On 7 May 2014, the First Chinese Proficiency Contest for SloveneHigh School Students, namely, the Slovene Round of the Seventh“Chinese Bridge” World Competition for High School Students, washeld in the Maribor Confucius Classroom in Maribor, the secondlargest city in the country. The Maribor Confucius Classroom wasestablished in May 2013 by the Confucius Institute of theUniversity of Ljubljana in partnership with SUIBE. Mr. ZhangXianyi, Chinese Ambassador to Slovenia, and his wife, Mr. IvanLorencic, Headmaster of Druga gimnazija Maribor, Mr. Chen Jian,Chinese Director of Confucius Institute Ljubljana, and Mr. DarjaSaksida Bogataj, Project Manager of Confucius Institute Ljubljana,were present at the competition. The competition was covered by thelocal media.
All the 12 contestants came from the two Confucius Classroomsfounded by Confucius Institute Ljubljana in the four secondaryschools in Maribor and Ljubljana. The competition included selfintroduction in Chinese, questions and answers in Chinese, andperformances such as singing Chinese songs, dancing Chinese dances,and practicing Chinese taijiquan (shadowboxing). Through thecompetition, which drew thunders of applause from the judges andthe audience, the contestants were given an opportunity to showcasetheir achievements in learning the Chinese language and the Chineseculture in the past year. Finally, a student with the Chinese nameKe Mingde from Druga gimnazija Maribor won the First Prize for hisexcellent performance.