To further strengthen cultural confidence and self-reliance, to guide the College’s students to tell China’s stories well and spread China’s voice from an international perspective, and to build a youthful bridge for cultural exchange between China and other countries, DLI has successfully concluded its first “Telling Chinese Stories in Foreign Languages” speech contest. Using language as the bond and culture as the core, the event brought together students from across the College to narrate the Chinese cultural lineage in multiple languages and to showcase the splendour of the times, demonstrating the cultural commitment and international outlook of young people in the new era.
Since its launch, the event has received an enthusiastic response from students and staff across the College. Contestants took up diverse themes — fine traditional Chinese culture, the achievements of China’s development, and attachment to the country and its people — and used English and other foreign languages, through speeches and presentations, to vividly convey the depth and unique appeal of China’s stories. At the final, contestants spoke fluently and naturally with sincere and abundant emotion. They demonstrated solid foreign language proficiency while conveying their identification with and love for Chinese culture, achieving a two-way improvement in language skills and cultural literacy, and offering the audience an audio-visual feast that combined linguistic charm with cultural warmth. International teachers at the College also gave detailed comments on the contestants’ performances across several dimensions, including expressive power and stage presence.
The event is an important measure by the College in fulfilling the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, innovating the cultivation of internationally oriented talent and deepening cross-cultural exchange practice. It not only provided a platform for students to showcase their foreign language flair and hone their expressive skills, but also guided young people to strengthen their cultural confidence and broaden their international horizons through cross-cultural expression, conveying China’s warmth to the world and telling China’s stories well with the voice of youth.
Going forward, DLI will continue to build more cross-cultural exchange platforms, encouraging young students to ground themselves in Chinese culture and to move freely between Chinese and foreign languages. With greater confidence and more vivid expression, they will become active narrators of China’s stories and effective communicators of Chinese culture, demonstrating the commitment of Chinese youth in the exchange and mutual learning among civilisations, and carrying Eastern wisdom and the Chinese spirit across mountains and seas to every corner of the world.
