Thailand Confucius Institute at Mahasarakham successfully held the online award ceremony of the third Chinese Speech Contest and the fourth Chinese Classics Reading Contest on March 27, 2021.

Many special guests attended the event and delivered speeches, including Huang Shuhuan, the former director of Special Policy School Division, Office of Civil School Education Board at Thailand Ministry of Education, Yang Xueming, dean of the School of Media at Guangxi University for Nationalities, and He Dong, Chinese dean of the Confucius Institute. A total of more than 400 people through the DingTalk conference platform and other live forms of participation watched the award ceremony.

Director Huang thanked the Confucius in her speech for holding the contests, providing local students the opportunity to show their progress of Chinese learning under such strict situation of epidemic. She said Mandarin is spoken by the largest number of people in the world. Learning Chinese well can not only help us understand China, but also contribute to the development of our future life. Huang hoped there would be more events like these to provide more stages for students, and she also hoped that more students can participate in more competitions to constantly exercise and improve themselves.

Dean He said in the speech that since the end of last year, offline activities have been unable to be organized due to the second outbreak of COVID-19 in Thailand. In order to stimulate the enthusiasm of Thai youth to learn Chinese and enhance the traditional friendship between the Chinese and Thai people, the Confucius Institute held the contests. He believed that all the contestants were able to improve their spoken Chinese skills and enhance their confidence in learning Chinese.

Dean Yang said she was deeply touched by the passion of Thai youngsters for learning Chinese, their affection for Chinese culture and their yearning for a better life. The students attached great importance to this competition, not only working hard on pronunciation, but also on stage performance and dress to keep up with Chinese culture. Many students wore Han Chinese clothing to deliver speeches and recitations. This integration of cultures at home and abroad has brought the hearts of the two peoples closer.