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News

Chinese Bridge competition

1 August 2009

In May Victoria Sanderson (3rd year arts) won the Chinese Bridge Speaking Competition for Foreign University Students. The Chinese language contest involved delivering a prepared speech, a question and answer session about Chinese history and culture, and a talent section in which Victoria chose to sing a Chinese folk song. As winner of the Sydney round, Victoria was invited to represent Australia in a fortnight-long, all expenses paid trip to China to compete in the finals with 120 students from all over the world.

She left for China in the July break thinking the finals would take much the same form as the initial competition in Sydney. As she was to find out, however, “Chinese Bridge” is a major annual reality TV show with a viewing audience of forty million people. Victoria arrived in Beijing to a hotel packed with 120 university students representing over 80 different countries. Following their every waking moment were six fully equipped television crews, and a team of Chinese university student volunteers in charge of ensuring contestants were well prepared for their speeches, that they got up on time, even that their outfits each day were appropriate.

Victoria described the contest as “a rather unique experience: the show is so famous in China I guess the organisers thought we would know all about it. But none of the contestants knew what they were in for.” Victoria spent the two weeks in China travelling, being examined, performing, taking part in cultural activities, including trying her hand at Peking opera, kung fu, calligraphy, ]-and singing the Chinese Bridge theme song on the Great Wall, at the Beijing Summer Palace, on trains, buses, and at one point, on an aeroplane. Contestants were treated like celebrities throughout their stay, even before the show had aired. “People would come up to us wanting photos and we’d say ‘we haven’t even been on TV yet, we’re not famous or anything!’ And they would reply ‘Oh but you will be.’”

Victoria says that given the choice, if she’d known what she was getting herself into, she probably wouldn’t choose to be on a reality TV show again. And although she didn’t win, she was thrilled to have had the opportunity to compete. “I think the biggest thing I got out of it,” says Victoria, “was that it really showed me the value of just saying yes to things.”