On the 12th of October, one of our fellow students Michael Lordmark Mubaiwa Chinese name 杨靖(Yáng Jìng) represented the school taking part in a competition termed "My story with Chinese Hànzì" which was hosted by the Chinese People's Association For Friendship with Foreign Countries and co-hosted by Peoples' Daily.

The competition began in July where there were over 3000 participants sent in their videos and only 10 people from various countries ie: Japan, Syria, USA, France, Germany, Congo, India, Kazakhstan Argentina and Zimbabwe managed to eventually reach the finals which were then held in Qinghai province, Xining city. For the finals, each participant was to deliver a 7-minute speech with the word "Benevolence" as the topic.

Our very own Michael 杨靖 talked about the meaning of benevolence to him as a medical student, how he as a future doctor ought to respect patients, medicine and nature itself. In his speech he also talked about how he not only wants to help the sick, but wants to spread the African culture to the Chinese people as well as spread the Chinese culture to the rest of the world through music as he is very fond of the Chinese traditional instrument Guqin (古琴).

His story about how the Chinese locals here have treated him with love and kindness as if he was one of their own moved the judges and the audience deeply. Overally, amongst the 10 participants that were at the finals, Michael 杨靖 managed to win the competition as he came out top amongst everyone else.

In his own words, "All of this wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for the support we get from our school ie: OEC and the Language and Cultural Centre." Indeed we wish to see more students take part in more activities as this will not only help you shine on huge platforms, but it also helps you to mingle with other excellent students and get to build yourself in the process, you never know where you will end up.

(OEC)