Ghanaian Anthony Prempeh performs in the semifinal of the first Shenzhen Expats Chinese Talent Competition yesterday. He was among the eight expatriates qualified for the final to be held Nov. 19. Sun Yuchen
Dressed in a red ancient Chinese robe, Ghanaian Anthony Prempeh, 32, stunned the audience with fluent Chinese and a striking performance in yesterday s semifinal of the first Shenzhen Expats Chinese Talent Competition.
The competition was hosted by the Organizing Committee of the Shenzhen Speaks Foreign Languages Campaign and the Information Office of the Shenzhen Municipal People s Government, and organized by the Shenzhen Daily.
A total of 15 local expats from eleven countries took part in the competition, with the youngest aged 6.
Prempeh spoke on a required topic Shenzhen in my eyes in a fast, cheerful rhyme, using a bamboo clapper commonly used in traditional Chinese story- telling.
He also sang a love song in standard Chinese, receiving a loud applause.
Prempeh has a good knowledge of Chinese history. He gave himself a Chinese name, Lei Feng, the name of a late model Chinese soldier in the 1960s.
I was told the story of Lei Feng by my father s Chinese friends in the construction field in Ghana. I really admired the model soldier, Prempeh said.
Prempeh has never attended a Chinese language school since arriving in Shenzhen to run an electronics business a year and a half ago.
I watched TV programs, listened to radio and imitated. He speaks six languages.
The most important aspectr of learning a language was interest, he said.
His love of Chinese culture was shared by the other contestants.
As well as the required speech, the contestants sang, danced, recited poems, performed stage drama and magic.
The competition gave Ben Skelton of New Zealand a chance to practice his Chinese.
The biggest challenge to me learning Chinese is a lack of an environment in which people offer to speak Chinese to me. They always want to speak English to avoid a misunderstanding so I seldom have a chance to practice my Chinese, he said.
Eight contestants reached the finals, which are scheduled to be held on Nov.19.
The purpose of the competition is to seek a China hand from local expats, who is expected to help improve international cultural exchange while Shenzhen has been striving to become an international city, said Shen Xianzhi, executive deputy editor-in-chief of the Shenzhen Daily, who was one of the five judges.
It is a also great opportunity to encourage overseas visitors to learn Chinese, improve local understanding of foreigners and develop friendship between expatriates and locals, Shen said.
More than 300 local expatriates from 30 countries entered the competition, competing in preliminary contest before the quarter-final, Shen said.
(By Martin Li)
