participants from all over the world, which made JSU proud to be the only organisation around the globe to win two awards in this contest.

The competition began in December 2021 with over 950 participants from various countries including Cuba, Russia, Ghana, India and many others across the globe. Out of the 950 participants, 655 were selected to take part in the preliminary stage and votes had to be casted for the network popularity award where after intense judging only 10 would be chosen to advance to the finals.

After giving her speech, Josephine ended with a melodious performance of a song which made it to the top 10. For the finals, each participant delivered a 5-minute speech and Josephine gave her speech with the theme “Together for a shared future”. In her award-winning speech, she highlighted the most recent Beijing Winter Olympics and more importantly pinpointed the need for us as humans to work together hand in hand for a shared purpose and future.

Michael was also top in the list with his excellent Chinese pronunciation and Chinese story. Michael shared how China attracted him and how he felt love with the culture and language. As a medical student, Michael also shared his impression on China's pandemic prevention. Through his speech, we understand his growth and achievement during his stay in China and JSU. He is a culture ambassador of Zhenjiang won hearts of the jury and won "Best Literary Talent Award" after his Guqin perfomance.